I had the chance to participate in an excellent panel yesterday entitled “Social Media and Your Business” in Durham, N.C. My fellow participants and I fielded questions about proper implementation of social media campaigns, best practices for employee usage, and advice on how to deal with negative sentiment online.
The last piece—dealing with negative sentiment or potentially harmful customer feedback—dominated the discussion, in my opinion. Living in this industry day-in and day-out and observing the positive results of dozens of client campaigns had made me forget just how daunting and frightening the possibilities of social media outreach are to a lot of businesses.
One audience member shared a negative experience that highlighted what not to do when dealing with customer criticism on social media. She had posted a reasonable complaint on the company’s Facebook page after receiving poor customer service at an area location. Instead of responding to the customer and engaging her over potential ways to rectify the situation, the company deleted her post entirely.
The company violated the first rule of successful business social media interaction—be transparent. Out of fear of what other customers might think about the negative comment, the company tried to sweep it under the rug, only exacerbating the situation. The customer shared her negative experience with the entire crowd offline, as a result, and I doubt we were the only people she has shared her thoughts with.
If the company had responded diligently and respectfully to the complaint, the situation would have ended there. Visitors to the Facebook page would see that the company is open and responsive to feedback from the community. No one is perfect, and no one expects companies to be perfect either. But honest discussion of where we fall short and a dedication to improving problem areas is expected, and companies need to foster that sort of spirit in their social media interactions.
I think much of the fear of handling this sort of situation has to do with forgetting that interactions online are fundamentally the same as those offline in substance. I’m willing to bet that the owners who were confused about how to handle this sort of negative feedback are very accustomed to handling it from customers in person. Everyone encounters dissatisfied customers at some point. The fear results from thinking that somehow the online interactions should be handled differently. They shouldn’t be. Be forthright, correct mistakes quickly, and show your customers you care. Social media is merely an extension of the connections we make offline, and the way we do business online should mirror the best practices we’ve learned in the offline world too.
