It would be fair to say we’re all still learning about Social Media. People from all areas of business find the openness and transparency of social media a bit scary. I have had many people say “a complaint on Facebook could ruin me”. Complaints in an online format, whether fabricated, exaggerated or valid are here to stay. So, let’s face the music together and you’ll find below four rules on how to deal with such a complaint on Facebook.
Top 4 rules to deal with a complaint on Facebook:
# 1. Don’t delete it
People will have seen it and will be thinking “what are they hiding”. We all remember bad reviews. Deleted complaints look like you’ve got something to hide even though there may be a completely rational explanation.
# 2. Respond, don’t react
Walk away (only for a few minutes, speed is important when dealing with complaints) and think about your response. Go have a cuppa and really think about how you can take this bad comment and turn it around. If you react to it straight away you will probably do more harm than good. When you read a complaint your initial reaction is probably anger, if you answer the complaint in that frame of mind, it will probably not end well.
# 3. Imagine you’re in front of the person
Imagine that person is face to face with you in your shop, restaurant or office. How would you deal with it? Where social media is concerned, the stakes are higher because your page is public and this person has potentially a very large network that they can diss you to, or rave about you. How you handle the complaint will be very important.
# 4. Don’t offer anything free
We are all human and not all of us are honest! So if you offer something for free to someone complaining, are you going to get more complaints just so they can get their hands on the freebies? If you want to offer something in way of compensation – do it in a private forum, ask them to email you their contact details or direct-message them but NEVER do it in public.
None of us are perfect. We all get complaints from time to time and how we deal with them will be the difference between a good company and a great company. Facebook has made it easier to complain but dealing with that complaint will always remain that bit tricky.
Be sure to keep these points in mind if you get any in the future…
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