Responding to complaints on social media

Social media is a powerful tool to connect with your clients and sell your products or services. It also serves as s great platform for you to have conversations with your customers and helps to raise brand awareness.

Social media is also a place where more and more people turn to call out brands for poor service. Receiving complaints on social media can be a pain in the neck and responding to those complaints can be quite stressful but complaints shouldn’t be ignored.

So how do erase the negative comments and customer experience turn the situation around and even retain that upset customer?

Here are a few of the best ways that brands can respond to bad comments and complaints on social media:

Respond quickly

Receiving many complaints about your brand isn’t’ a good look but if you are getting that many, then it’s possible that you have a problem. For every customer that complains there are more that stay silent. You need to acknowledge that and get ahead of the problem.

A slow or delayed response to customer complaints could worsen the problem. So, it would be best to not delay the response. You don’t have to have a full-blown response ready you just need to acknowledge the complaint in a timely fashion.

It would be wise to approach your customers in a sincere and open manner rather than using aggressive language or tone. Remember – these are your customers and you have to respect them.

Make a public apology

If you have been called out on social media then address the complaint on social media. Apologise before offering to take the matter to direct message. You don’t have to admit guilt at this point, just say you are sorry and that you will be happy to discuss the matter further in private to resolve the issue. Something along the lines of: “We are really sorry that this has happened…”

Empathise and be honest

Listen to your customer’s complaint and take time to process the criticism. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How would you feel if what happened to your customer happened to you? Respond from that viewpoint.

Your reply to a customer’s complaint changes the way they think about your business. Because complaints are as emotional as they are rational, you need to address the customer’s emotional concerns as well as their practical ones.

Then write a carefully worded response that addresses each item of the complaint. If a product was faulty or a member of staff was rude, acknowledge that. Be specific about how you intend to improve your service, product or brand going forward.

Admit your mistakes

If you’ve made a mistake – admit it. There are few things that annoy customers more than an attempt to dodge the blame. And, if you admit you got it wrong, customers have nothing to push back against. It’s best to show transparency as this can go a long way to improving your standing. Customers prefer brands who are open and honest.