Friday, June 19, 2015

Dealing with Negative Social Media Comments

Negative reviews are a part of every successful business. No matter how much time or effort you put in you will receive negative reviews. Bottom line is you can't always make everyone happy. Plus there are people who will complain no matter what you do- I think we all know at least one person like this.

When dealing with negative reviews and comments social media can be your worst enemy or best friend. Consider the story of John and Steve...

John owns a auto body shop and while seeing the need to have social media accounts he doesn't have the time to actively monitor them. A customer then comes in, has a bad experience, finds their Facebook page and leaves a negative review. Because John doesn't monitor his social media the negative review just sits there for all potential customers to see. In this case social media is John's worst nightmare- who is going to give him business with unaddressed negative reviews and comments?

Steve owns an auto body shop across town, is on the same social media platforms but actively monitors them. When he received a negative comment he immediately responded, remedied the situation and left the customer happy. Now instead of a negative review Steve has a recommendation and a happy customer!

When you receive a negative social media comment the most important thing to do is to respond quickly- quicker the better. This response should be short and to the point. Something like "We are very sorry you had a bad experience and you are very important to us. We are looking into what happened and will get back to you soon". The purpose of this response is to let the customer know you care and are looking into their issue while buying you time to figure out a solution.

Your second response needs to come within 24-48 hours after receiving the complaint. Here you will address all their concerns, offer solutions, and thank them for their advice. Depending on the situation you may want to offer them incentives to remain your customer. This can be a free or discounted product or service or even a free t-shirt or other cool swag.

Social media gives your customers a voice and how you respond to negative reviews and comments can make or break your business.

Take care and tight lines!

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