12 Principles for Responding to Negative Online Comments

Here are six basic principles for handling difficult questions and statements on the social web. These apply to communications, marketing and customer service issues as much as they do HR and other activities.

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12 Principles for Responding to Negative

Online Comments

Posted by:Charlie Pownall

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Posted December 30, 2012

Due to convenience, the opportunity to receive a direct response and the potential to kick up a fuss when not treated as they expect, customers are turning to social media for customer service and other product and service-related support rather than dealing with call centres

Despite this, a recent study shows that the top Sing aporean telecoms operators tog ether receive an averag e 1,700 neg ative customer comments a day via social media Such

volume requires dedicated teams to pick throug h the debris and assess which

complaints should be answered and how

Sing tel’s Facebook pag e, for instance, is testament to customers’ frustrations with what they see as the company’s poor 3G coverag e, hig h costs and inferior customer service, to the extent that even the most anodyne promotion is belted with a slew of unrelated

moans

Yet very few of these complaints are responded to Sing tel and others cannot bury their heads in the dig ital sand and hope the problem will somehow disappear After, customer satisfaction is critical to all companies’ reputations and a positive experience can pay sig nificant dividends in terms of more loyal customers, positive word of mouth and fewer calls to call centres

But with customers increasing ly taking to Twitter to escalate their unanswered issues –

40% of Air Asia’s unanswered customer queries are reputedly placed on micro-blog s – it

is imperative that org anisations tackle complaints effectively

Here are six basic principles for handling difficult questions and statements on the social web These apply to communications, marketing and customer service issues as much as they do HR and other activities

Move fast The long er you take to respond, the more you risk appearing

unresponsive, uncaring or, worse, secretive According to NM Incite (pdf), users of Facebook pag es expect to be responded to within 24 hours and Twitter users within

2 hours In social media, it often pays more to be quick than 100% accurate

Be accurate Despite the pressure on speed, try to be as factual as possible –

ang ry customers and blog g ers love to hig hlig ht, question and poke holes in wooly

or cag ey responses Make sure to double-check the facts with your sources and it you’re not confident about the answer, at the very least acknowledg e the question

or statement, express concern and say you are looking into it This can help buy you more time to find the appropriate solution

Be flexible Don’t assume that either the complaint is 100% g enuine (consider

carefully its motivation) or that you are 100% correct in your response If you don’t have the full facts, say so publicly and communicate updates thereafter reg ularly Appear anxious to help, as opposed to desperate to please Backing yourself into a rhetorical corner can prove awkward when you have to extricate yourself publicly

Be transparent Admit if you have made a mistake Denials, evasions insincere

apolog ies as a means of quietening a community are often quickly spotted by the community and may simply inflame the issue And while the tactic of trying to take

a conversation offline can help diffuse difficult situations by buying you more time

to assess the situation and/or find a solution, it can also be seen by the customer as

a sig n of weakness or withdrawal and lampooned as such

Be sincere If the complaint is g enuine, apolog ise sincerely and with humility

and in lang uag e appropriate to the audience And yet an apolog y will mean

nothing unless the problem is resolved in a reasonable manner Sharing what you

as an org anization have learnt throug h the experience is also a g ood way of

demonstrating that your empathy is g enuine

Be human As The Cluetrain Manifesto pointed out, ‘conversations among

human being s sound human’, and are ‘conducted in a human voice’ that is ‘typically open, natural and uncontrived’ Look to use lang uag e that is accessible, eng ag ing and empathetic while remaining at core professional and objective Avoid jarg on and respond direct to the individual or g roup using their actual names ‘Dear

valued customer’ doesn’t wash it with customers increasing ly expecting personal attention

Be focused Not all customers are equal, and while social media is leveling the

playing field, some – the 1% – are most active in the community You need to

identify your top influencers, make sure to understand their interests,

requirements and behaviours, and make sure your PR, marketing and customer service teams understand when and how to interact with them This is not to say you should ig nore the rest of the community which, clearly, must not be allowed to feel unwanted or ig nored, but be aware that complaints from hig hly socially

eng ag ed customers, blog g ers and other influencers may impact not just the

community itself but can also make waves beyond it

Follow-up Once you have acknowledg ed the issue and responded, find ways to

eng ag e direct with the customer in question on an ong oing basis Encourag ing deeper discussion on the topic will show you are willing to listen and learn, and

help make them feel like you care Equally, walking away once you have responded can make it appear as if the customer is no long er a priority

Add value Following up also provides you with additional opportunities to add

value to conversations and hence deepen relationships and re-build trust Look to

be helpful by providing options rather than just a sing le solution, or be seen to g o the extra mile by pointing people to useful or relevant information People will notice – and may comment on the fact – that you are bending over backwards to help them

T ake control Neg ative comments on your community should be actively

manag ed – it is after all your channel Proactively rebut statements that are

demonstrably untrue or misleading and, above all, don’t run away from your pag e

in challeng ing times as it will only make your detractors appear as victors Ensure discussions remain within the parameters you have set in your Community

Guidelines and enforce your terms reg arding offensive posts, the sharing of

confidential or personal information about company executives or other members

of the community, third party advertising , repeat/verbatim comments etc And remember that it is within your rig hts to ban members who consistently flout the rules, thoug h you may want to explain why you are doing it both to the individual and to the community as a whole

Avoid fig hts Don’t antag onize your audience or g et into online arg uments: as

Nestle discovered to its cost in the wake of Greenpeace’s palm oil campaig n, David usually wins ag ainst Goliath in the court of online public opinion If the situation

is volatile, step back and wait for the rig ht opportunity to eng ag e with the

customer in question, meantime work closely with the relevant internal

stakeholders – often Sales, Public Relations and Leg al – to develop a reasonable solution Appearing thin-skinned will only make you appear weak and vulnerable

Don’t censor Nothing conveys a failure to listen and understand better than

censoring or removing criticism from your official online communities or

elsewhere Realize that critical voices are a price of entry to the social web, and that deleting or demanding chang es to neg ative posts can provide detractors with a powerful rhetorical weapon Rather, always try to maintain the hig h g round, be seen to be responsive and listening and deploy a strong leg al approach only as the final option: deleting content or threatening blog g ers may simply result in the so-called ‘Streisand effect’ as complaints escalate and g o viral

It is essential that the teams manag ing official channels as well as interactions with third party online communities understand these principles and are properly trained in the art and science of handling neg ative opinion

Connect:

Authored by:

Charlie Pownall

Senior communications specialist with deep and broad-rang ing experience in

social media and corporate communications Focuses on reputation manag ement,

crisis communications and employee communications and their intersection with

social media

See complete profile

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