Web Marketing Therapy

How Businesses Can Address the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly in Social Networks

May 1st, 2009
by Amy Dunn

Social Media is so appealing because it is a user generated process where anyone with a computer can create positive buzz about your company or your products & services. The downside unfortunately for many companies is the same person can use this power to create negative buzz about an organization. In this fragile economy, this can make a business owner feel almost powerless.

Good old Word of Mouth.

This type marketing has always been a valuable resource of leads for most businesses. Local businesses have been “made” or “broken” by word of mouth for decades. But as everyone knows, consumers have been given a much larger platform through the years and new methods to communicate their honest feedback about a product or services to thousands or even millions of other consumers.

I had an unpleasant experience of my own this week with a major department store that shall remain nameless (this is not a consumer blog) as I was shopping for a new washing machine. I was receiving what I felt like was poor customer service- so I decided to go to a competing store, and had a much different experience.

I received wonderful customer service from the competitor, a better price, better selection and guess who I told? Everyone in my Facebook network! It took me 5 seconds to recommend and praise the 2^nd company to 300 + people and share my disappointment with the first company who provide poor customer service. I did not do this out of spite or to be unfair, I am simply in the habit of sharing my day to day experiences with my Facebook network. It is hard to measure the impact of my one little recommendation- but obviously my word reached far more people than it would have in a private phone conversation with a friend. Imagine if I had been really angry and utilized my network in Twitter to get the word out that Company X gives terrible customer service!

How to Handle Negative Feedback.

All it takes is one bad experience with one representative from that organization- and who knows how much business that can cost? So what does a marketer do when there is negative feedback out there about their business? You probably see it all the time. What do you do when you see a bad review in a blog or unfavorable remarks in Twitter?

My advice is to address it head on. This power that consumers have can sometimes be a nightmare for marketers- but perhaps they can see this as an opportunity to show the public that they listen. And companies who listen are participating in wise marketing practices.

Here is an example.

I recently found some negative comments about a restaurant managed by someone I knew in a popular dining blog. The comments were posted by an angry customer who had received terrible service while dining. I contacted her to see if she was aware of this. She was aware, but wanted to ignore them so she would not draw further attention to them. She felt that the incident the customer was referring to happened so long ago that it did not matter. However, it did matter- the comments still came up when I did a search!!

She explained that the server who had given the poor service had been terminated, and the customer was given a generous gift card and an apology from the manager. However, this did not stop the customer from going to this site and writing a damaging statement in the comments section. You do not have to be a marketing genius to know how ONE bad review for a fine dining establishment can really hurt business.

I strongly advised her to get in touch with the writers of the blog and let them know some negative feedback has been published about her establishment and request an opportunity to make it right by inviting them to dinner. I also advised her to log into the review site, create her own account with her identity clearly visible and to directly respond to the accusations directly in a diplomatic and respectful manner. Perhaps she could say-

“Thank you for your honest feedback. Our customer satisfaction is very important and we regret that you had the experience described. We handled the situation by……..Please let us know how we could have handled it differently in order to serve you better. We hope to have the opportunity to make it right.”

If I were an outside reader and I came across a genuine, proactive response to poor feedback – I would be more inclined to give that establishment a second look. After all, everyone makes mistakes!

My Advice.

Ignoring negative feedback is not going to make it go away. Address negative comments directly and with grace. This gives you an opportunity to learn and grow as an organization and communicate your key message to other customers. By doing this, you demonstrate that you are in tune with your customers. I hope to hear your opinions and comments!

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