8 Tips on What to Do With Negative Social Media Consumer Review

Not everyone will not leave a positive comment about your business, according to this social media for business tips on customer review on why you should pay attention to them.

What should you do when you see a negative social media consumer review?

Here are 8 Tips on what to do:

1. Be present. What’s the point of creating social media accounts if you are not there regularly? The image below is an example of a company’s slow response to a review, and inquiry.

Here is an example of a review that a service provider failed to respond to on time.

2. Be there before it happens! You may have not integrated social media in your business marketing strategy yet; and therefore, have NEVER created a Facebook Page for your business. You think you don’t have a Facebook page for your business. (You think!). However, according to Facebook, a “Facebook Page may exist for your business even if you or someone else from your business didn’t create it.” Fact, is you may already be there in social media without your knowing it because of the reviews posted by your customers through various social media tools. Have you checked your online presence yet? (Italics mine)

3. Respond quickly. Don’t let your customer wait for days. According to a survey by Loudhouse, “52% [of customers]expect to get resolution within a day via social media, and 75% expect [a] resolution within a day via email.” It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine what it’s like to be a consumer experiencing this because we are all “customers,” right?

Customer service response to a complaint. How slow is slow?

If you are a small business and if you need someone to monitor your social media accounts, there are many companies that social media services for businesses (*cough* ours included).

4. Do not remove the negative consumer review. Deleting it will send a negative message to your customer. Also, stay in that thread of conversation. On Facebook, ‘reply’ to the post. On Twitter, I’d recommend that you save it as favorite so it doesn’t get lost in the sea of tweets. The other reason why you should not delete a complaint is that some customers take screenshots of what they post. I have seen it done by others. In fact, I do that too.

5. Offer a quick resolution. Don’t let customers jump through several hoops before they find help from your company. Knowledge about your product and service is good but a quick resolution to a complaint is supreme to a dissatisfied customer.

7. Take the extra mile. Offer to call the customer instead of telling them to call you, or email you. I just had this experience recently when I had to make a total of 4 calls and emails only to be told that I have to email their tech support so they can prepare an RMA. It turned out that the person doing the RMA is the same person processing it for me.

8. Blog it. What improvements have you made since receiving that negative review? There’s your content! Tell us your story. There are many businesses out there that can learn from your experience. Experience is a better teacher.

via

4 Steps to Fielding Negative Customer Feedback via Social Media

There is no question that social media has become the channel of choice for consumers when it comes to communicating with each other. Increasingly, social media has also become many consumers’ first choice when it comes to communicating with brands as well. While consumers find social media engaging and entertaining, that is not always the case for brands. From a negative Facebook post to an in-person complaint, there is a proliferation of means for consumers to complain to brands that can be somewhat overwhelming.

There are two fundamental challenges large companies face: 1) complaints cannot be controlled, only managed; and 2) negative feedback can add significant costs to effectively monitor, report and manage.However, that is not to say that social media is inherently damaging for brands. A positive tweet or Facebook post mentioning a brand can be a marketing boom for companies, while also providing every day consumers with near real-time feedback.

When feedback is positive, the impact can be tremendous. According to the Empathica Consumer Insights Panel survey of U.S. consumers, nearly half have tried a new brand based on recommendations seen through social media.

However, if the feedback is negative, social media channels provide a near instant amplification for unhappy customers who can quickly become brand destroyers.

So the question is what can be done?

1. Fully Understand the Problem Set. Consumers who fail to express a concern or issue to an on duty manager can easily turn to social media and express their experience to hundreds of their friends or followers. When complaints and accusations are made through social media, the first order of business is resolving the issue outside of the public space and de-escalating. With the discussion offline, direct but diplomatic questions on whether the customer brought it to someone’s attention in the store, restaurant or branch can be helpful to the resolution. While problems shouldn’t occur, it’s how the brand handles them that matters. Listening to consumers’ frustration and having them be heard can be a big step toward resolution.
2. Resolve Concerns in a Timely Fashion. Consumers today expect acknowledgement and response in a timely fashion. Although some brands are still experimenting with social media channels, it’s important to recognize that instances of feedback in social media are very real expressions of how a customer is feeling about an experience with a product or service. In spirit, it is still very similar to feedback from more traditional channels such as customer surveys. As with negative feedback uncovered through surveys, the key is to be able to route the feedback and alert the correct stakeholder in a timely fashion. Being acknowledged and having an issue resolved in a timely fashion can be a powerful tool in brands’ ongoing efforts to develop deeper relationships with their customers.
3. Implement CRM Tools. Customer rescue and alerting tools that have been in play for years can be adapted to handle complaints from these new social channels to ensure all aspects of feedback are taken into account. Bringing all communication channels together into one Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform for a holistic view of customer issues is needed. With this technology in place, customer feedback through these various channels has and always will be one of the oldest and best ways to not only resolve an issue, but to build customer loyalty. New CRM tools take into account these new mediums for feedback, and make these interactions easier to manage at a large scale.
4. Aggregate Positive and Negative Feedback. While it’s tempting to focus exclusively on reactive responses to negative feedback, there are also deeper insights to be had from these same comments. Again, much like what we’ve learned from years of customer experience surveys, it’s important to look at customer feedback gathered through social media—both negative and positive—in aggregate, not just at the individual comment level. By collecting a larger pool of feedback data (and also combining and comparing it with other sources of feedback) brands can be proactive in mining insights from social media channels. In doing so, customer feedback provides an opportunity to uncover unexpected trends, both negative and positive. By leveraging tools that can provide context and sentiment analysis (text analytics) alongside action planning and enablement tools, a well designed customer experience management program can not only help brands keep their fingers on the pulse of what their customers are saying, but more importantly provide guidance on customers’ unmet needs. Beneath negative sentiment, one can behold the “gold” of what consumers really desire.

As with many aspects of business, it’s often the case of “what’s old is new again.” This adage holds especially true when it comes to customer feedback. While social media is today’s shiny new channel, it’s important for brands to recognize that they have been using customer feedback to drive decisions for years. When combined with structured customer surveys on how a brand is performing, social conversations can provide a powerful means to stay current, relevant, and in the good books of your customers. While negative feedback is disappointing to a brand, it can often be a catalyst to drive even greater loyalty from a customer.

via

Why you shouldn't delete negative social media reviews: 5 tips

Reputation can mean everything to a company. But most companies have little understanding of what their reputation is until it's been tarnished. When it comes to social media, unsavory and negative reviews or comments will likely live online for eternity.

The gut instinct for many companies is to remove negative comments. This is the absolute worst step a company can take and should be avoided at all costs. People become suspicious when only positive comments occupy a company's social media space.

Image src: http://www.onlinerepmanagement.com

Successfully maintaining a strong and healthy social media reputation is about thinking proactively and acting intelligently. Taking the right steps will enable any company to turn that frown upside down.

Be the first to know: Set up alerts so that negative comments aren't living online for days, weeks or months before you hear about it. Google and Yahoo offer free alert systems, notifying you of any keywords you choose to follow. They're also free.

Anticipate and Inform: Upon becoming aware of potentially damaging information, do your best to get the message out before others do. The first reaction is often to bury negative information. However, if it can make its way to the public, it eventually will. Shaping the conversation at the outset will go a long way in shifting detractors to promoters, as well as determining the life cycle of the issue/conversation.

Manage Multiple Conversations: At the time, negative comments can feel like the only thing that matters. But they aren't. Depending on the severity of the situation, responding to other content and generating new content will not only draw attention away from negative feedback, but it will push older content further down the page. In these scenarios, time does the work for you.

Acknowledge Mistakes: We've all heard the phrase, "The customer is always right." Depending on the scope and nature of the conversation, legitimizing negative, honest and respectful feedback will work in your favor. Recognizing mistakes brands your company as honest and human and demonstrates commitment to quality control and improvement.

Learn: Never forget to learn as much as possible from negative comments and feedback. Major corporations spend tremendous amounts of money examining consumer opinions and behavior. Why guess what consumers are thinking when they are ready and willing to tell you? Make use of the free information you receive. It will speak volumes about the character of your company.

via