How To Handle Customer Complaints on Social Media

When it comes to marketing, social media serve as an effective way to get your brand visible online. It is also an effective channel to connect with clients and customers. Some of the top social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest become not only the source of social updates but also an outlet for customer service.

How to Effectively Handle Customers’ Complaints on Social Media

Social media has been an open space for clients and customers to get familiar with a particular brand. This is also where they share their feedback and concerns about a specific product or service. It becomes an effective channel for customer service. Below are the tips on how to properly handle customer complaints on social media platforms:

#1 Be informed and responsible. Managing social media accounts is both rewarding and scary. This can gain trust for your brand’s reputation or destroy the name of the company. It's always an important thing to be aware of the information to be shared. It is a must that we are also knowledgeable about the product, service, and the goal of the company. To be able to use social media accounts of your company effectively, you can use various tools. Set up alerts to make sure that you will receive updates from followers and customers. Do not miss any comments or from your social media groups and pages. Each of them should be addressed promptly and effectively.

#2 Be responsive. Being responsive to complaints from customers on social media reveals that you are responsible for caring about your customers’ experience. Also, remember to respond quickly and effectively to the complaint. Usually, a complaint must be answered within an hour. However, customers, of course, would like to have their issues acknowledged and solved in the soonest possible time.

#3 Acknowledge the issue. No business is perfect; thus, mistakes or problems can happen. As social media managers, it is crucial to learn how to own up to the issues. Apologize to the customers. This will help in preventing further blame from the customers. Then, focus on finding the best solution for the complaints.

Make sure to post a genuine apology on social media. Use your natural tone of voice and avoid posting a too obvious scripted response that lacks emotion.

#4 Personalize your responses. When your customers reach out to you about an issue through a negative comment, they are usually finding acknowledgment and solution to the problem. You should understand the issue, carefully study the solution, and respond in a personalized manner. This is because if you give an automated response, you’re giving the impression that you haven’t given time to understand the issue well. Of course, this will also give an idea that you disregard the value of the customers’ concerns.

#5 Understand the customer’s frustrations. Social media managers need to put themselves in the customer’s shoes. Social media has been a place where customers believe they can effectively reach the persons concerned. It is understandable if a customer starts to get mad when they feel that they are not being heard or given attention. Social media managers and customer support agents must thank the customers for contacting them. Let them know that their concerns are understood and that the best possible solution will be made to solve the issue.

#6 Do research for the issue. The person who handles customer support on social media must understand the issue being raised by the customers. Then, do thorough research about the case before responding. When the customer feels that you are well-informed about your company’s product or services, then trust between you and the customers will be established. Besides, you will impress your unhappy customers because they will know how well-rounded and dedicated customer representatives are.

#7 Delegate the concerns to a more appropriate channel. When the issue is too complex, and you think you can’t resolve it, connect the customer to an adequate person. Politely tell the customer that their issue will be escalated and they will be transferred to a more appropriate department.

#8 Stay calm. It is important to stay cool when handling issues over social media channels. Expect unhappy customers to be not polite when raising their issues. As customer support agents, you should not take it personally and lose your temper. They may be rude, but you should be empathetic to their situation. It will be a helpful way to stay professional and maintain the brand voice. When the customers and the followers notice that you are doing your best to handle the situation, they will appreciate it, and the issue will not get worse.

#9 Apologize. One important thing to do when it comes to handling customers’ complaints is to acknowledge it and apologize. For instance, if a service is not rendered on time or a product received with defect, there’s no reason for you to argue. What you need to do is to apologize and propose the best solution possible.

#10 Provide an effective solution. Since social media channels are effective in sharing information about a company, product, and services, it becomes a great space as well for raising complaints from customers. Of course, companies should prevent a complaint to be a trending topic or a thousand of videos sharing about the issue. That’s why it is vital to come up and provide an effective solution to solve the problem. Also, you can offer a freebie, a discount, or a service free of charge. This will not only help solve a complaint but will also guarantee more clients who will trust you.

#11 Correct mistakes or wrong information. Resolving the issue publicly will also help people and followers to understand some information that is being misinterpreted. Also, to provide wrong information, make sure, to be honest in the first place. For instance, if a product can’t be delivered within two days, tell it to the customers politely.

#12 Ignore the trolls. Customer service agents are different from trolls who take pleasure in creating complaints against the company’s product and services. Trolls can be easily identified by poor grammar, punctuations, hate comments, and too personal attacks. The best way to do with trolls is to delete, block, and report them.

Dealing with customer complaints on social media can be both daunting and rewarding. There’s this satisfying feeling when you have a case resolved and acquire happy customers. However, managing social media issues requires skills and responsibilities to keep the brand reputation. The brand’s credibility can also be improved and gain new followers who can be turned into new clients or customers.