Negative Comments on Social Sites = A Positive Branding Opportunity??

With astronomical levels of ‘social chat’ taking place across a multitude of platforms everyday, companies and brands have never been talked about so much.  Positive chat is clearly great for a company’s brand, with word of mouth paving the way for new customers.  But what do you do if you publicly receive negative feedback or a complaint?

Turn that frown upside down

Any interaction between a company and a customer presents an opportunity.  The customer is already engaging with you – and in front of prospects.  If the feedback is negative, you have a fantastic opportunity to completely turn it around leaving the customer surprised, happy and even more willing to spread the word, but this time in a positive way.

It’s OK to make the occasional mistake

We’re not an army of machines – we’re only human.  That makes us all prone to making the occasional mistake.  But that’s ok – so long as we can admit and accept the problem and find a solution that we can tell the customer about at the same time.

On the other hand, the issue may have arisen at no fault of our own, but we still need to own it.  Especially if it’s not at the fault of the customer either.

Resolving an issue or complaint or simply responding to negative feedback can make customers more profitable in the long run.

This is because it:

• Helps you to build a strong relationship with them, based on trust
• This relationship will enourage customer loyalty
• Demonstrates your ability, proves your

Leave negative feedback on your business page

An interesting blog post, by Brent Coker, highlights a number of reasons why companies should actually keep any negative feedback on their social networking pages rather than deleting it all together.  Even if the problem or issue had been solved:

• A company will always have some unhappy customers on occasion.
• Responding to negative comments creates an opportunity to show everyone that you care.
• This leads to a greater feeling of trust, honesty, and genuineness towards your brand.

So to sum up, there’s no need to panic if you get negative comments, complaints or feedback on your social network pages. Instead you should see it as an opportunity to demonstrate to the world the personality behind the brand and build customer trust and loyalty.

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