Organizations big and small have experienced backlash on social media. Anyone from giants like Nike to petite local cafes have likely seen one (or more) negative reviews online for their business. People are 2x more likely to post negative reviews than they are to share positive experiences. In many instances, these reviews are irate and sometimes irrational. However, it doesn't mean they should be ignored. Here are the types of negative reviews to which you should pay attention:
Kimberly Legocki got her first taste of online fury in the era of the blogosphere. It was the mid-2000s, and she was handling marketing and communications for JohnsonDiversey (now Diversey Inc.). Suddenly, blog and forum posts popped up asking for people to boycott JohnsonDiversey and sign petitions against its wage and environmental practices. Legocki thought the angry activist posts were a small, yet curious, blip on her marketing dashboard.
A few years later, as director of social media relations at California State University East Bay, she saw more anger—a lot more. “That’s where Twitter really became involved,” she says. “There were more technologies that allowed us to monitor our brand name and keywords, and that’s when we started to see a lot of that anger and venting.”
Businesses of all sizes—from ma-and-pa sandwich shops to Fortune 500 companies—have felt social fury. A brand doesn’t need millions of followers to deal with angry, sometimes vindictive, customers online.
Read the rest here at ama.org.
Negative reviews are inevitable. Not every customer is going to have a positive experience with your organization, and that's okay. What's important is monitoring feedback, and responding to claims with merit. Remaining calm is the first step in responding to negative reviews. While one might feel angry or upset by a negative tweet berating their business, find the truth in their argument and respond accordingly. Whether it be a simple apology for their less than satisfactory experience or offering them a solution, it's best practice to acknowledge their claim. For organizations who aren't quite sure how to respond to negative reviews or monitor them on social media, marketing agencies are a great resource for support.
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