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SocialMediaToday recently featured a fantastic article called How To Complain Effectively via Social Media. We’ve all done it; we’ve all take our frustrated to the walls and Twitter profiles of brands we are disgruntled with. But SMT finally showed us how to do it without sounding like an irate lost cause.
Their list consisted of helpful tips, such as keeping your cool, emailing first, and even taking it to the masses a la in-your-face advertising. And while consumers everywhere should be thankful to SMT for sharing those useful tips, businesses everywhere should be shaking in their boots. Not only do we now have consumers who know how to air your dirty laundry, but they know how to do it in the most public and humiliating way.
Does this mean businesses should stay away from social media? Absolutely not. Avoiding social media only means that consumers will carry on talking about your company and you won’t have the least bit of control over it.
According to a study by Dimensional Research and Zen Desk, consumers who had a negative experience were 50% more likely to share it on social media than consumers who had a positive experience. And those consumers were also 52% more likely to write a review on a site like Yelp.
So we’re going to counter, nay, contribute to SMT’s article with our own list of how businesses can effectively manage their reputations via social media. We can’t stop consumers from talking about you behind your back, but we can help you perform damage control and save face.
1. Stay Calm
Interestingly enough, SMT’s first tip for unhappy customers was to keep cool; a perfect piece of advice for both parties. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar? Winning over even the most irate consumer is about keeping your voice down, your energy low, and connecting with one another like reasonable human beings should.
If you’re having a hard time keeping your cool, even if the customer has thrown all logic out the window, just remember that the ultimate goal is to win that customer back. If you can win over one unhappy customer, you can win over a hundred.
2. Listen First, Talk Second
More than anything, an unhappy customer just wants to talk about their problem. When an airline lost my suitcase, I wanted someone who would listen to me, sympathize with me, and just reassure me that they would do everything they possibly could to make things right. Let your customers vent out their frustrations, listen to what their saying, and then start your sentence with, “Let’s find a solution together.”
Your first instinct will probably be to defend yourself, your company, your product, but you need to fight that urge with all your might and only offer a solution. Again, the ultimate goal is to win them over, so keep the conversation focused on doing just that.
3. Learn From Your Mistakes
If you’ve managed to make one customer unhappy, chances are you will make another customer unhappy. But instead of writing it off as an inevitably, do your best to get to the heart of the problem and correct it. Did a customer receive the wrong shipment? Maybe the problem lies in your warehouse. Or maybe the customer received the wrong shipment but was more upset by the customer service agent who brushed them off? Whatever the problem may be, find it and fix it. Otherwise, it can only get worse and you’ll have more damage control on your hands than you can manage.
Social media is all about customer engagement. Usually, that consists of posting great content and promoting all the wonderful things about your company. But every now and then, you have to change your social media strategy to manage your online reputation. Social media is fast, viral, and heard loud and clear by millions of people, so if your company isn’t doing everything in it’s power to both please your consumers and resolve their issues, then you’re missing the mark.
Want to learn more about social media strategy? Contact RumbleLink to find out how we can help!
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