As part of doing business, businesses will inevitably experience negative public reviews on social media. But these reviews provide an opportunity to turn disgruntled customers into brand advocates.
Your response as a business is key to this process, especially during review bombing moments. Moving the conversation offline for further handling can prevent an explosive and public clash from erupting into shouting matches.
Be Transparent
Transparency is key in building consumer trust. Social media presents brands with an opportunity to explore transparency strategies while engaging millennial audiences.
Negative reviews can be an inevitable part of doing business, but with proper response they can turn disgruntled customers into brand champions. Responding quickly and publicly is essential to building and upholding an excellent online reputation.
As soon as an issue arises, acknowledge it and apologize for any inconvenience caused to customers. Next, present them with possible solutions – this conversation should ideally happen on social media threads; however it can move to private messages for more in-depth details. Always follow up publicly that an issue has been resolved to demonstrate your commitment to open communication – this will set an excellent example and help de-escalate situations and leave lasting positive impressions with customers and audiences.
Be Empathetic
Empathy is key when handling negative social media reviews, as it allows individuals to understand the emotional state of others and respond in ways that best satisfy their needs. Businesses must embrace empathy as it can prevent situations from escalated further and lead to more severe issues for themselves and their customers.
If a customer has a grievance about an item or service, listening empathetically and offering solutions are one of the best ways to turn them into brand advocates – especially when these solutions demonstrate your dedication to customer satisfaction.
As much as possible, try to resolve a customer complaint on the same public platform where it first surfaced – barring anything that requires sensitive data like account numbers or similar. This shows transparency and accountability while showing other customers that you’re actively trying to address issues. Once an issue has been addressed successfully, ensure its resolution by following up publicly so other customers know that the matter has been dealt with.
Respond Quickly
Social media makes no business immune to negative reviews, whether from disgruntled customers or malicious trolls. Therefore, it’s critical that businesses respond promptly to such comments; otherwise they risk causing irreparable damage.
When possible, attempt to resolve issues publicly on the platform that the complaint was posted on. However, if more detailed solutions cannot be offered via this method alone, feel free to move the conversation over into private messaging instead and ensure you follow up publicly by acknowledging that their issue has been solved.
Handling negative social media reviews is part and parcel of running a business, but it doesn’t need to be unpleasant. By responding quickly and courteously to each complaint raised on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, your customers will know your company values them as customers.
Don’t Be Defensive
Positive or negative reviews are an unavoidable part of running a business, whether they appear on Facebook or elsewhere. While it may be tempting to disregard or respond poorly, doing so will only further harm your reputation. Even if their grievance is invalid, at least respond promptly so as to show that you care and listen – though if the customer appears to be “trolling” by constantly complaining and being rude then delete their comment or take it up with private messaging as soon as possible.
Handling negative social media reviews doesn’t need to be difficult or detrimental to your brand – with proper approach it could even leave you more resilient than before!