Imagine for a moment that you are a user interested in buying a mattress of brand X. You enter the Internet and enter in Google the following search string: “buy mattress X” and what is your surprise when, of the 10 results it offers you the search engine, the first 3 pick up negative comments from customers dissatisfied with the product … what would you do? Are you still thinking about buying that mattress?
This type of situation occurs, more often than we would all like, are you clear about what you have to do if it touches you?
First, analyze the comment, find out what it is, who is the author and in what medium they are registered; This information will show you what action guidelines to follow:
What is said in the comment?
If the comment is trueAnd customer is right, it is best to assume your responsibility and act accordingly . The user will know how to appreciate your good work and, most importantly, you will have tackled the problem at the root, thus preventing it from becoming a serious reputation crisis.
If it is a mere defamatory act , or use insults and expletives, elíminalo directly, do not think about it; Whether it depends on you or if it has been placed on an external site (blogs, forums …) no self-respecting medium will want to be part of such a lack of manners and will erase its trace as soon as possible.
In the case of trolls, as always, stick to the well-known phrase “do not feed the troll” and obviate it completely, will lose strength by itself.
Who says it?
It is interesting that you know the author of the comment, for several reasons:
Discard that it is an invented comment, the result of an action lacking in ethics on the part of the competition; it is usually easy to recognize, both because of the language used, and because of the argument, and even because its criticism is totally groundless. In this case the best thing is to ignore, do not enter your game, you can be the most feared of the trolls and put the whole community against you.
In the event that it is a true criticism, find out your contact information to be able to address him directly and privately.
Where is it posted?
If it is your own medium, be it the corporate profile of a social network, your blog or the company’s own website, where you have control over content management, you will have an element in your favor: the speed of response , use it to react immediately and take control of the situation.
When the criticisms have been collected in forums, blogs or other platforms of comments far from our reach, we will have to employ ourselves in depth and gather good mood.Establish synergies with these means, so that they allow you to act in accordance with the situation, either asking them to eliminate the comment, (only in case it is demonstrated that the basis on which it is based is false), well requesting permission to respond to the aggrieved on equal terms, using the same means.
This position has two advantages: on the one hand, the user will feel heardand attended closely to him, he will understand that the company has really worried about his problem; and second, and therefore no less important, we will get that, together with the negative comment, our response appears, this time in a positive tone. This will affect both the users of this medium, and the search engines and monitoring tools, mitigating to some extent the initial opposite effect.
It may be the case that it is the owner of the medium who has made the negative comment public, here we will act in the same way, but even say that we must walk with special care, measuring each word and with great respect; since he can feel hurt and make the situation worse.
Parallel to these actions, launch an effective content generation strategy. It covers all possible ways, as long as you provide information of interest, do not dedicate yourself to making noise, if in fact it is not going to be more than smoke, it could turn against you … If you provide quality information, on the one hand you will demonstrate that you know how to deal with the situation and on the other hand you will favor the appearance of positive results in the search engines, which may be relegated to the negatives.
In short, as fundamental pillars of action is to propose an appropriate strategy and execute it with professionalism and determination, in addition to monitoring every moment and being flexible to changes. Do not risk making a decision hastily, hurries are not good counselors. Above all be clear one thing: never lie, no matter how crude the reality, it will always be better than a discovered lie, there is no online reputation strategy to cure the pride of a deceived user … What is your case, how do you react? in the face of negative comments? Have you suffered your effects in your flesh? What have you done to overcome them?