How to handle negativity on social media platforms?

A very famous Dell story is the best example of how negativity can trash your brand image. In 2005, a blog post from an influential blogger about the dell’s pathetic customer service created a viral effect. Dell did not respond to the blog promptly, which lead to worsen situation, where lot of people started commenting on the blog and sharing their experiences about bad customer service from dell. By the time dell responded to the complaint, damage was done.

Another example is of Nestle and Greenpeace. Where Greenpeace started a campaign against nestle, posting videos of how Nestlé, maker of Kit Kat, uses palm oil from companies that are trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orangutans towards extinction. Nestle mismanaged the whole situation which created lot of negativity for the brand.

Social media is all about conversations. These can be Positive as well as Negative . Positive conversations are always considered as blessings and are welcomed anytime whereas negative conversations are like a nightmare. But as a brand/business you have to handle both, you just can’t close your eyes. Social media is a two way conversation channel.

While working with clients on social media, we encounter situations where customers are not satisfied with the product or services. These conversations could be complaints or feedbacks.  We believe these situations can be utilized to strengthen the relationship between brand/businesses and customers.

How to handle negative conversations?

Negative conversations are the part of social media, avoiding or deleting these conversation will only worsen the situation. Following are the set of rules or best practices which we follow while working with clients

1. Never Ignore or Delete negative comment: Deleting or ignoring the comments will give out the very bad impression about the brand. This will only show how much you value your customer’s feedback. Deleting negative comments is strictly no no.
2. Promptly acknowledge the feedback: Negative feedback need quick and prompt reply. In our case we never delay in reply to negative comments. Delay in acknowledging the feedback  may be taken as brand/business’s laid back attitude towards your customers
3. Take the conversations offline:  We would always suggest taking the conversation offline. Your first response should be public. Then you can take it forward as a private conversation. Send them message on email. This will also give a personal touch.
4. Appreciate the feedback:  Making customer feel like a king will always help you in building strong bonding. Appreciate their feedback and Make them feel that their feedback has helped your brand in becoming better.
5. Create positivity: Through excellent customer experience Change the negative conversation to the positive one through customer service. Provide them best of customer service which will help you in getting the positive words about the business.
6. Stay connected to the customer: Keep track of all the developments happening on the issue. Stay connected to the customer, until they are satisfied with the result.

Negative comments might irate you sometimes but be calm. Try to be positive. These types of conversations do not always harm your brand. If tackled properly they can lay a strong foundation of customer relationship.