{"id":726,"date":"2020-08-14T20:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T20:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=726"},"modified":"2023-11-06T10:51:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T10:51:30","slug":"8-ways-to-deal-with-negative-social-media-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/eu\/blog\/8-ways-to-deal-with-negative-social-media-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Ways to Deal With Negative Social Media Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Social media management is an essential part of any modern business strategy<\/b>. While most businesses use social media marketing, recent Salesforce research<\/a> shows that customer service teams are playing catch up in the radical customer service transformation. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers are, on average, 16% more likely to use a given channel for communication than the company uses that same channel to deliver customer support.<\/b> This gap between what customers expect and what companies are delivering needs to be bridged – but companies still shy away from the challenge of overcoming negativity while in the public eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer service on social media demands a dedicated strategy. Effective social media management has to be in place, particularly when it comes to dealing with negative comments. How you respond to these comments is crucial for your brand perception on social channels, and a great strategy can help avoid costly damage to your reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Support customers on any channel, at any time.<\/span><\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Be there for your customers when they need you and deliver personalised support across digital channels such as text and social.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\tWatch Demo<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t
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These 8 quick tips will help you effectively deal with negative social comments every time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Utilise social media listening to get ahead<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s altogether possible that you\u2019ll get negative comments on your own site or one that you manage (e.g. your Facebook page), this is not always the case. People can blast you on Twitter, a third-party forum, their own blogs or across any of your digital channels. The bottom line is you need a way of keeping track of all conversations and comments across all channels<\/b>. Doing this manually is basically impossible. The solution? Social media listening tools can do this for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media listening<\/a> is a strategy that uses social media management tools to automatically keep track of all your conversations and interactions across all social channels in one dashboard. At a glance, you can track what conversations are important to respond to, and you\u2019ll never miss a critical comment or piece of feedback again. The best Social CRM<\/a> software suites can monitor conversations that mention your brand in real-time and even give you a heads-up on the sentiment behind the words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Speed matters for customer service on social media<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons people post negative comments online is because they don\u2019t think they\u2019re being listened to (in-store, on the phone or by email). So they lash out. Some do this just to warn their friends off using what they believe to be a bad product. Others \u2013 the more social media savvy ones \u2013 will do it to hurt you and force you to pay attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed is of the essence. According to the Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report<\/a>, consumers and business buyers are 4.5x and 5x as likely, respectively, to rate real-time messaging as an important feature after purchasing a product<\/b>. And it makes sense – there is nothing more frustrating than investing in a new product, only to be left in the dust while you try and figure out how it works. So use social media management software to your advantage and respond quickly before a customer feels like you\u2019re not listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Good social media management focuses on resolution<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t offer excuses. Instead, focus on resolution. Customers don\u2019t want to hear why something went wrong, they want to know what you can do about it. Firstly, acknowledge the customer\u2019s issue as quickly as possible before it snowballs and picks up other customers and prospects on the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do not necessarily need to have an immediate solution \u2013 an open, non-judgemental enquiry about exactly what happened will be enough to start the process of constructive engagement and open up an opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one. After that, try and resolve their issue as quickly as possible. Sometimes, thanks to the public nature of social media, your great customer service might even earn you a referral<\/a> when other users see how you treat your customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Sometimes it\u2019s best to take it offline<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Social forums are not always the best place to resolve complex issues. And being in a public forum may make it hard for an angry customer to soften their stance. Offer to take the conversation private – all social media platforms have a private messaging feature. This shouldn\u2019t be an attempt to silence the critic, simply to help them where it makes sense. No one wants to read a thread of ten replies of you trying to resolve a support issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, \u201ctake it out of the spotlight\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cdelete\u201d. Better for people to see your constructive response to the negative comment than get buried in messages accusing you of curating all the negative social media comments. Most social media management software<\/a> can greatly streamline this workflow, as you can respond across all channels from within one dashboard. No need to constantly switch between all your profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Know how to say sorry<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For some companies on social media, \u201csorry\u201d is indeed the hardest word. Often it\u2019s because they don\u2019t want to take the blame. Or they don\u2019t agree with the customer\u2019s point of view. But, if we look at it from the customer\u2019s viewpoint, then it is hard to argue with their experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, if it is clear that your product failed, then a sincere apology followed by a quick replacement (or refund) should nip the issue in the bud. If it was a service failure, then an apology to the effect of \u201cWe\u2019re sorry that you did not get the service you expect from us on this occasion\u201d is a good start. Following this up with something tangible (e.g. a money-off voucher for their next purchase) will also help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to not sound like a robot when you do this. If this is a universal issue many people are experiencing at the same time, it\u2019s easy to copy and paste responses. At least they\u2019ll know you\u2019ve seen it, right? Not quite. If you can, make the effort to personalise your response so they know they\u2019re not talking to a customer service bot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Leverage analytics with social media management software<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Research in the State of the Connected Customer<\/a> report shows that the average consumer uses 10 different channels when communicating with companies. Clearly, businesses need an omnichannel approach<\/a> to offering customer service on social media. While this is a lot to keep track of, Social CRM<\/a> can take all this data and generate meaningful analytics insights that you can use to optimise your customer support activities. As the number of customer service channels grows, monitoring analytics will become increasingly important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A recent Salesforce survey<\/a> of UK customer service teams shows the following:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n