When a customer complains about your organization on social media, your instinct may be to delete or hide their comment and bury it down in a deep, dark place. After all, negative comments can be detrimental to your brand perception. But what if we recommended putting your negative comments on a pedestal—for everyone to see?
Before you aggressively click away, hear us out.
While you might hate the idea of boasting negative comments, there are many departments at your organization that are itching to hear real-time, candid feedback.
- Product teams
- Customer service
- Customer marketing
- Research & development
- General business leaders
Why do they care about a handful of complaints on your twitter account? It’s simple: these negative comments provide insight into user-experiences, consumer behavior, glaring product issues and potential areas for innovation.
Let’s look at a few real-life examples:
Vitalife & Costco
In 2014, evidence came out that Vitalife dog treats were harming/killing pets. As expected, outrage from customers (and pet lovers) ensued on social media. If it weren’t for this barrage of negativity, wholesalers like Costco may have continued to sell dog treats that harmed animals which could have caused a PR nightmare and potential boycotts.
Comcast & Xfinity
Just this month, influencer Anthony Adams publicly complained about the WiFi and connectivity in his home. With so many people working from home and kids homeschooling, Comcast and Xfinity need to ensure that their customers are getting the best possible service at all times. Negative comments like this give company and product leaders a heads up that other customers may be dealing with the same issue or that there’s an issue with their modems. With this kind of real-time feedback, they can ensure problems are resolved before they cause major business disruptions.
Establish a Communication Stream Between Organizational Leaders
Once you receive negative comments, what should you do? Well first you need to reply (check out our recent article on how to reply to negative comments). The next step is to develop a communication stream between organization leaders. It can be through email, Microsoft Teams, Zoom or any other media. Any time you get negative comments or feedback on social media, blast it to this group so product leaders, customer service specialists and anyone else you deem important, can take the feedback and make necessary adjustments. This is a great way to get more visibility within your organization as a leader for innovation and change.
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