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Here are six basic principles for handling difficult questions and statements on the social web. These apply to communications, marketing and customer service issues as much as they do HR and other activities.
socialmediatoday.com http://socialmediatoday.com/charliepownall/1114786/12-principles-responding-negative-online-comments? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+(all+posts) 12 Principles for Responding to Negative Online Comments Posted by:Charlie Pownall Please log in or register to follow this user. Like it? 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 Would you like to contribute to this site? Get started » Would you like to contribute to this site? Get started » . socialmediatoday. com http:/ /socialmediatoday. com/charliepownall/1114786/12 -principles- responding- negative- online- comments? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+(all+posts) 12. socialmediatoday. com http:/ /socialmediatoday. com/charliepownall/1114786/12 -principles- responding- negative- online- comments? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+(all+posts) 12 Principles for Responding to Negative Online Comments Posted by:Charlie Pownall Please log in or register to follow this