4 Strategies For Dealing With Customer Complaints

The worlds of social media and customer relationships have undeniably come together. Whether brands like it or not, customers are going to engage them publicly on social media when they have a complaint. Sure, if they want to, brands can ban users who complain and ignore or delete negative comments. AirBNB took this route when they banned negative reviews, and faced a real backlash.

1.Match Angry And Irrational Customers With Respectful And Calm Responses

Unfortunately, social media often emboldens people to be rude and combative. Then there are the situations where people are legitimately upset and frustrated. Whatever the case may be, don’t respond in anger, and don’t attempt to match wits. Instead, take the high road, and maintain a polite tone.

Just be sure that your tone is sincere in addition to being polite. There may be nothing more frustrating to a customer than someone who politely regurgitates obviously scripted lines while doing nothing to actually help them solve their problems. You’ll also anger customers if hide behind insincere platitudes rather than truly showing empathy.

2.Respond Promptly

The biggest disservice you can do for your company and reputation is to ignore complaints or wait too long to respond. Tersely directing customers to contact your customer service line or use some more traditional method of logging a complaint is also a bad idea. You’ve been engaged publicly, and the best, first step is to respond just as promptly as you would in any other forum.

Keep in mind that your first response doesn’t need to contain a solution to the problem. It’s important to simply acknowledge that you have read the complaint, to ask relevant questions, and to assure the customer that you are looking into things.

3.Know When You Might be in a Legally Contentious Position

There may be times that you receive a complaint that needs to be handled a bit more cautiously than others. For example, is someone alleging that you breached a contract or that one of your employees did something illegal? Has the person lodging the complaint revealed sensitive information?

Mark Lamber, attorney and partner at Lamber Goodnow offered this advice, “The moment you have even the smallest suspicion that you might be at risk of exposing yourself or another party to legal consequences, stop. Don’t say anything on social media. This includes denying wrongdoing, or providing what you believe is evidence in your favor. Contact an attorney immediately and ask them how to proceed.”

4.Acknowledge Mistakes And Apologize

When the world is watching, the best approach is to do what you were taught in kindergarten. Admit the mistake if you made it. Don’t pass blame to another department, vendor, and certainly not back to the customer. Then, apologize. This step is very important. Even if the problem was the result of a mistake on their end, apologizing shows empathy for any inconvenience they suffered. Finally, offer a solution, and if you did make a mistake, assurances that you will take steps to make sure nothing like this happens in the future.

If you have an online presence, you will receive complaints on social media. Fortunately, if you handle these with empathy, grace, and professionalism, you will find that there is some great opportunity for improving customer relations and developing a stellar reputation

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