What do you do when you’ve just received a less-than-complimentary Facebook wall post from someone who likes your business (or used to so it seems)?
Your next steps are key to retaining not only the business of the angry customer but the business of other fans who like your page as well.
1: Respond no matter what
It’s important that the complaints and issues your fans post on your wall are addressed. Inactivity on your part will appear as though you’re trying to ignore the issue and sweep it under the rug. A response that illustrates respect and understanding for customers’ concerns will indicate your intention to rectify any problem. By addressing this upset fan Newegg is demonstrating that they value their fans’ opinions—even the negative ones.
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2: Contact the Customer Privately
Sending a private message or email to the customer opens up more options for you to address his or her complaints. The goal here is to extend some sort of token letting the customer know you’re sorry he or she is dissatisfied with your company and you’re willing to make it right. However offering things like special discounts publicly can lead to other people creating problems just to get that special treatment so it’s best to keep these practices off the wall.
3: Consider asking the fan to remove the post
Say you’ve discussed the issue privately any problems have been straightened out and the faultfinder is once again your happy customer.
While your wall is an integral part of your web presence the customer may be unaware of how important it really is to your reputation. If he or she is satisfied with the resolution you’ve reached and grateful for the time you’ve spent making things right there’s nothing wrong with privately asking the person to remove the post. Most of the time he or she will remove the angry wall post.
4: Respond back to the original post
As a general rule you should not remove negative posts. If users see nothing but positive comments they’ll assume your company is deleting the bad comments.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking your customer to remove the post you do have the option of publicly responding back to that post. Express happiness in the resolution you’ve reached and thankfulness for her business. Even a negative post can be a good thing as long as the last comment is positive.
Zappos is shown below addressing a negative comment. The helpful attitude effectively nullifies any poor reflection on Zappos or their services.
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5: Let your community respond
Letting your community respond for you is really the end result of all the earlier steps. It requires copious time, energy and patience with your fans, and a fantastic product. After you’ve engaged with your fans for a period of time by answering questions and offering support, you’ll notice that your fans will be more active on your page, even to the point of assisting each other.
The Pampered Chef has built a fantastic online community of users who love the product so much, and who have been given such great support themselves, peers will answer each other’s questions before The Pampered Chef has to respond.
