Sticks & Stones: Managing Your Online Reputation

I recently met with a company that wants to start a social media marketing campaign and they asked a common question: What happens if someone posts a complaint or something negative about our company? We don’t want to have that information out there on our Facebook page.

I shocked them by telling them – yes! You really do want those to appear. No, I didn’t lose my mind.

The first place to exploit reviews was eBay. If you remember when the popular auction website started there were no reviews. Once reviews were put into place many eBay users were concerned about potential negative comments without the ability to respond or refute the comments. Now there is a fair system in place so negative comments while counting against the overall buyer/seller ratings, can have responses.

Places like Angie’s List, Yelp, and even Google encourage people to rate businesses. No business is exempt from reviews: doctors, insurance companies, retailers, and wholesale companies just to name a few. The internet takes “silent complaints” to a whole new level. Sure your favorite customers will be happy to give reviews when asked, but the customers who are unhappy will not only tell everyone, they will post complaints or rate your company poorly in online venues.

On the upside, anytime a review is posted about your business it is picked up by search engines. It’s another exposure or impression for your brand. On the downside, negative reviews are also picked up by search engines.

The stark reality is we are in an age where anyone can say anything about any person or company online. This goes far beyond just a poor rating from the Better Business Bureau. When we have outlets like Change.org where one person can start a campaign to force banks to alleviate charges you bet people will use the power of social media to let others know about your business. Of course, we want all that information to be positive. In a perfect world, everything would go perfectly for everyone and no one would ever complain. In our world, however, things don’t always go as we would like and people have been given many places to let others know about these shortcomings.

So why would you want to see complaints on your social media channels?

Because at least when you see them directly responding to you via your social channel you’ve got a quick opportunity to address any problems and show your fans and followers that you care about your customers. When people post reviews or complaints about your company on any of the myriads of other websites you may not know until it’s too late. In other words, the quicker you can respond to these concerns, the better. Quick responses say, “I’m paying attention, I care, and I want to make things right.” Bad reviews that are old before a response is made look like you’re not really taking action, just trying to negate the review.

What this all boils down to is reputation management and you’ll be seeing this term more and more often in the coming months. Sure there are things that people can put on their social media that are clearly biased or untrue but that’s going to happen. One way to look at reputation management is suppressing the negative comments by requesting removal from the poster or website. Although when consumers are really unhappy, it’s not likely that they will remove the comment.

The best thing you can do to maintain a solid reputation for good customer service is to be aware of the reviews that are posted so you can respond quickly.

While comments posted through your regular social channels are pretty easy to view, those posted on independent review websites or forums are not. For this reason, reputation management is closely related to search engines because they provide all the information about your company – including comments from review websites. One way to monitor your company’s reputation (without spending hours on review sites) is to set up alerts. If you search for your name or your company name (also known as a vanity search) on Google, for instance, you’ll see an option at the bottom of the search result pages to have the search results emailed to you daily or weekly. By having an alert you can quickly respond to what has been posted.

What should you say when someone posts a negative comment about your business? First, remember to remain professional, don’t stoop to finger-pointing or insulting. Start by acknowledging the complaint and possible feelings behind the complaint like frustration, anger, or disappointment. Be honest about what you can and cannot do. Then offer a solution to the problem. For example:

“I’m sorry you felt disappointed by the performance of the XYZ widget. We would like to offer a replacement widget or a refund of the cost less the shipping fee. Please contact us with your preferred option.”

What about customers you’ve previously tried to work with and have not been able to get a resolution? In that case, you’ll want to frame your response like this:

“We apologize that the process of building your home has been frustrating for you. We have offered option 1, option 2, or option 3 to help resolve any issues and make amends for the frustration. It’s unfortunate we have not been able to come to an agreement. Please contact us if you would like to discuss the options again.”

Both of these responses will show your business in a positive light. You’ll be perceived as concerned about the satisfaction of your customers. There is a level of trust that is achieved when people see how you work with unhappy customers, potential customers will know you have their satisfaction as a priority. negative reviews, when responded to promptly, can turn around to become a positive for your company.

Don’t shy away from or be afraid of potential negative reviews, whether they are on your social media channels or an independent website. It may be a bit cliche but take a moment to consider them as opportunities to show that your company is interested in what others have to say. It’s tough to argue with or discount a company that is upfront in dealing with bad customer reviews.