Having a social media presence can be a great way to help promote your business at no, or little, extra cost and gives your customers the chance to find out more about your company, your policies and to see you all as people, rather than a faceless corporation. The downside? Sometimes customers will be unhappy and if they talk about you on social media or publicly complain, what do you do? Here are a few tips on how to effectively handle negative feedback on your social media platforms.
Firstly, never ignore a complaint.
You might be tempted to just ignore or delete negative comments on your posts, don’t delete comments unless they are offensive to the wider public, by doing so, it looks like you are trying to silence critics. The best thing to do is to respond, as soon as possible. A well handled complaint will make your customers feel like their point is valued and has been considered, even if they don’t use your services again, at least you will have been saved from further negativity if they start to vent about you to their own followers and friends.
Even if you aren’t in the wrong, it is important to read the complaint, post a message to say you accept responsibility and that it is being looked into, if you aren’t the right person to deal with the issue, make sure it is sent to that person as a matter of urgency and together, do whatever needs to be done to fix the situation. If possible, ask to discuss the complaint further via private message or ask them to privately send you their email or phone number so that it can be sorted out quickly. Whatever you do, don’t be defensive and while we think it is good to acknowledge and respond to complaints, don’t let a barrage of messages about the issue take over your social media feed.
Secondly, make sure you have a good procedure in place to deal with complaints. If you’re someone who outsources the social media management, it is likely that the person reading the message is unable to offer anything other than apologies. It is never a good idea to have scripted responses as this takes away the human aspect of social media, but it is important that whoever is running the account knows what they can and can’t say and who to contact to sort the issue out in a timely manner.
If you run your social media in house, make sure that the people looking after the various accounts have a thorough knowledge of the complaints procedure and are aware of your customer service policies to avoid any further problems.
Resolve problems within 24 hours.
While we appreciate that those with small businesses don’t have the time to spend all day checking their social media notifications, it is important to address negative comments and begin working towards a resolution within 24 hours of the complaint being made. Leaving comments for long periods of time will likely make the customer more annoyed and can lead to them posting more negative complaints.
If you need any help with your social media, don’t forget to check our guides on our website and if you need anything more, get in touch to see how we can help you.