4 Keys to Turning Negative Commenters Into Brand Advocates

Thanks a lot for writing this article. I don't think that it is easy to pass the bad feeling that critizism can create. I also believe that addressing one real issue pointed out by a customer could be beneficial in the long term.

Nonetheless, concerning your suggestion #3 about making it better, I don't know if it should be done for every single negative comment. This is due to the fact that while certain customers can have true concerns, and the marketer should be humble enough to questions his ways, all customers might not always come with valid criticism. I am thinking about the value of the time that could be used to resolve each issue.

Awesome post ! Great tips to do good customer service and giving the customer a better feel and make them to come back to us for more. We are doing services for small business owners and we do try to better service each day to make them happy.

These are excellent points on customer service and providing happiness to customers. This topic has actually been on my mind lately after reading some information about firing clients. I tend to think in those situations that they're just experiencing a communication problem. Stopping and listening to the customer could've saved the relationship and turned them into a fan of the business that ended the contract. I had a client that was once very hard to please, but with the company I worked with, we all worked together on educating the client toward meeting expectations, quality and speed of work. It was a good experience for all of us because it was her first time using online services and she didn't know what to expect, plus it gave me additional communication skills... and she loved me after seeing the results!

Great points here Chris. I think in many ways this is a list of good customer service practices in any situation, online or no, which is exactly the benefit of this post--it is useful to think of every online engagement as one at a point-of-sale, where some of the same things need to happen, where customer satisfaction and immediacy are of the utmost importance. The only difference is that this “point-of-sale” in social media engagement is spectacularly more public, so one’s customer service practices serve not only as a business methodology but as a kind of indirect marketing, the kind more and more customers are paying greater and greater attention to

Chris- Awesome post! I'm with you all the way. In fact, I attended a panel discussion recently where this same issue came up regarding what to do when an angry customer is blasting your company on social media. One of the panelists suggested to take the conversation off the social web and onto email. I completely disagree (and I'm sure you would too) because the outcome of how you deal with the angry customer will probably make its way back to Facebook or Twitter anyway. I wrote a follow-up blog post on the importance of companies embracing transparency- http://bit.ly/kLZrek.

Cheers to turning detractors into Advocates!

-CaraFuggetta

P.S. ChrisBook Chatterplug is awesome.

Great article Chris! I know companies can feel a little powerless that their brand/reputation is out of their hands with consumers now using all the self-publishing/social platforms. Great insights! Thanks.

As the old saying goes, if you don't have any critics then you're not doing a good job. I thrive on negativity because I challenge myself to turn it into positivity.

Customers are willing to accept honest mistakes provided you take a common sense approach to resolving their issue. But let’s face it, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat you have to actively transform common sense into common practice. http://bit.ly/c8XNwx

This happened today! I saw a tweet come through from someone that was a negative comment about our interface. I immediately responded and apologized that the experience did not meet and exceed their expecations and aksed what they were trying to accomplish and offered to help. I got nada for response. The person on Twitter has about 75 or so followers and no profile. So not only do I only know them as a pseudo handle, I cant even see what state they are in or what company they are with. What to do? And should I reach out and offer something else or re-state my initial offer to help?

This is a great article on customer satisfaction.

One of the key ingredients in running a successful business.

Negative comments are inevitable. You have some great tips on how to handle them

The customer is always right!

Customer service is definitely important to engage in on social media. All of your tips are good ones to remember AND implement, especially because you want to turn every customer service issue into a resolution where your company wins. With that said, part of it comes down to scalability, and also a realization that in some cases, no matter what you do the customer won't be happy. Of course, in some cases, a company will also adhere to policy so much that their customer service is a superficial gesture, and as you mentioned they need to give a damn and mean it.

I think scalability IS an issue, but since most businesses can't afford not to engage with their customers -- happy, unhappy or indifferent -- they need to get creative about how they dedicate resources. Distributing the effort companywide is one way; cultivating a customer community that encourages community members to help each other is another. Just engaging socially, though, is frosting. I think Valeria Maltoni (@conversationage) put it well when she said, "Apply your force to fixing your problem. Until then you haven't earned my attention."

"Give a damn and mean it." -- Yes, a thousand times THIS. Doesn't matter how big or small your company is. The problem isn't as Albert suggests scalability - it's the cost of NOT giving a damn. Sorry, but even the big giants are capable of falling and falling hard given a sufficiently overwhelming tsunami of a bad CS/CR rep.

for some companies it's a pipedream, Do you really think American Express cares or can do anything about a customer whose numbers don't qualify? I mean regardless of that person's individual relationship with American Express? People we need to start dealing with reality, which is, some company/customer relationships are not worth having. Sure you points are pretty standard operating procedure for companies in hospitality let's say or travel. Those organizations have greater flexibility to "make the customer whole" at the point of dissatisfaction. But becareful, social media's transparency may also "screw the poouch" in that a previously behind the scenes generous gesture may now be exposed to thousands. Despite how good it sounds in marketing rhetoric, generosity may not scale profitably. Please please, you "generous, social advocates" don't jump me and say, "Oh well you may get a customer for life and do you know how profitable that is?" To which I'd reply, "customer for life, really? You mean in the hospitality industry when there are major economic models that demand you wait to book late so that you can get cheaper rates, customer for life when Grouponesque deals are flooding the market." Fact is what you are saying is accurate. it is just as accurate as deep discounting, the commoditization of once premium value propositions, and the conundrum social media presents for marketers in several industries and of companies of certain sizes.

This is one of the main benefits I talk about when I tell businesses why they need to be on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/LinkedIn/Yelp/etc

Having instant access to someone who has not had a good experience with your company or brand is so valuable. Now, instead of these users silently bashing your product, you can be made aware of it and correct the issues.

Thanks for this article. Great stuff!

Clay Hebert has a great term for this: Carpe Defect. Seize the defect, clean it up, make it better, and create life long fans. Good post, Chris.

I wonder what exactly is your definition of responding in real-time, like...is it responding within a 24-hour time frame? Your tips here made a lot of sense and I think that customers are smarter these days; they simply know if you're faking it and though you may reward them with freebies to compensate, this may not mean they're satisfied with the service. Just a thought..