Prepare for Negative Comments

You want your business's social media pages to be about positive connections to customers and act as a way to get new leads, but you must also face the fact that inevitably, you WILL get negative comments and complaints at some point.

Social media is a great place to market and grow your brand image, but it's also a great place for angry customers to go to complain. When this happens, the best thing you can do is to turn that negative comment into a positive interaction. Your business page is public, so your response sets the tone for anyone who sees it on your page.

You won't be able to turn every negative comment into a positive interaction, but you'll be surprised at how many people just want to feel heard and validated.

When some posts a complaint on your Facebook page or calls you out on Twitter, your first step it to respond and let the customer know they are being heard. Tell the customer you're sorry they had a bad experience with your company, and mean it. Say you'll look into what happened, and actually do that. Usually the case will be that there was a misunderstanding somewhere along the line. Don't assume your employees did anything wrong, but make sure you understand the situation moving forward. Never tell a customer they are wrong on a public social media page.

Once you let the customer know their complaint was heard and is being dealt with, ask them to send you a private email or message so you can discuss the problem more and see what can be done to fix their bad experience. If the conversation ends with your business apologizing, promising to look into what happened, and offering to fix the problem, then anyone who sees the complaint on your page will know that if they are your customer and they aren't happy, you will be there to help make their experience better. This is invaluable! And once the conversation goes private in a message or email, the customer can get their complaints out without making your company look bad online, while also allowing the customer to validate their complaints by speaking to someone about it. Usually, a simple act like offering a free service or even just apologizing, will go a long way. And you may even end up getting a customer for life if you are able to solve their problem!

Sample Response

Customer Amy's Post: John came to my house to repair my driveway and completely messed up my lawn! If I had known your company didn't care about their customers, I wouldn't have hire you! Can't believe this!

Business Response: Amy, we're sorry you had a bad experience with John, that is not the type of service we like to show our customers. If you would send us an email to email@email.email, we'd like to talk about what happened and see what we can do to help make this right. Thanks!