10 ways to address consumer complaints on social media

Have a twitter account, will rant. The internet savvy customer today seems to live by this adage; forever online, forever complaining. While some of these are genuine irritants he or she faced in the process fo ordering and recieving the product from you, some of it is also just plain internet bullying. The anonymity of the internet emboldens people like never before. So everyone who has a social presence for their business (if you do not, then why are you even running a business?) would attest to the fact that a lot of chatter online is just plain complaints. So what options do you have to deal with them? How equipped or not are you to handle complaints on social media?

It’s the Internet, Why Bother?

Well, there is a lot at stake for you to bother. Given the hype and sales push most online retailers and marketplaces splurge on, customers expect to be treated like kings and queens. A heightened service expectation almosst always blurrs into fantastical demands that are difficult to cater to. Then there are those instances where you, or the market place you retail on , bungle things up in order processing or last mile delivery and hence irate customers are born.

Social media, the new word of mouth in the times of internet, travels faster than light- it snowballs into a dangerous monster threatening to chew up your reputation in a matter of hours sometimes with every like share post, retweet that the complaint recieves. Hence, it is very important that you bother. It is vital that you have a contingency response and react plan in place, ready to execute damage control at the earliest possible.

Being Prepared Helps

The customer, a heavily social being online, is omnipresent. He is on Facebook, where you advertise your products on his timeline without his permission. He is on twitter where you follow him and push your product or make your hash tag trend so cannot escape noticing it. He is on instagram, pineterest, Google+, the works. While each medium has its own set of rules to work with, there certain basic guidelines that you as a retailer can follow to ensure escaltions do not become an avalanche of bad PR.

Be Prompt- no matter what the tweet or post in the complaint is about, always respond to it immediately. Remember the customer has chosen to speak to you because he is in a sticky situation and is hence irritated. A delay in repsonse from you, even if it is just a sorry, only goes to increase the irritation and aggreavate the situation. Flipkart for example has a Flipkartsupport handle on twitter, which searches for any negative mentions of the site on twitter and responds back immediately.  A good response time on Twitter would be a maximum of 2 hours from the time of the customer’s tweet to you. Facebook ideally allows for a 24 hours response time.

Respond personally- it is very important to add a personal touch to responses of complaints, it is a good idea to use the customers name/handle when answering back and also assuaging him encouragingly. Such a response goes a long way in making you and your brand appear as someone who cares for its customers.

Simple gestures like opening the response with a “Tahnk you for reaching out/bringing this to our notice” or ending with “ we value your feedback , and are working on it” goes a long way in calming the irate customer. It is also a proof of genuine intent and transparency in your customer service process.

Myntra for example, always responds personally to tweets and even FB posts, tagging the complainant in responses. They follow up on the complaint and ensure the issue is solved to everyones satisfaction.

Never Delete- nothing is more suicidal than deleting a rant from your timeline. Deleting or ignoring a customer is social harakiri and can damage your reputation online for a long time. Deleting a complaint only shows that you are scared, unwelcoming of criticism, secretive and worse case, too arrogant to care- none of these attributes are helping you in any way.

Acknowledge every customer, even the most irate one. Engage them, for sometimes this is enough to calm them down and turn the negative sentiment into a positive one.  Delting a rant will only lead to too many rants for you to handle.

Snapdeal is one such brand that never has the time to acknowledge their complainants. While people keep positng on their walls, all we get in response is another contest or product placement. Something that should never be done.

Be ready to Say a Sorry- apologizing is much much better than anything one can do on social media to assuage an irate customer. Yes, discounts and vouchers work, but nothing works as much wonder as an honest unsolicited sorry. This shows that you are genuines regretting the mistake, or acknowledging the complaint and are intending to do something about it with an open mind.

Offer a legitimate explanation for an issue if there is, something that does not sound like an excuse, to help the complainant understand the situation better.  Yet, getting straight away to solving the issue with an upright sorry is the best way to go.

Go Offline- it is prudent to nip an escalation on a public platform in the bud and take the conversation offline. You could ask for the cusotmers phone number or email id and start engaging there instead of letting him or her add posts after posts of vitriol on your timeline for the whole world to see. You could also DM them on Twitter or inbox them on FB, with an apology or a solution and get the fire checked before it spreads to other consumers who might have had some issues in the past but never got to venting it out.

Thank the positives- Crisis management on social media is not just about answering the complaints in time, it is also about thanking the good words said about you. It is important to build trust with your customers – this not only helps them get lesser angry and be assured of a repsonse when issues arise, but also gives an impression to the others that you are a loved brand and hence would actually respond properly to a problem.

Keep it simple and short- Always keep your response short, and simple. An apology or a solution, either ways it should be easy to understand and not too long to read. Remember how you hate to listen to long winding stories when angry? Same is the case with your customer too.

Create a Response policy- you cannot always be online to see what hell is breaking loose on your brand. Obviously you would have help, and hence it is vital to have a set policy for response. All the marketplaces like Myntra, Flipkart have proper response teams that are coached on appropriate responses and what to and when to escalate to the higher ups. Listening, taking action, acknolwedging, thanking and exmplaining are the basic tasks one needs to have in place, and these need to be in the form  of a pilicy that is regualry updated to suit the times.

Follow up- remember, when someone rants out on your brand, it is not an end of a relationship. The customer can always be won back if you prove that you care and are working on the issues. Always acknowldge the feedbakc once you have provided a response or a solution. Follow up with a thank you note, or a voucher, or just a post syaing this customer helped us solve this problem and give him or her a shout out.

Always remember, a happy cusotmer tells 5 more people, an unhappy one tells ten more. So when out there in the social jungle, get your ears tuned and ready to respond.

Listen- this is the most important part of the entire onilne presnece management process. Big or small, insiginificant or huge, rich or poor, big order or a small order, always LISTEN to every customer. Never offer a response before even lsitening to what the customer is trying to say. This listening should go deeper than what is evident. See what it is that the customer is not writing and yet wanting to say. This is a relationship that needs nurturing and listening is the most vital part of it.