Negativity online, particularly social media channels can be extremely daunting for businesses.
Not everyone is going to love your product, your business, or the values that your business stands for. It is not uncommon for businesses to receive negative reviews, comments or posts on their social media channels from people who simply don’t like them. We frequently refer to these people as “keyboard warriors”; people who behave aggressively in online media but similarly would not behave that way in real life, usually due to cowardice.
Dealing with these comments can often be uncomfortable and unpleasant, so it is important to have a plan in place on how you will deal with that negativity. We can be inclined to get defensive, however, you need to handle the negativity in a way that protects your company’s reputation and solves the problem for the customer.
Here are our top tips and tricks on how to deal with negativity online:
- Create your own personalized comment and post policy. Make sure it outlines how to appropriately respond to negative comments, when to delete comments/posts, and when to block users from your page.
- Try not to delete any negative posts or comments; it can appear as if you are hiding something. Phoney and malicious reviews are the exception to this rule – delete or flag any reviews that contain lewd commentary, private information, or appear to be from competitors.
- Don’t be afraid to take the conversation offline. If you can get the commenter to discuss the issue with you either over the phone or by email you will get all the details and can come up with a positive solution.
- Don’t get defensive! A defensive reaction will only make matters worse, so instead identify the issue, be polite, and quickly try to find a resolution. You can’t make everyone happy, but if you try and resolve the problem other customers will see that you are trying to move towards a resolution, and most will appreciate this.
- Empathize with the commenter. They are often genuinely upset about the situation so empathy can immediately defuse the situation.
The biggest thing to remember when dealing with negativity online is to not take the comments personally. These tips and tricks will help you to defuse the situation and handle the negativity in a way that protects your company’s reputation.
If you need help with dealing with negativity online and creating a comment and post policy, get in touch and we can help.
