One of the biggest obstacles holding brands back from engaging on social media is the fear of negativity. And it's true, improperly resolving negative online reviews from customers and critics, either through social media or a
review site, can lead to disastrous consequences. But with these 8 tips for dealing with online haters, you can mitigate tricky situations. You might even come out stronger on the other side.
1: Address in public, resolve in private
When someone publicly makes a negative comment about your brand,
and it’s a valid complaint, you need to address it publicly as well. Think
about a customer walking into your store who says ‘This donut was stale. I’m
disappointed with you.’ Would you ignore them? I really hope not. Stale donuts
are the worst.
You need to address their issue, but you also do not want to
air all of your ‘dirty laundry’ in public. You can do this in private messages,
via phone, over email or even in person if they’re local. This will help you
eliminate the chance that your customer complaint turns into a flame-war.
Here’s a Twitter account from a hardware store dealing
with a complaint, that happened in a store and not online, the proper way:
@bandq_help how can I link my existing Club account to a physical card? The store had no clue!
— Mark Blease (@punkymoose) May 24, 2015
@bandq_help awesome! Thank you 😊
— Mark Blease (@punkymoose) May 24, 2015
Often times, negative online comments come from people who
don’t have enough information. Providing that information to them can quickly
turn that negativity into a positive ‘Thank you!’
This can be store hours, event schedules, or that they’re using
your product wrong. This can also be a learning opportunity for other followers
who are watching the information you’re sharing.
3: Flip the conversation with positivity
Say someone comes onto your Facebook page and says “This page
is stupid. Why would anyone come here?!?” You could then respond by thanking
them for their comment, and flip the conversation by giving them a plethora of
positive comments.
You can use quotes from users, stories of people being happy
with your product and the benefits of your products. The point of this is to
show anyone who comes along and reads the negative comment all the good things
you do. While this may not be a tactic you use often, it can be just the right
tool when someone is just starting to start something negative.
The hidden benefit of these types of messages is that it can
help grow loyalty amongst your customers. One day you may not have to come to
your defense at all - you customers will already do it for you!
4: Sometimes the customer is really, really wrong
Not everyone who comes onto your social media accounts and
makes a negative comment is actually your customer. These messages could be
left by bots, competitors looking to give you a black eye or people who are
paid to trash you online.
If someone were to blatantly lie on your Twitter account you’re
free to tell them the truth. Back it up with articles, testimony, and facts.
Letting lies spread online is a huge issue. A memorable such instance happened
to Spur Restaurants. Their response cut right to
the truth and showed people how they were protecting them from the allegations
that were made:
5: Sometimes you have to lawyer up
This is never your first option. If something extreme happens,
like the above example with Spur, you may have to get a lawyer. Online
activities directly relate to sales in today’s hyper-connected world.
Be sure to consult with the lawyer before you make any move on the social media comment, you don’t want to end up like 2Clix software who tried to file a lawsuit when they should not have. It crippled their company and took them a complete ground-up rebuild over a five year period to recover. Yes, this online stuff is serious!
6: Get in touch with the webmaster
Something we make a point of at Devumi is watching for review
websites. These independent reviewers can hold a lot of sway. We have leveraged
the positive review we found on this site and
spread it across our social media at times.
On the flipside, when you find a review site with a poor
review, sometimes your best first action is to contact the webmaster personally
and see if you can sort out the problem. Charging into the comment section
right away isn’t the best option as webmaster usually have full control over
this. Try to handle this entirely in private via email beforehand.
7: Trolls? No one has time for that!
There is a difference between someone who has a valid
complaint:
And some who just wants to be rude:
Ignoring trolls will save you soooooo much time, heartburn and
grief. Just be sure to look at the issue and be certain there isn’t something
to the complaint that could be sorted.
8: Delete the comment
Hold on, don’t push that ‘Delete’ button just yet. The Internet
doesn’t work in a way that allows you to just delete something and it’s over.
Three of my favorite buttons on my computer are cmd + shift + 3 = a screenshot.
In many cases hitting the delete button can make things worse.
The only times that you’ll want to delete a comment include:
●
When established standards or rules in conduct are
broken. A family play park doesn’t have to just sit there and take a post full
of swear words.
●
Graphic content is posted. If radicalized vegetarians
post pictures of cows being slaughtered on your Facebook, that can go in the
delete bin.
●
Physical threats are an instant delete - complaints are
complaints, threats of crime are a whole other thing.
Jumping right to deleting a comment is risky. In the cases
above you can get away with it, but you may still want to leave a comment on
your social media profile saying you’re deleted a comment for being offensive
in some way, or for breaking your rules.
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