A very popular Action Movie of Hollywood had a very powerful dialogue “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” by now I’m pretty sure you have identified the movie. Great but my motto for posting the blog today is not to give a review on the script or acting skill, as there are people who all are far better and great in their works than me. Well on that note I move forward with what I’m interested in and have knowledge about i.e.; Marketing & Digital Marketing. With the continuous and rapid increase in social media user and evolution on how company using this platform for marketing, be it an MNC (Multi-National Company) or SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), Manufacturing or Service, Real Estate or Banking, Entertainment or Freelancing everyone wants to be present where their customers or end consumers are present. With the rapid increase in social media user in the last decade have forced all size of companies & enterprises to come on board. Since the distance between the producer and consumer has decreased with the action taken on the relevant platform, now the producer is able to speak about their offers as well as the accessibility simultaneously the customers/consumers are able to share their post-purchase experiences. If the customer/ consumer satisfied with your product/ service that platform gives you the opportunity of viral marketing or word of mouth. But something goes wrong and you fail at customers/ consumers expectation that platform can become a nightmare for the company. How social media can become a nightmare for a company today could be understood by the case study of KFC & Samsung Galaxy the recent one. The case of a guy finding a rat as KFC product and Samsung Galaxy s7 Note exploding after getting heated made the company to troll for negative online. It was a period and still today the company is making efforts in all possible ways to get back the reputation which they lost. Use Tools For Managing Social Media Accounts and keep track of the feedback Thus it very important that you should follow some of these tips mentioned below for handling negative feedback.
1. Respond no matter what- It’s very important that the complaints and issues your fans’ posts on your wall are addressed. Ina0ctivity on your part will appear as though you’re trying to ignore the issue and sweep it under the rugs. Being unresponsive does nothing more than incite more anger and increase the chance the user will come back with even more angry wall posts. Also since your community can see that angry post. If you don’t reply, it appears as though you are unconcerned with customer support, which can be very bad for your reputation. A response that shows respect and understanding of customers’ concerns will indicate your intention to rectify any problems. Thus address all posts even the negative ones.
2. Be patient and understanding- While dealing with your upset fans, you must remember that you are closer to your industry, products, and services than they are. What may seem like basic, common knowledge to you is often foreign to the end-user. It’s advisable to take a step back and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. This can go a long way in understanding why he or she is frustrated. It may not be your company’s fault that the customer is upset. Whether or not the fault is from your end, a simple apology will go a long way in keeping the customer’s business. Instead of trying to figure out where the blame lies, take a step towards turn upset fans into loyal customers by making their experience better.
3. Contact the Customer Privately- Sending a private message or email or direct message to the customer opens up more options for you to address his or her complaints. Your goal should be to extend some sort of token letting the customer know you’re sorry that he or she is dissatisfied with your company, and you’re willing to make it right. Whether that means offering the number of the manager’s direct phone line or a discount on the next purchase, moving the conversation from public to private allows you to give the customer a personal touch that signals that you care. Because offering things like direct lines and special discounts publicly can lead to an invitation where other people start creating problems just to get that special treatment, so it’s best to keep these practices off the wall.
4. Consider asking the fan to remove the post- You can ask and inform your customer that you’ve discussed the issue privately, the problems have been sorted, and step has be taken against the faultfinder if any involved, and so once again, your happy customer. Since your wall is an integral part of your web presence, the customer may be unaware of the fact that how important it really is to your reputation. If he or she is satisfied with the resolution you’ve reached and grateful for the time you’ve spent making things right, there’s nothing wrong with privately asking the person to remove the post. Most of the time, he or she will be happy to remove the angry wall post.
5. Respond back to the original post- As a general rule, of the Facebook page admin, you should not remove the negative posts. It never that everyone is going to have a positive review of your product or company. Social media users know this very well, and if they see nothing but only positive comments, they’ll assume that your company is deleting the bad comments. If you don’t feel comfortable asking your customer to remove the post, you do have the option of publicly responding back to that post. Then better express happiness in the resolution you’ve reached and thankfulness for her business. Even a negative post can turn to be a good thing, as long as the last comment is positive. And so your reputation among your community will soar when they see how well you take care of your customers.
6. Let your community respond- Allowing your community to respond for you is really the end result of all the earlier steps. It requires ample time, energy, and patience with your fans, and definitely a fantastic product. After you’ve engaged with your fans for a period of time by answering their queries and offering support, you’ll notice that your fans will be more active on your page, even to the point of assisting each other. What’s great about getting this community support is that there’s genuine credibility when fans endorse your business for you. They become your eager virtual support agents, answering questions, and solving problems before you have a chance to. But this is a level you can only achieve if you’ve nurtured and supported your community always.
7. The Last Resort- If the offended party is unreceptive to your customer service attempts; blatantly hostile and only active in your community to start arguments, banning/ blocking the individual is the only last-resort option. And anyone leveling expletives or racial slurs against your staff or fans should be blocked/ banned. Your staff and your fans don’t deserve to be subjected to unwanted abuse, and in the end, they will respect you more because you took the initiative rather than continuing with that.
Common mistakes that are committed while handling negative comments:
1. Trying to manipulate forum- While trying to get rid of comments & handling the Negative comments the easiest option which marketers feel that can solve their issue is to post some positive comments. The marketers have a perception that this post would cause the older post to slide down and when people visiting the page will not notice it. But mind it today customers are very intelligent today if they see a usual pattern they will go in-depth and by seeing the language, profile, date, the time they can easily make out that the post is just a manipulative sort off. Take for example of a site like a mouth shut which is one of the most popular when it comes to company review, they have started to do a quality check from their even, and when they find something fishy they will mark the post as fake. Which can be a reputation spoiler.
2. Not Answering- Be it whatever the situation is do answer and address the queries. One important thing which is usually ignored is the time taken to reply to the post. The turnaround time should not be very long. The sooner is best but it should not cross a maximum 24 Hrs.
3. Starts replying at the open forum- As mentioned above do not start addressing there itself at the open forum where everyone can be spectators to your conversation.
4. Same answer- When you address or reply to someone on an open wall/ forum be sure that you have a standard answer in your place. If something additional needs to be put go offline or use Direct Message.