5 Types of Social Media Complainers and How to Deal With Them

Social media continues to play an even larger role in not only gaining customers, but in retaining and building relationships with current customers. Best selling author Erik Qualman reported in his video #Socialnomics 2014, that 93% of shoppers’ buying decisions are influenced by social media and that 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust advertisements.

But what about your current customers? 

Many companies focus the majority of their attention on gaining new customers, often neglecting to include their current customers in their social media strategy. However, if we follow the 80/20 rule (as many marketers do), we know that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. As such, it is very important to include your current customers in your social media strategy.

Now not to give customers a bad rep, but you often will never hear from them on social media until they are upset. But, don’t assume that because they don’t tweet often that they don’t expect a quick and appropriate response via social media. While we always want to try to take difficult conversations offline, it is important to publicly acknowledge your customer’s comments and make sure they know that you are listening and care. Your strategy on how to respond to a customer will most likely depend on what type of “complainer” you are responding to. The infographic below, based on research from the University of Florida, breaks down the five types of social media complainers that businesses need to be prepared to respond accordingly with via their preferred social platform. The five types of social media complainers are:

• The Meek Customer
• The Aggressive Customer
• The High-Roller Customer
• The Opportunist Customer
• The Chronic Complainer Customer

In addition to laying out the personas of each type of complainer, this infographic also provides good tips on how to appropriately respond to each individual persona. Check out the tips below!

Do you have had an experience when you had to respond to a very upset customer on social media in order to protect your brand? Or, have you had either a very good or very bad experience with a brand responding to you on social media when you were upset about a situation? I would love to hear about it! Comment below with your story or tweet me at @Brianna5mith.

Infographic was created by ExactTarget, you can download it here: How to Deal with Complainers on Social Media

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Giving Up On Social Media Is Giving Up On Your Business

Have you ever heard something like this?

Have you ever thought this?

If you’ve thought it, please, take a moment to hang your head in shame.

We’ve recently had discussions with several friends and colleagues who have shared stories of their clients wanting to remove their business from social media because they don’t want to have to address negative comments, the headache that trolls can cause, criticism from their loyal consumers, or simply because they don’t have time to address these concerns.

The very thought of wanting to ‘remove your business from social media’ is completely missing the point.

You can’t remove your business from social media.

All you can do is remove yourself from the discussions that are going to happen about your business, regardless of whether you’re participating or not.

Just because you ignore issues, doesn’t mean they’ll go away

Consumers don’t limit their online expressions of discontent, enthusiasm, or other opinions on businesses to only those with a Facebook Page, Twitter timeline, Pinterest board, YouTube channel or blog.

They have their own blogs, their own Facebook profiles, Twitter feeds, message boards and almost numerous other options for sharing their experiences, opinions, and perspectives on your business.

By not engaging in social media, you’re willingly being ignorant to these discussions and removing your ability to participate, make things right, and in some cases, defend yourself.

You can learn from negativity and apply those lessons to improve your business

Consumers complain and spread negativity for a reason; they’re unhappy with your business. Sure, trolls exist, and some people are just inclined to complain, but most consumers have legitimate criticisms when they take their frustrations online.

Even when consumers are being negative, this is can be positive for your business. For every single person who expresses their criticism online, how many consumers are biting their tongue, vowing to themselves that they’ll take their business elsewhere in the future? It’s worthwhile to listen to what they have to say, and to view this as an opportunity to improve your business.

You can set the record straight

On occasion, there are consumers who express concerns on social media who are doing so unjustly. Maybe their negative experience was an anomaly, maybe they used your product improperly, maybe they didn’t set your service staff up for success. Whatever the issue, being able to receive these complaints also gives you opportunity to set the record straight and help those consumers out with their problems.

This will not only help the consumers you’re directly connecting with, but future consumers will be able to see these interactions and have greater faith that you are going to support your product or service, which can positively influence their purchase decisions. You might be able to avoid these issues or complaints in the future by creating record of your interactions, as a sort of FAQ or troubleshooting guide.

In my opinion, there is exactly one reason why engaging in social media could be viewed as a negative, and that one reason is that you no longer want to be in business, or no longer care about the future success of your business. This isn’t to say that the success of your business is entirely dependent on social media, but the perceived downsides are actually incredibly positive in most situations.

Have you ever been frustrated by complaints or negativity expressed on your social media properties? If so, how did you handle that situation?

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