Social Media can be a brand’s most prominent voice. It can also be an area of grave communication mistakes. Today, many customers turn to Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, and Instagram to address their thoughts and opinions. Addressing customer woes is now a significant part of digital media management. Proper communication and social media crisis management are integral to ensure a customer base feels as though a company or brand is actively listening. Listening to both the good and the bad, and using feedback from their followers is something that social media offers companies who use it on a business level.
Social Media Crisis 101 – The Angry Customer
The first step of handling an unhappy customer is offer help and a solution, but do so through email. Take the conversation offline, but address the complaint or negative comment as quickly as possible. Followers who are reading comments about a company, especially those offering products, want to see a group active in addressing customer needs.
If someone continues to write poor reviews that are not merited- there are a few other options available. Submit a complaint to the social media platform’s management team. Include communications showing active efforts in alleviating the issue. For example, there was an issue with negative Google Reviews with a company which we were working on SEO optimization. After attempting to reach out to alleviate the problem with the account who had complained, we submitted a request to take down the negative review. Based on our efforts, and lack of communication from the other party, we were eventually able to remove that post.
Keep Your Cool
The number one thing to remember: Don’t automatically react negatively to someone who is bashing your brand. Suppress the personal urge to type out a scathing counter-response. Offer to address an issue via direct communication – email or phone. You’ll look a lot better to your followers if you’re moving towards a solution versus getting into a keyboard war with a customer.
