Brands with an active social media presence are bound to face negative comments occasionally.
As customers can easily voice their opinions through social media platforms, the risk of receiving negative reviews and complaints has also increased. How you handle these negative comments will determine your online credibility in the face of challenges.
Brands should not neglect negative comments on social media as it will imply that they don’t value customer opinion. This will greatly harm their brand image and business growth. On the other hand, responding to negative feedback on social media will make your customers feel valued.
So, what’s the best way to deal with negative comments on social media? Let’s find out in this blog.
How To Handle Negative Reviews Online?
Let’s look at some of the best steps to successfully handle negative social media reviews to protect your online brand reputation and save your business from sinking.
Step 1. Apologize With Honesty: It Goes A Long Way
No harm ever comes from a sincere apology! On top of that, being truthful goes a long way.
Apologizing truthfully will give your customers the impression that their reviews are addressed fairly. This approach helps marketers solidify their brand’s online reputation and build customer trust.
For instance, in 2015, Maggi apologized to their customers on social media for the controversy where their product was reportedly found to have high levels of lead and Monosodium glutamate (MSG) in it. Nestle took rigorous measures to get the product tested to resolve the negative impression and improve their product.
Step 2. Take Responsibility: Do Not Delete Negative Reviews
There is no harm in deleting a comment that is offensive or off-track. However, you should refrain from ignoring or deleting comments with genuine customer concerns. Deleting the comments will give your customers a negative impression of your brand, and you might lose a loyal one in no time.
Consider negative comments a blessing in disguise, as addressing them will develop goodwill with your customers and make them feel understood and cared for.
Usually, customers get back to the social media platforms after sharing a negative review to see if it’s addressed by the brand. Quickly acknowledging such reviews goes a long way in making them feel heard and that their complaint is being worked on. Social media automation tools can come to your rescue to increase customer service response rate. These tools also assist the brands in hiding spam comments under their social posts and ads, thus preventing them from harming your brand image.
Step 3. Be Prompt: Speed Matters
Customers expect to get a fairly swift response right after they have left feedback on social media platforms. Hence, being prompt while replying to customer reviews is one of the most important factors to consider. The longer you keep their queries unanswered, the more damage it will do to your brand reputation, as it might demonstrate that you don’t prioritize your customers.
Engaging with customers on social media platforms in real-time can help brands identify and address customer issues promptly, enhancing their overall experience. In today’s highly competitive business landscape, brands that prioritize real-time customer engagement on social media are more likely to succeed in enhancing their customer experience management efforts.
Remember, 85% of customers check negative reviews before making a purchase. Hence, acknowledging and solving negative complaints on social media will help you to boost sales more than positive reviews.
Step 4. Provide Custom Response: It Fosters Goodwill
Customers like to interact with humans and not chatbots! They literally hate automated replies! Providing personalized responses to customer queries fosters goodwill by showing them that you genuinely care for them and want to help.
Hence, prioritize giving custom replies to customers if you haven’t already. Custom responses help handle negative comments on social media strategically by catering to different customer queries with a personal touch, giving them the attention they want. It makes the customers feel that their problem is yours and you are working actively to resolve it. Personalized responses to negative social comments develop business relationships and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Step 5. Take The Conversation Off Social Media: Discuss Issues Privately
Take the conversation off the spotlight when necessary. Ensure not to overstep boundaries and take it out smoothly.
First, respond publicly and then shift the conversation to a private channel. Give them a polite and fitting reply to their review as soon as they leave a negative review. This will make your customers feel acknowledged and valued, letting them know that you are actively working on their feedback.
Then, contact the customer personally or shift the conversation to a private chat to discuss the matter if you feel that the conversation needs a better resolution.
In this way, you can not only give the special attention customers deserve but also handle negative reviews on social media without damaging your brand image publically.
Step 6. Take Cue From Mistakes: It Portrays Honesty
No brand is perfect, and making mistakes is natural. There is no harm in learning from mistakes, as taking cues from them helps brands propel in the long run. Besides, it portrays your honesty and ability to learn from negative customer feedback.
Taking these mistakes seriously will help you know where your brand is lacking and how to work on them. Discuss with your customer support team and develop a process that permanently eliminates negative comments on recurrent issues. This strategy will help you improve your products and take the business to the next level.
For example, renowned jewelry brand Tanishq publicly apologized on social media to the Hindu community of Kutch for a controversial TV commercial for the Ekatvam campaign. The campaign was about a Muslim family celebrating the baby shower of their Hindu daughter-in-law, which hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community.
Conclusion:
Handling negative comments on social media is not tough if done in the right way! It’s okay to make mistakes and fail, but how you handle the reviews will decide your worth. The key to handling negative reviews on social media is simple. Learn to communicate with your customers!
Almost 45% of social media users have a positive impression of brands who choose to respond to negative comments. With the above tips, you can not only handle negative reviews strategically but also have a chance of turning these customers into brand advocates as well. So start taking out the negative comments on social media with a bang!
Read More:Top Strategies For Increasing Social Media Conversion Rate
