As a business we face the reality that not everyone will be happy with our services or products. So, what happens when an unsatisfied customer takes their complaint online or onto social media? How do you react? How do you handle the situation so it doesn’t snowball, hurt your business or cause other potential customers to be put off?
Bad Reviews Affect Small Businesses, too!
As a local small business you have to be twice as protective of your brand. As you know, especially here in the Rio Grande Valley, news travels fast and bad news travels twice as fast. So you need to be sure to handle a negative review online quickly and effectively. As we have seen in the past, one person’s complaint about an issue can quickly turn into an swarm of negative feedback from multiple people if not handle properly.
So, What to Do When You Get a Bad Customer Review?
In the past, a bad experience with your business would result in an angry call or a strongly worded letter, but in today’s digital age we are faced with the possibility of one customer’s bad experience getting out to a mass audience. A bad online review can create distrust and fear from potential customers, especially if you do not address it quickly. So, how should you deal with negative online reviews?
1. Monitor Your Social Media Channels
I know we say this A LOT, but it truly is one of the most important things you can do for your business. You need to monitor all social media channels for any mention of your brand or business, whether it’s good or bad.
2. Respond
Again, whether the comment was good or bad, you need to respond. Be proactive in reaching out to your engaged users, make them feel heard and understood. Be humble and ensure you are solving all their issues and concerns.
3. Keep Doing It
This is something you must continuously be doing. If someone is taking the time out of their day to talk with your business, that means they care. So, make sure you are responding and handling the issue EVERY SINGLE TIME! Did you know that 58% of customers want companies to respond to a complaint on social media and an even more staggering statistic, 42%expect companies to respond to positive comments.
I know this seems like a lot of work to do, but by doing this your business will create positive sentiment from your customers. These small gestures will be the building blocks of creating loyal customers who will recommend you at every opportunity they can.
Although negative online customer reviews can potentially rec havoc on your business, if you handle each complaint correctly you can leverage the situation to benefit your business and create long lasting relationships with your customers.
As a company you should want to know what your customers are saying about you on your social media platforms. Is it good? Is it bad? Or are they just not that into you? But how can you do that you ask. Social media now provides us with a great way to “listen” to what consumers are saying.
Essentially your brand manager (the person in charge of your social media marketing, advertising, etc.) uses your social media outlets to monitor and sift through shared content and engage with the people who are talking about your company or specific keywords that relate to your company, products or services. In a recent study, 58% of customers want companies to respond to a complaint on social media and an even more staggering statistic, 42% expect companies to respond to positive comments.
Just imagine how cool a customer would feel if they post something like, “Only have 45 minutes for lunch today, what should I get?”, on Facebook and you being a local business can reply something like, “We can have your lunch ready for you ASAP, what would you like to order?” and BAM! you probably just got a customer for life because you were able to address their exact need at the exact moment they needed it. Talk about being at the right place, at the right moment!
But social media monitoring is still a relatively new marketing strategy and because of this we must be careful on how we approach it. So if you are seriously considering it, keep this advice in mind:
Fully understand what your customer is saying before you respond.
There is nothing worse then assuming something. So be sure you get the gist of what they want from you, then take action.
Consider the context of the post.
Is it positive, negative or just a shout out? Figure it out and respond accordingly.
Don’t engage just because you can, make sure it benefits your consumer.
Make sure you are giving some type of benefit to your consumer if you choose to engage with them that will make them more open to hearing from you again.
Build a relationship.
The whole purpose of this is to begin to lay a foundation for a long-term relationship with this person. So lay down the building blocks by giving them information they are seeking.
Of course, such a great forward thinking marketing strategy will require someone to manage the effort full-time, and actively engage with people (which is one of the cool things about this type of advertising, is that you get a REAL person communicating with you). Also, you need to make sure that the person who is reaching out on behalf of your business is really knowledgeable about your services and truly understands and encompasses what your company/brand is all about, in addition to having above average social media knowledge.
And of course, if you don’t have the staff, experience or knowledge to deal with a social media monitoring campaign, Amplify has a great staff of knowledgeable social media marketing gurus to help you get started.
In addition to social media monitoring we can help you implement a long-term, fully integrated social media marketing and advertising strategy and build interactive campaigns that can encompass everything from Facebook promotions, contest, sweepstakes, increasing your ‘Likes’ and followers across all your platform to online reputations management but those are topics for another day.
