Communication Hacks to Deal with Negative Customers on Social Media

Negative customers are everywhere. They are hard to deal with or manage. And when they decide to vent their ire on social media, it complicates things further and dents brand reputation greatly. Even if social channel is a wonderful way to communicate with target or potential customers, you’re never sure about the strategy to deal with angry customers hellbent on writing negative things about your business or regarding any aspect of product service etc.

It’s true that brands can’t do much when customers decide to write negative comments, but they can minimize the damage of negativity by having a plan in place. With a proper strategy, it’s possible to deal with disgruntled customers, get to the bottom of the cause and they convert their negativity into positivity. With more brands using social media for customer service, there is a need to use a proper communicate strategy to deal with every type of customers.

Here are some of key communication hacks to deal with negative customers on social media –

1. Monitor social media conversations about your brand
Brands should deploy resources to keep track of social media conversations about themselves or about their product, services or any aspect of the business. There are free tools for monitoring purpose which a brand can use and check in real-time the mentions about itself. By quickly catching hold of the conversation/s, a business can respond to their audience quickly and get to know their problem or cause of the negative comment. The timely intervention will help you reach out to the customers and respond to them which will hopefully calm their down and better their expectations.

2. Try to know the problem/s at the customer
There is no smoke without fire. If someone is positive negative comments about your brand, it means something must have irked them. Before their anger intensifies, you should reach out to them and try to diffuse the tempter. The focus should be on knowing the real cause that has forced the customer to write negative thing about your business and then see how you can help in real sense. A customer can feel disappointed for any reason be it bad product, price rise etc. and you have to let them know you feel their pain.

3. Apologize even if customer is wrong
Customers who post negative comments on social media won’t take empty rhetoric. They have some genuine grouse which you have to understand and take attempt to rectify that. The first strategy is to tender an unconditional apology to the customer even if you think he/she is wrong. When an apology is tendered, it will help calm down the customer and then you can go ahead and weave the positive narrative. An apology does not mean you own up the mistake; it’s rather you way of saying that you feel regret about putting the customer in that situation.

4. Take step to pamper the angry customer’s
No matter how much you talk to a disgruntled customer, conversations sometime don’t suffice in calming them down. If your customer has felt cheated, can you expect soothing words to alleviate the disappointment? Well, don’t take them lightly ever and be ready to pamper the customer by over-delivery or by giving them the solution to their problem. An angry customer can try to harm the brand reputation by writing negative comments which you can stop by solving their issues immediately.

5. Avoid giving out generic response to customers
Generic cut-copy response to angry customers can make matter worse. Customers won’t take that for an answer, and it might even temp them to go on ranting about your brand which can be harmful in true sense. Brands must avoid playing with the emotions of their customers by either being an escapist or by adopting a standard response. Customers want clear cut answers to their questions and having inexperienced customer service representatives assigned to them can harm further. A good strategy is to have specialists taking queries from customers and giving them response that makes sense and does not feel hollow.

6. Never ever dodge negative comments
Some brands are careful in not picking negative comments and only responding to then ones that have positive vibes. This strategy is bad and can backfire in a big way. When you deliberately ignore avoid or escape customer’s comments, it them puts your brand in bad light and even others might get influenced from it. No matter what type of negative things is being written about, you must be ready to respond to them in a professional manner. This will give out a positive signal about your brand that you care your customers genuinely.

7. Encourage people to provide feedback
Brands should be receptive to feedback and reviews no matter whether they are positive or negative in nature. When you encourage people to provide feedback, it actually shows your resolve to serve customers better. A business should never worry about negative comments or unfavourable feedback as this is also part of the branding game and it must be handled smoothly. In fact, research shows that brands that encourage people to provide feedback get lesser negative comments that those who don’t. So, you should never look to shirk responsibility and engage with customers at every level to serve them better.

8. Respond back with personalized communication
Brands can use the power of personalized communication to diffuse customer’s egos and handle their ire better. Using personalized communication means responding back to the customer with their name. This will make them feel better as you use their name, and everybody out there can see the privilege and care meted out by you. By keeping the ego aside, you can use the power of personalized communication and send out positive vibes to your customers. This is one of effective strategies to counter the risk of negative comments on social media and win customers easily.
To know about effective commination strategy, you can benefit from social media consulting services and realize the true potential of your brand.