How To Respond To Angry Customers On Social Media

Social media is a wonderful tool for promoting your business and building your brand. But what do you do when you receive an angry complaint from a customer?

You may want to ignore the complaint or delete it. Don’t! You must respond to complaints. Studies have shown that customers’ buying decisions are influenced by negative online reviews. Clearly, dealing with a customer’s complaint on social media is important. But more important is how you respond. For many small business owners, a complaint is taken personally and you might be inclined to respond with an angry retort or even delete the comment. That will only make the customer angrier and the situation worse.

Before you delete or respond here are some things to consider:

Determine if the complaint is valid. Are they a customer? Did they purchase what they said they did?

If the complaint is from a customer, then it is important that you respond quickly, but only after you have taken the time to fully understand the situation.

When possible, remove the issue from the public view of social media and respond offline. If possible, contact your customer by phone to discuss the problem. When speaking with your unhappy customer, validate their concerns. Most people write complaints in the heat of the moment and really only want to be heard. Empathize with them, even if they are wrong.

Next, take responsibility, even if you are not completely at fault. We all admire companies that step up and take accountability.

Online, you can provide information for the person posting the complaint and those reading it that gives direction on how to contact you directly, your phone number or email, to discuss the issue further or even point them to an FAQ section of your website where they can find more information.

If you cannot delete the complaint online after you have resolved it over the phone, post how you resolved the issue to show that your business can calmly and appropriately handle complaints. If you are able to resolve the issue satisfactorily, ask the customer to post a follow-up message about how you resolved the situation.

Always take the high road when dealing with customer complaints. Responding to complaints on social media is unquestionably essential for a business. Just be sure to put more effort into your response than the customer who posted their complaint.