Social media is a great tool for connecting and keeping your customers up to date with your latest products and services, but it can also leave you open to negative interactions with your customers too.
Whilst negative comments, reviews or feedback on social media cannot always be avoided, there are ways to properly deal with this type of interaction. Here we’ll talk through the best approach to take in order to effectively handle negative reviews on social media:
-
Respond quickly
Online reviews and customer comments should be monitored daily. Whether that’s by a team internally or by an external agency, it’s important to be able to spot a negative review as soon as it comes through.
Once you’ve identified the negative review, you should respond quickly. The longer you leave the review unanswered, the more time other customers have to see that content. Responding in a timely manner shows customers you’re listening, and you care. It will also alert others of your dedication to your community members.
-
Don’t take it personally
This is easier said than done, but it’s important to look at customer feedback and reviews in a constructive way and not take them personally. The customer leaving the review is sharing their personal experiences with your business, so keep in mind this is not a reflection on you as a person.
Responses should not challenge customers on their views or feedback but instead, acknowledge their insight and experience and take learnings from it. Remember, at this stage the interaction is public and any poor response you post will be seen by other customers too.
-
Draft a custom response
Now you’re looking to respond to the review, one of the most important things to keep in mind is to personalise it! Do not copy and paste from a template as customers are very savvy to this type of response and it could be misinterpreted.
It’s fine to have a loose template to guide you about what to say and in what order, but try not to have a fully formed response drafted out for any staff members to simply paste back in a reply. Take the time to read their review in full and speak to the appropriate team members internally to gather any additional information before responding so you have the full picture. Be careful not to share any personal information at this stage that you might have access to through internal records.
-
Be apologetic
If a customer is complaining about your products, services, or anything else, it’s essential to say you’re sorry for their experience. Don’t forget the ‘customer is always right’ approach!
You should treat the feedback and review as constructive criticism and acknowledge that the customer is simply wanting their experience and viewpoint to be heard. So after you’ve apologised for their unsatisfactory experience, let the customer know their feedback is appreciated and that you’ll seriously consider their suggestions for improvement.
But don’t forget to actually follow through with this! Share the insight with the relevant teams internally to avoid any recurring issues.
-
Take the conversation offline
While you do want to approach a negative review on social media where it originated, it’s useful to take the conversation offline once it has been acknowledged so you can delve deeper and find a resolution.
Get the customer’s contact information and then you have a few options of either sending them an email, a private message or you could have your customer service team call them. Put in the effort to get in touch with them first, so instead of saying, “DM me with your info,” respond to the customer to let them know you will DM them first, if you can. By handling the rest of the issue privately, you can talk in more detail about what’s upsetting them and propose a custom solution.
-
Consider not allowing posts on your Facebook page
You do have options when it comes to the channels available for customers to submit these types of reviews. On certain channels like Facebook, you’re able to decide whether or not customers can post to your page.
If you have other avenues where customers can easily get in touch with you or leave feedback, you may want to promote these instead. This would work well if you find you do not have time to keep up with all your social media channels.
-
Do not delete negative posts
Probably one of the biggest mistakes brands make online is simply deleting negative comments or feedback and hoping they will just disappear! And while there are some times when it’s fine to delete negative comments (e.g. if they use offensive language or if it is a duplicate of a review), if they are genuine complaints, deleting comments is a huge mistake.
Customers with legitimate complaints can become even more enraged by this approach and become more persistent.
-
Promote your positive reviews
Now you’ve tackled the negative feedback, it’s time to promote your positive customer reviews on your social channels. We would recommend consistently promoting positive feedback and comments on your channels as this is a key indicator to potential customers that you’re a reliable and trustworthy brand. But in the face of negative reviews, it might be worth considering increasing the frequency of these posts.
Customer reviews can be posted in a nice eye-catching quote graphic or even better, through a video clip of someone talking through their experience with your business. Be sure to keep a bank of these positive reviews readily available privately and publicly in a case-study format so you can quickly get this type of content out the door.
Here at Wild PR, we can support you with all your social media, PR and digital marketing needs. To find out more about our work, please visit: https://wild-pr.co.uk/portfolio/