Many are scared to make the transition of their business to the online world; to give it an online presence out of fear. Fear of getting shut down, fear of people not appreciating their business and telling the whole world about it, fear of rejection: what if no one ‘Like’s me on Facebook, and fear of people finding out too much about you as a person running the business.
Let’s take it one at a time:
If you’re not on Social Media, unfortunately your target market who are, if they search for you and don’t find you, may think you don’t even exist. You may be closing doors of business before you even start just by not showing that you’re out there in the public, social media eye. It’s something that could really lose you sales.
What if someone posts some bad feedback about your company online? That’s the best problem in the world! It means someone has already tried your product or service, and are ready to communicate with you – sometimes people want to have a vent because they’ve had a bad day, but a lot of the time, all people are looking for is for you, the business, to try and fix a mistake; to try and set something that’s wrong – right.
A client of ours had an elderly lady post a piece of bad feedback on their public Facebook Page, saying she didn’t feel welcome in the store because there was a spill that no one seemed to be taking care of, and she nearly slipped. The scared business owner called us to ask how to handle the situation; after all, if he went on to delete it, she could have come back and posted even more bad feedback about them trying to sweep a problem under the rug by ignoring it. Once we took hold of his Facebook Page, apologized to the lady and said some other things with the permission of the owner i.e. why the spill was there, etc. We never thought we’d hear from her again. But she actually ended up coming back, and commenting to the business to say that she wasn’t trying to drive people away from the business; she was happy that the company replied to her personally, and just simply wanted to alert them to the fact that their store could have been kept cleaner during her 5 minute visit. Many people go online to alert companies about something they think the company has missed. Dealing with something negative as soon as you see it is the best strategy.
A couple of pointers in a situation like this:
- Deal with the problem as soon as you can – don’t leave them waiting
- Explain genuinely why the problem may have been there; you never know – maybe they got the wrong business!
- Offer compensation; no, I’m not talking money or freebies, although if the situation calls for it and you can afford to do this to keep a customer happy, go for it. But we’re talking emotional compensation – through your response make sure to apologize for the situation, acknowledge their time they took to write to the company, and invite them back if you can.
In many cases, people will also be posting positive feedback about your business. This too is an opportunity you cannot miss. Although large companies cannot thank every person who comments on their page, if you have the opportunity to do so, acknowledge every person that writes to you. It will make them feel valued – who knows, they may keep coming back to you for business just because you showed you cared about them as a customer. Replying to them will actually also increase your visibility to a greater amount of fans.
You see, every time you post an update, a photo or even comment on something someone said to you, it instantly shows up on your fans’ and friends of fans’ home feeds – it instantly almost doubles your exposure. So make sure to interact often, and always in a positive way, because you never know when your next big client might be watching how you’re interacting.
How have you dealt with bad feedback in the past? What worked, and what didn’t? I’d love to hear about it! And if you think you need some extra help, have a look at my other Social Media Articles on GrownUps, or get in touch to see what my team and I can do for you and your business online at www.socialemedia.co.nz