The great battlefield
Jerry L. Kennedy | TLT Social Media Marketing December 2013
The Internet is the perfect place to start a war—make sure you keep your sword sheathed.
Getting angry and escalating from complaint to all-out war is absolutely the wrong course of action.
IF THERE’S ONE THING you should know when you start focusing on digital marketing and building an online presence for your business, it’s that the Internet is the natural habitat of complainers, whiners, malcontents—and genuinely dissatisfied customers. Once you join the online world, you expose yourself and your business to the ire of folks who, it would seem, have nothing better to do than disabuse the good name of your company. Truth be told, they’re probably doing it even if you’re not online, which is all the more reason for you to be there, paying close attention and responding appropriately.
The different methods that companies employ to respond to such online criticisms hold lessons for how to approach what can be either an opportunity to shine in customer service or an occasion to wipe egg off your face. Let’s have a look at a few of the most common types of response to online criticism.
IT NEVER HAPPENED
You’ve probably had the experience of being ignored by a brand online. You’ve emailed, Tweeted, Facebooked and Yelped, all to no avail. You see new posts being generated by the company in question, yet no one is responding to your complaint. What’s happening? You’re getting a dose of the old “maybe if we ignore them, they’ll go away” approach to customer service.
It’s a ridiculous response. After all, think of all the potential clients who are seeing the exchange and basing their decision to do business with that company on this very public interaction. Do they really think that not responding is going to make new prospects feel comfortable using their product or service? Take a lesson here: Never ignore customer complaints, especially public ones. Acknowledge them immediately and do your best to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.
GETTING ANGRY
It’s only natural to feel the urge to get defensive when we perceive that we’re being attacked; the anonymity and lack of tonality that comes with online complaints can exacerbate such feelings. Add an owner with a volatile personality and a tendency to recriminate, and you’ve got a powder keg that could bring a business to its knees.
This should go without saying, but getting angry and escalating from complaint to all-out warfare is absolutely the wrong course of action. Yet I’m continually surprised by how many business owners respond to public negative feedback with anger and abusive language. Google the phrase “Amy’s Bakery Facebook meltdown” to see what I mean; it’s a perfect example of what not to do.
If you need a better reason to avoid getting angry other than it makes you look foolish, try this one: the Internet, especially for complainers, thrives on negativity. This kind of incident will go viral faster than any cute cat video, and the response will be more and more mockery and ridicule. As the owners of Amy’s Bakery discovered, what happens online never goes away.
DELETING, HIDING AND BLOCKING
Here’s another no-no: unless you’re absolutely certain that a complaint comes from a troll (or an ex-employee with an axe to grind) never, under any circumstances, delete, hide or block negative feedback. This seems like common sense, but I can’t tell you how many times clients have asked me how to remove or block negative reviews on Yelp (or Google, Facebook or Twitter). My response is always the same: don’t you dare.
This takes the “ignore it and it will go away” approach one step further down the path of bad customer service. Why would you go to such pains to hide complaints? Why wouldn’t you instead address the issue and remedy the complaint, thus providing the formerly dissatisfied client an opportunity to amend their review and tell the story of how you made things right?
Bad reviews and complaints are part of every business. In the online world, as in the offline world, the real issue isn’t in the complaint but in your response to the complaint. Rise to the occasion by responding quickly and effectively, and the positive reviews for your business will bury any negative comments in a sea of delighted customers.
Jerry Kennedy earned his stripes as an operations and sales manager in the lubricants industry. He is currently the co-founder of CDK Creative, a digital marketing agency that brings his real-world sales and operations experience to the world of online marketing. Learn more or request a consultation at http://cdkcreative.com.
Email him at jerry@jerrykennedy.com.