Fan page comments - The customer is always right!

Today folks we will have a little discussion about a much feared topic for businesses with fan Pages. The unhappy customer comment. Please trust me this is not to be feared. rather consider it an opportunity. So you want to have a fan page for you Bizzzz! So make it already.

• You've got a fan page - Great!
• You've got people who like your page - Great!
• You've got customers who talk glowingly about your services - Perfect!
• You've got an unhappy customer who posts to your page - You're a lottery winner!

Your probably thinking I'm nuts but seriously this is a great thing. great unless your service stinks and everyone is unhappy. Do i really need to write a blog post about what to do then?????

But as always, I digress. Back to the topic at hand. You've got a great biz, great service and great customers. Remember the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You simply can not please all the people all the time - but try!

So how does this relate to the unhappy fan page commenter. Well lets run through some scenarios:

1. You break a sweat upon reading the posting and delete the post immediately - This is the most immense fail that happens on fan pages. The nuke option should only be used for a customer who is spewing profanity and once you delete the comment announce your reasons to the rest of your fans with an apology. Let your fans know it sickens you to stifle communication but that will not tolerate some behaviors. The reason for the somber tone about the deletion is to let ALL YOUR OTHER FANS (well including the complainer actually) know that you hear them and are concerned about quality.
2. You ignore the post without comment - Well nothing makes your fans feel better then turning a deaf ear I always say. Seriously , trust me, a clam high quality response will warm all your loving fans further and might thaw the heart of the complainer as well.
3. You respond, all your emotions at the trigger - Well first you are just drawing a line in the sand for your unhappy customer to cross and complain even harder and usually more nastier. IT IS A MUST that your responses be devoid of emotion. They must be calm and serene and show nothing but empathy for the unhappy client. Look folks, you may never thaw the heart of the unhappy customer but you can start cooling your happy clients by them seeing you get into a pissing match with an unhappy customer. they start to feel that this is how they might be treated when unhappy. Hell if your going to do this, see option one and nuke the comment (but it's still an epic fail!)
4. You take a breath, get over the fact that someone could actually be unhappy with your wonderful place and reply in a tone that shows concern for them - Lucky bastard! You just won the lottery twice!. I'll reiterate again that you may not thaw the heart of the unhappy customer but with this response you further warm your already adoring fans. They walk away talking about your great service AND your great customer service!

If you think for a moment like one of your adoring fans you'll realize that if someone is unfairly unloading double barrels on you your experienced clientele will already know it's BS. Fans who don't know your service will judge you on your response (or lack of response) so the only winning move is to suck it up and treat the unhappy person with respect.

So to recap here's how to answer a unhappy commenter:

• Emotionless and only with empathy
• Throw in an I'm sorry regardless of the complaint. Remember an apology with excuses is NOT an apology.
• Don't use words all in CAPS in your response. They might mistake it as yelling people!
• Go back and make sure you're not being defensive, dismissive or combatative in your response. Then hit the submit button.
• Remember that you may not get a nice response back from this person BUT your other fans will see the quality with which you treat customers. A win-win. And besides they can tell when people are being unreasonable.
• Only nuke the comment if it has profanity, hate or threatening speech. Then put out a response on why it was deleted. Also block the user if they can't control themselves.

Thank you and good night.

posted by Adam Signore @ 8:51 AM