The Negative Review – Face It, Embrace It

Posted by Jenn Sargeant

Negative comments are never fun to read or deal with, much less keep on a social media or blog page. However, the way you handle negative comments is very important to your social media image. With proper handling, you can turn around a negative, and possibly even make it a positive.

What do you do when you see a negative comment on your social media or blog page?

Do NOT delete it. This just makes the brand with the negative comment suspicious. The person who wrote the comment will take notice and may write another negative comment asking what happened to the one they previously posted. Deleting the comment is as bad as a ‘no comment’ to the media.
Do NOT delay! Word travels fast and even faster on the web. It won’t take long for something to go viral. Waiting can hurt more than help! Rule of thumb – try to address negative comments within an hour.
Acknowledge it! Taking the ‘bigger person’ approach, be sure to respond back to the comment. This lets the negative person know that it didn’t get overlooked. Also, it lets others who see the negative comment know that it has been addressed and that you care about your customers. In your response, be certain to take a respectful approach, do not take it personally, and offer a solution!
Monitor! As mentioned in #2, word travels fast. To make certain that more negativity about your brand is not being spread on the web, be certain to set up a Google Alerts account or Mention account. This way, you can go about your day while getting updates to see if there is still talk about the brand.
Address it! Explain how you will work on resolving the issue and then do everything you can to follow through.
Document it! It is important to make note of the negative comments, the response and the solution. Primarily, this is done for reference, in case the problem happens again. You can also add this information to your company’s crisis handbook so if it happens in the future, there is a clear path to take.

We hope you don’t get any negative reviews! It is always good practice to be prepared just in case, following the strategy above will be a great way to overcome a negative situation and turn it into a positive one!