Don’t Feed the Trolls: How to Respond to Negative Criticism

People get angry online, and there are no two ways to get angry. But how do you handle online trolls without escalating situations?
This negative criticism can be hugely impactful for your business. More than half of people trust online reviews as much as they do recommendations from people in real life.
Let’s go through the right way to deal with negative criticism for your business.

Find Out What People Are Saying

First, you’ll need to know what people are saying. There may not be any negative feedback to respond to!
Check who tags your business on various social media platforms and make sure that someone regularly monitors your hashtags, comments, and messages. This will help you determine whether you have a troll problem or a legitimate issue in your business that may need to be corrected.
To make your life easier, you can create a reputation management system to help you track different keywords and monitor news alerts whenever possible.

Practice Good Customer Service

Ultimately, the main principles of good customer service apply to responding to negative criticism online. If someone has a legitimate issue, you should respond promptly and ensure they have venues to contact you.
If they’re publicly posting on Twitter, apologize for the inconvenience and direct them to DM you so that you can resolve their issues quickly. This can help generate goodwill with a wider client base.

Keep Calm When Discussing The Matter

It’s important to never lash out at negative criticism online. This will almost always draw more negative criticism and could even make you a joke in the news. You don’t want to go viral for saying something stupid.
Don’t try to accuse the customer of wrongdoing or try to take action against them.
Even if you don’t believe you or your company did anything wrong, you still need to give the customer room to vent their feelings, just like you would in your day-to-day relationships. Acknowledge their emotions, and give them ample opportunities to tell you the problem.

Take Responsibility for Any Problems

You may have made a mistake or a mistake, and the negative feedback is warranted. For example, you may have made an error with a customer’s order and not get back to them promptly. Or, you may have made a post on social media that was unwittingly offensive or problematic.
In these cases, it’s important to take responsibility for your actions. In the case of a problem that affects a large group of people, like a social media post or an information leak, you can start off with a good old Notes App apology or record a video to address the issue.
But you’ll also need to take steps to rectify the situation. Provide restitution when possible or necessary. Refund their orders if there is a problem with their order, and give gift cards or vouchers whenever possible.

Always Respond To Negative Criticism

Except for some limited cases, responding to negative criticism online is always important. Acknowledgment helps people feel heard and decreases their negativity towards you as an individual or your business!
If there’s an explanation for whatever triggered their negative feedback, always provide it. Some of the explanations for different negative feedback could include:

• Miscommunications with shipping or purchasing
• Bugs with online platforms, such as websites
• Problematic hiring practices
• Cancellations or rescheduling that inconvenience a customer
• Products ordered were defective in some way
• Products were missing from an order
• A negative experience with an employee or individual over the phone or in person
• Offensive or problematic social media posts
• Factual issues or misleading communications
• A decline in product or service quality

Of course, you should not produce private information or divulge anything to other customers. If necessary, you can keep explanations vague.

Ignore The Spam

Some negative criticism isn’t just trolling; it’s automated spam or could even be a targeted campaign by a particular cause. In those cases, it’s best to report these comments to the social media site so that they can be removed.
Of course, it can sometimes be challenging to tell the difference between legitimate criticism and spam. So, go through the responses you get with a close eye, and ensure you’re not throwing out legitimate criticism along with random bots.

Give Them Other Avenues

If someone’s negative feedback is warranted, you may want to redirect them to a phone number, email address, or in-person meeting rather than social media.
This will help them get a more personalized experience and keep their negative feedback and criticism off the internet. Getting the criticism offline is a great way to prevent a pile-on of negative feedback from other customers.
If a manager or supervisor is available, that could be a great person to speak to people with accurate negative feedback one-on-one.
However, don’t ask someone who provides negative feedback to remove their criticism. That will only inflame the situation and make them even angrier.

Start Fighting Negative Criticism Today

There are right and wrong ways to respond to negative criticism online. So, stick to the right path, and you’ll get a positive response.
Do you need help getting started improving your online reputation? Check out our online reputation services today.