Handling Negativity

It is essential that you respond to negative comments in the right way.

Handling negative comments

1. Each element of your business needs to be aware of how easy it is for your actions or customer service to be criticised online (and to how many people this criticism is visible). Remember that staff should aim to solve all issues face-to-face to pre-emptively reduce the likelihood of online complaints.
   
   If a complaint is received on your Facebook page, the business areas responsible need to support the Social Media Manager in providing the information required to resolve the issue.
   
   On average, for every positive business encounter, a customer will tell four (4) friends. For every negative one they'll tell fifteen (15).
2. If you do receive a complaint, do NOT delete it. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the customer's position. Respond as soon as you can online by replying "We're sorry to hear of this issue. We will be in touch shortly to investigate further" or something similar. You can then send a private message to the person / people involved, expressing your concern and giving your full contact details including phone, personal email etc. This shows fans and visitors to your page that you are active in dealing with complaints.
3. Work as quickly as possible internally to get to the root of the issue and to provide a comprehensive and satisfactory response.
4. If you are unable to respond within 24 hours, you should re-contact the customer to reassure them that you are still investigating the issue.
5. Once resolved, you should review the incident internally to explore how you can avoid reoccurances (i.e. use the complaint as an opportunity to improve business processes).
6. Remember, comprehensively resolving issues can turn a negative advocate into a positive one.

Tone of voice

Tone is a major consideration when communicating via social media and a fine balance is required. Aim for the chatty, open communication that you would hope to have your own local business whilst upholding your brand and company values at all times. A safe approach is to write as you would write to a friend of a friend.

1. Treat the audience as you would expect to be treated during any premium brand experience.
2. Don't 'shout'. Avoid capitals in body copy, or as an expression of volume and excessive use of exclaimation marks. When promoting an offer, for example, let he facts speak for themselves.
3. Despite the informal, conversational nature of social media, accuracy of information is as important as it is in all other communications.
4. Remember that fans will more than likely be on Facebook while in a leisure capacity (i.e. at home) and as a result they most probably won't be in 'buying mode'. A hard-sell approach will generally only serve to annoy fans.