So you have your social media account, you are updating it every day with funny and interesting anecdotes and promotions to keep your loyal customers coming back for more. Not only that, but your business is booming as a result of your social media presence and things are looking nice and profitable all around! Then, boom! You receive a complaint. However, gone are the days when a complaint is registered on a one-on-one basis away from the rest of your customers. Nope, now it will be posted on your Facebook page for all to see! You’re first reaction may be to delete the negative comment and pretend that you never saw it. This is very definitely the worst thing to do. Now you have just made your unhappy customer even unhappier by ignoring them and deleting their comments. This customer may very well go back to their own Facebook page which could have 300+ friends, all from your local business area, where they will promptly update their own status with the complaint which they had registered with you, but had been ignored. Now an entire local community has seen the complaint!
The results of this could be catastrophic and you will lose customers over it – and your competitors may be rubbing their hands with glee as they prepare a campaign to highlight their superior customer service. OK, well if I was the competitor that is what I would do!
It is important to remember that If you can prove that you can provide superior levels of customer service and attention for your customer when they so require it, you will generate more sales and you may be able to offer your products or services at a higher premium as, at the end of the day, customers want to know that they have comeback and someone to turn to, should they need it.
So how exactly do you handle a very public complaint? Well, the good news is that there are only 5 types of social complainers and the inforgraphic below offers suggestions on how best to deal with them.
How to manage social media complaints