Responding to Negative Feedback as Part of Online Reputation Management

Damage control is an important part of your online reputation management policy.

Following up on our article on Reputation Management Advice, here are some recommended online reputation management strategies on how to respond to negative online feedback and reviews. Responding to complaints and criticisms is a very definite learned skill in Social Media marketing – we show you how.

Decide who should respond

As part of your online reputation management strategy, it’s best to nominate a person or team members who will respond to negative feedback. In a small company, this may be the owner and in a larger multinational, this may be a public relations manager. It’s also important to know when to escalate problems to upper levels of management.

Decide when to respond

Responding to a bad review, negative feedback or criticism ideally is done on a case by case basis. The first stage of online reputation management is deciding whether you should respond. While you should monitor the discussion, it may not always be appropriate or necessary for you to acknowledge the comments.

Here are some occasions where you may choose to respond:

• Is the complaint legitimate or a valid gripe where a genuine mistake has been made?
• Are other users of the website agreeing with the review?
• Do you think the review will gain traction and become a much larger problem?
• Is a customer mistaking a fact about your products, services or company that needs to be corrected?

Here are some occasions where you may choose not to respond:

• Will a response only ‘fan the flames’ and create a bigger problem?
• Are other users of the website already disagreeing with the initial review?
• Has the user left many negative reviews on the site – are they a ‘born complainer’?
• Is this the only negative review out of dozens of positive ones?

Decide how you should respond

Once you decided that the negative feedback is worth commenting on, you have to make a decision on what is an appropriate response. Each response will differ depending on the situation and needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Keep the online reputation management guidelines below in mind:

• Remain cool, calm and collected.
• Listen to what the other person is saying and acknowledge how they are feeling.
• Be honest and transparent in your response.
• Speak to the person on their level and not in ‘corporate speak’.
• Make amends if appropriate such as offering a discount, a free gift or hotel upgrade.

Responding to bad reviews and feedback is an important part of internet marketing. Sometimes it’s beneficial to have a second opinion on your handling of the situation – contact us at Social Media Works and we can put together an online reputation management policy as part of your overall online marketing strategy.

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