If you’re a business owner or marketer responsible for handling social media accounts, then you’re more than likely to receive negative feedback at some point. It can be difficult to hear negative feedback at times but it’s important to consider this as an opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive. Here are some tips on how to handle the negativity that may come your way via social media.
1. Remain calm
Even though it’s easy to respond quickly and negatively in response to a complaint, it’s nest to approach the situation calmly and professionally. Some people prefer to walk away from their computer or give themselves a designated period of time to process the situation and consider how it should be addressed. This prevents saying things that will tarnish your brand or make your company seem unprofessional.
2. Don’t take it personally
Many business owners take negative feedback personally simply because they have so much invested in their business. When addressing negative feedback, it’s important to remember that most customer complaints are genuine and can point to a significant problem within your company. Look at this opportunity to fine-tune certain aspects of your business operations or customer service.
3. Show compassion for the customer’s issue
Compassion goes a long way. Even if the customer is frustrated, they will be more responsive when interacting with someone who is compassionate and understanding. If your response sounds unempathetic to the customer, there is a good chance the issue wont be resolved and it could be a catalyst for a PR disaster.
4. Learn from the feedback
Handling negative feedback can be a great learning experience. Important questions to ask yourself are: How can we improve? What can we do differently moving forward? From this point forward you can decide if a change is to a business process is required to prevent this from happening again or if you should adjust how that specific complaint is handled in the future.
Because complaints via social media are seen by the public. It is important to handle these complaints as quickly and professionally as possible But if you keep these 4 tips in mind while handling complaints, you may be able to gain new customers from the positive stories that come from them.
