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Protecting your online reputation means more now than ever before. More or less 94% of shoppers claim that a negative review convinced them not to purchase a given brand. This implies that “bad” comments might be problematic for business owners, but there are ways to approach them and turn them into more positive ones.
At some point, you’ll need to deal with negative customer comments online and learn to respond effectively to criticism. There are countless techniques on the market, but here are the ones we have used successfully at Keever web optimization, based on some of the hottest brands.
1. Create a separate support handle
As our brand grew, we found it difficult to complete on a regular basis tasks. Conducting competitive research, improving content marketing, and sending customer support emails made managing our online reputation a challenge. One way to solve this problem was to create separate support handles, similar to Nike’s.
Nike has created a separate Twitter (now X) account (@NikeSupport) exclusively for customer questions and complaints. We used our company name and it really works well. The goal is to collect customer questions and comments in one place. This helps you respond quickly and effectively to loyal fans, but also reduces the risk of negative comments on other channels.
For example, our clients’ Facebook pages are often flooded with questions and sometimes even negative reviews because their clients need assistance contacting them. When we added a separate X handle for help, everyone knew they might go there if that they had questions or concerns. We recommend creating a separate support handle for your brand. It doesn’t take much time to complete and will make it easier to find and address negative comments.
2. Using humor in response to criticism
While creating a separate support handle is helpful, we still noticed that some customers were a bit wary. Because we focused on being funny, warm and welcoming, we drew inspiration from Joe Dough Sandwich Shop in New York and sometimes used humor to deal with criticism.
Humor should only be used for criticism when the criticism is not serious, and is only appropriate if it matches the tone and type of your brand. If you do not take it seriously, it’s quite easy to trigger a backlash from dissatisfied customers.
Well-done humor defuses a difficult and awkward situation. Joe Dough Sandwich Shop used this style to respond to a bad review on Yelp. A sensible comment created a funny moment and boosted the brand’s online profile. After a Yelp user complained that the meatball sandwich was the worst he’d ever had, the store wrote about it on a chalkboard menu outside the store. People commented on how funny it was, which increased engagement.
If you intend to use humor to address complaints, we recommend doing so only when it makes sense. A one-sentence comment like (*4*) might result in a funny response, but someone who rages for multiple paragraphs will likely need a respectful and thoughtful response.
3. Showing that you simply are competent
Sometimes a customer is offended, so a polite response won’t calm him down. This has happened to us before and it’s disheartening to read comments like this. However, ignoring them won’t help – it may very well make the situation worse.
One time, a person claimed that our client offered terrible customer support. They described their package deal in great detail and how they didn’t help them make the arrangements they promised on the website. Ultimately, they got it improper because the customer didn’t actually guarantee the things that were listed on the website.
We recommend that the customer thank the person for the comment, address the issue directly, and explain how they are going to resolve the issue in the future so that no one else is upset.
Why did it work? Overall, we realized that viewers would see a person’s comment and response and realize that it was unreasonable. While we have reassured the original commenter by responding to him, we have also indicated to others that we are competent enough to handle any form of query.
4. Avoiding canned answers (despite the fact that it’s easier)
Investing in online reputation management is essential for every kind of companies, whether you run a startup, small business, or large corporation. You may think that shortcuts like artificial intelligence (AI) are often a wonderful means to answer people’s questions and needs, although they have their limitations.
You’ve probably heard about chatbots that answer customer questions without the need for human contact. It works well for traditional FAQs and other things, but it isn’t ideal for complaints.
When we observed customers switching from a human responder to a chatbot to respond to reviews, we discovered that all of it sounded canned (because it was). While this is not necessarily a bad thing in some situations, it doesn’t work when it comes to complaints because people want to feel heard.
We then beneficial that individuals write comments using scripts, but it still didn’t work. Template responses sound boring and often annoy the commenter more. That’s why it is usually smart to have a real person write the words. It might not be perfect, but it’s going to provide an individual character.
The most vital thing
While there are many tools available to make it easier to manage your online reputation, all of it depends on the way you respond to other people’s comments. Negative reviews will definitely appear periodically and you would like to resolve how to respond to them.
Humor and sarcasm might be great options for a comeback. However, they only work if the problem is not serious. Likewise, it will probably be helpful to create a separate secondary handle because it keeps all the negative information and queries in one place.
Generally speaking, you would like to respond quickly to negative comments, avoid canned responses, and explain the way you will resolve customer issues. Doing this stuff (and implementing any changes) shows that you simply care about the consumer and their experience.
Whether you employ online reputation management tools, hire a separate response author, or handle the task yourself, acting quickly and responding professionally is key.