The Dos and Don'ts of Handling Criticism on Social Media

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Social media can be fantastic for any business.

You can finally tell people who you are as a business, engage with your audience, establish trust and (what we all ultimately want) generate leads and sales.

Engaging with your audience is a great way build a reputation online.

However, what do you do if something doesn’t go quite to plan?

Let’s say you get a negative comment or review, how are you going to manage your reputation and solve the dispute?

You can do this in a few different ways, but beware, only one way is the correct way. 

1. Ignore everything 

This might sound a bit silly if you’re a business owner or social media manager. Why would you ignore people who have an issue with your product/service?

But, this does happen. (I know, I was just as surprised as you!)

Often, there is the idea of “If I just leave it, maybe it’ll go away”.

One of the big issues with receiving complaints on social media is that once they are there, they won’t go away. (unless you make them, which I will talk about in a second).

You need to handle them. If someone called your customer service number or sent you an email you wouldn’t just ignore it, and you can’t ignore it online either.

Why do some social media managers just ignore complaints?

I have no idea. Honestly. It baffles me.

But it does happen, and now you’re reading this, I hope it won’t be you!

2. Delete them

Now this is even more surprising.

Imagine you work in a big office. A client writes a letter of complaint and hands it to reception, and as the clients stands in front of them, the receptionist screws up the letter and throws it straight in the bin.

It wouldn’t happen! (At least, I hope it wouldn’t…)

But for some reason, people are more than happy to delete comments on social media.

This is one of the worst things you can do, I’ll tell you now.

Minus the fact that it doesn’t actually solve the situation, the customer is more likely than not to be even more angry after seeing their feedback removed!

What is the next likely step for that customer? They tell their friends list or followers about it. 

You don’t want to lose potential business just to save face.

3. Get aggressive

Image courtesy of ChromeSpot

One of the most common mistakes some business owners or social media managers make is being personally insulted when receiving a complaint.

Most of the time, if we take something negative to heart, we respond from our emotional side rather than our logical.

This can often lead to getting aggressive or defensive.

Once again, if you do this, the problem is likely to just spiral out of control.

Don’t forget: the customer is always right.

Another thing to remember, is that your followers will likely see the interaction. You need to think about the knock-on effect of being aggressive to a complaint.

4. Offer a weak apology

Time for another scene setting activity.

Imagine you’re a very annoyed and dissatisfied customer. You write a complaint. The company says, “Thanks for your response, we will take your feedback on board” and that’s it.

Would you be happy?

You wouldn’t to feel that way, so why would you want your clients feeling like it?

Let’s not forget, the issue still isn’t actually resolved.

This leads me on to the final response you can give, and what I think is the only real way to resolve negative feedback on social media.

5. Offer a sincere apology and resolve the issue

Your first response when receiving criticism should be “How can we make this right?”

How can you do this?

Offer then a genuine apology.

Something as simple as showing that you care about your customers and want to make sure their issue is resolved can turn an angry, frustrated customer into your biggest fan.

Seriously.

Imagine if you were handing a face-to-face complaint. You would handle it professionally, genuinely, and offer a solution.

The same goes for social media.

With online reviews, everything is public. Their initial comment. Your response. Their response. Everything.

If you can show that, yes you do get the odd complaint, but you handle them with professionalism and sincerity, the chances are your business is not going to be negatively impacted.

Use one of the other 4 solutions I set out above, and you may see a big hit to your profits.

Even angry customers can become an asset.

Mistakes happen. No one is perfect, even large corporations. We all make mistakes and we all get criticism from time to time.

It's how we handle criticism which separates the successful businesses from the "would-be's."

With internet access at the touch of our fingertips, it is even more important to monitor your brand reputation.

How you handle criticism is ultimately your choice, but you can show how amazing your business is by how you deal with negativity comments.

Aaron Savage - Social 365