12 Principles for Responding to Negative Online Comments

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12 Principles for Responding to Negative
Online Comments
Posted by:Charlie Pownall
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Posted December 30, 2012
Due to convenience, the opportunity to receive a direct response and the potential to
kick up a fuss when not treated as they expect, customers are turning to social media for
customer service and other product and service-related support rather than dealing
with call centres.
Despite this, a recent study shows that the top Singaporean telecoms operators tog ether
receive an averag e 1,700 neg ative customer comments a day via social media. Such
volume requires dedicated teams to pick through the debris and assess which
complaints should be answered and how.
Sing tel’s Facebook pag e, for instance, is testament to customers’ frustrations with wh at
they see as the company’s poor 3G coverag e, hig h costs and inferior customer service, to
the extent that even the most anodyne promotion is belted with a slew of unrelated
moans.
Yet very few of these complaints are responded to. Sing tel and others cannot bury their
heads in the dig ital sand and hope the problem will somehow disappear. After, customer
satisfaction is critical to all companies’ reputations and a positive experience can pay
significant dividends in terms of more loyal customers, positive word of mouth and
fewer calls to call centres.
But with customers increasingly taking to Twitter to escalate their unanswered issues –
40% of Air Asia’s unanswered customer queries are reputedly placed on micro-blogs – it
is imperative th at organisations tackle complaints effectively.
Here are six basic principles for h andling difficult questions and statements on the
social web. Th ese apply to communications, marketing and customer service issues as
much as they do HR and other activities.

Move fast. The long er you take to respond, the more you risk appearin g
unresponsive, uncaring or, worse, secretive. According to NM Incite (pdf), users of
Facebook pag es expect to be responded to with in 24 hours and Twitter users within
2 h ours. In social media, it often pays more to be quick than 100% accurate.
Be accur ate. Despite the pressure on speed, try to be as factual as possible –
ang ry customers and blog g ers love to hig h light, question and poke holes in wooly
or cag ey responses. Make sure to double-check the facts with your sources and it
you’re not con fident about th e answer, at the very least acknowledge the question
or statement, express concern and say you are looking into it. This can h elp buy
you more time to find the appropriate solution.
Be flexible. Don’t assume th at either the complaint is 100% g enuine (consider
carefully its motivation) or that you are 100% correct in your response. If you don’t
have the full facts, say so publicly and communicate updates thereafter regularly.
Appear anxious to help, as opposed to desperate to please. Backing yourself into a
rhetorical corner can prove awkward when you have to extricate yourself publicly.
Be transparent. Admit if you h ave made a mistake. Denials, evasions insincere
apolog ies as a means of quietening a community are often quickly spotted by the
community and may simply inflame the issue. And wh ile the tactic of trying to take
a conversation offline can help diffuse difficult situations by buying you more time
to assess the situation and/or find a solution, it can also be seen by the customer as
a sig n of weakness or withdrawal and lampooned as such.
Be sincere. If the complaint is g enuine, apolog ise sincerely and with h umility
and in languag e appropriate to the audience. And yet an apolog y will mean
nothing unless the problem is resolved in a reasonable manner. Sharing what you
as an org anization have learnt through the experience is also a g ood way of
demonstrating that your empathy is genuine.
Be human. As The Cluetrain Manifesto pointed out, ‘conversations among
human being s sound human’, and are ‘conducted in a human voice’ that is ‘typically
open, natural and uncontrived’. Look to use lang uag e that is accessible, engaging
and empathetic wh ile remaining at core professional and objective. Avoid jargon

and respond direct to the individual or g roup using their actual names. ‘Dear
valued customer’ doesn’t wash it with customers increasingly expecting personal
attention.
Be focused. Not all customers are equal, and wh ile social media is leveling the
playing field, some – the 1% – are most active in the community. You need to
identify your top influencers, make sure to understand their interests,
requirements and behaviours, and make sure your PR, marketing and customer
service teams understand when and how to interact with them. Th is is not to say
you should ignore the rest of the community which, clearly, must not be allowed to
feel unwanted or ignored, but be aware that complaints from high ly socially
engaged customers, bloggers and other influencers may impact not just the
community itself but can also make waves beyond it.
Follow-up. Once you h ave acknowledged the issue and respon ded, fin d ways to
engage direct with the customer in question on an ong oing basis. Encourag ing
deeper discussion on the topic will show you are willing to listen and learn, and
help make them feel like you care. Equally, walking away once you h ave responded
can make it appear as if th e customer is no long er a priority.
Add value. Following up also provides you with additional opportunities to add
value to conversations and hence deepen relationships and re-build trust. Look to
be helpful by providing options rather than just a single solution, or be seen to go
the extra mile by pointing people to useful or relevant information. People will
notice – and may comment on the fact – that you are bending over backwards to
help them.
T ake control. Negative comments on your community sh ould be actively
manag ed – it is after all your ch annel. Proactively rebut statements that are
demonstrably untrue or misleading and, above all, don’t run away from your pag e
in challen ging times as it will only make your detractors appear as victors. Ensure
discussions remain with in the parameters you have set in your Community
Guidelines and enforce your terms regardin g offensive posts, the sharing of
confidential or personal information about company executives or other members

of the community, third party advertising, repeat/verbatim comments etc. An d
remember that it is within your rig hts to ban members who consistently flout the
rules, though you may want to explain why you are doing it both to the individual
and to the community as a whole.
Avoid fig hts. Don’t antagonize your audience or get into online arguments: as
Nestle discovered to its cost in the wake of Greenpeace’s palm oil campaign, David
usually wins ag ainst Goliath in the court of online public opinion. If the situation
is volatile, step back and wait for the rig ht opportunity to engag e with the
customer in question, meantime work closely with the relevant internal
stakeh olders – often Sales, Public Relations and Legal – to develop a reasonable
solution. Appearing thin-skinned will only make you appear weak and vulnerable.
Don’t censor. Nothing conveys a failure to listen and understand better than
censoring or removing criticism from your official online communities or
elsewhere. Realize th at critical voices are a price of entry to the social web, and that
deleting or demanding chan ges to negative posts can provide detractors with a
powerful rh etorical weapon. Rather, always try to maintain the hig h g round, be
seen to be responsive and listening and deploy a strong leg al approach only as the
final option: deleting content or threatening blog g ers may simply result in the so-
called ‘Streisand effect’ as complaints escalate and g o viral.
It is essential that the teams managing official channels as well as interactions with
third party online communities understand these principles and are properly trained in
the art and science of handling neg ative opinion.
Connect:
Author ed by:
Charlie Pownall
Senior communications specialist with deep and broad-ran ging experience in
social media and corporate communications. Focuses on reputation manag ement,
crisis communications and employee communications and their intersection with
social media.
See complete profile

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