How to avoid social media backlash in 5 simple ways?
Social media is a great place for brands to connect, communicate and engage with customers. The social media platforms provide a quick and easy way to directly interact with customers. All the brands whether big or small are harnessing the power of social media to create loyal customers, brand advocates and brand influencers in the competitive digital space.
Making your presence on the social media is a must to create an enriching overall digital experience with your customers. But before joining the social media, you as a brand need to have a contingency plan in place. Like the famous proverb “hope for the best but prepare for the worst”. Even with your best of abilities, good intentions, there will be times when customers are not happy and they may lash their frustrations using social media. You need to take the good with the bad. Negative comments, complaints, customer grievance are all part of social media conversations.
When you face the harsh comments, how you react is what defines you. As brands, it is your responsibility to behave maturely, conduct in a sensible and responsible manner that convinces, consoles unhappy customers. It is always good to be prepared well for the bad times.
Let’s look at the top five ways to handle social media backlash that will save you from uncomfortable situations.
Do not delete negative comments
If you notice a customer leaving a bad review or a negative comment, do not ever delete the comment to come across as a good brand. Deleting a comment will frustrate the customer further and can lead to many more people joining the frustration gang, or the same customer may end up adding a slew of negative comments.
Instead, if there is a mistake from your end, be humble and apologize for the inconvenience and provide a solution. Be sincere, transparent and genuine in your communication. Try to respond to comments quickly, especially when it is negative, do not take more than an hour as customers expect a quick reply on social media. Do not get embarrassed by negative comments, they are part of social media conversations. Learn to manage them in a mutually conducive way like you do in real life.
Take the conversation offline
Not all conversations can be made in public. It is better to stop the negative comments at the earliest and take the conversation offline. Provide a phone number or an email ID to reach out in times of discomfort. Always handle tough/negative responses in one to one manner rather than in public. Remember that many others are watching on social media.
Do not provide a generic response
Providing a generic response will frustrate the customer more. Do not depend on templates to help you in a tough situation. Always address the customer by name and provide specific answers/solutions to the problem. Tell your customers what to do next if they have found any problem with your product. Direct them to help centers, customer support and clearly state the time needed to fix the issue. Even if you do not have a solution at the moment, ask for more time and communicate when your team will get back with a solution. Be specific, personal, clear, honest and transparent in your response.
Have a dedicated team/person
When you are present on social media, negative comments or troll is a most common thing to expect. Do not expect it to go smoothly always. To handle negativity, have a dedicated, trained team or individual who knows how to conduct in public spaces and manage the brand image. Though it seems like an additional cost, it pays back heavily in tough times. It is advisable to have a trained, dedicated team or person and a clear escalation process to deal with the problem.
Integrate social channels with CRM
Integrating social channels with customer relationship management tool will help you track and manage your customers better. Considering the various social channels, it is almost impossible to track all of them manually. Depending on the customer volume and engagement, prioritize social channels. Once you link your social channels with CRM, it is easy to get unified notifications from across the channels. You will not miss new messages, notifications, likes, and requests etc.
Forging a good customer relationship comes with setting the right expectations, hiring the right customer service staff/team. On social media always keep your responses simple, clear and short. A good rule of thumb is to finish your response well within three sentences. Also, ensure your responses are consistent. Keep track of the social activity. Have a customer record to note the social interaction. This will help you deliver consistent good customer experience.
Always remember that you are interacting with a human on the other end, be humble, friendly and polite in your responses. Acknowledge and sympathize with the customer’s concerns. Having a social media policy, FAQ page, and crisis management plan will come in handy.
