Negativity on social media.

Social media gives us opportunities to build our brand awareness. However, with those positive opportunities come challenges such as negative comments and reviews.

You should not let the risk of getting negative feedback stop you from promoting your business on social media.  If you produce a good product and have very few customer issues normally then your online reaction should be similar.

You need to know about it

If somebody is saying something about your brand online, then you need to know about it.  You will naturally be monitoring your own account, but you should also use social listening tools to see what people are saying on other platforms.  Some useful tools include Google Alerts, Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Brand24.

React and resolve quickly

The negative comment or review could be a genuine unhappy customer, or it could be a competitor or somebody with a grudge.  Whatever the reason, you will need to jump on it straight away to lessen the impact.  If it is a genuine customer complaint, show empathy and remember old fashioned customer service.  Aim to solve the problem to the satisfaction of both the customer and the brand.

Discuss in private

It is always better to solve a customer issue out of earshot of other customers.  So, if the negative comment is online, then take the discussion offline. Reply to the message indicating that you wish to solve whatever the issue is, you can then discuss it in person or over the phone to come to a good conclusion.  You will not have an audience watching the discussion.

Do not do this

No matter how upsetting the comment or review is, try to get some perspective.  Remember this is a small minority and comes with the territory of having customers.  Do not just delete the comment, this could upset them even more.  Do not ignore the comment, others will think it is true.   Do not answer in haste, you might say something you could regret.

So, if you do get an unpleasant comment, ask yourself ‘is this a genuine comment that I can learn from and improve my situation?’.  If it is, then that could be a welcome experience in the end.  However, if that is not the case then you need to deal with it and then move on.  There will always be more happy customers down the road.