So, you’re plugging along, doing your thing and keeping up in the social media world when a follower posts a complaint or says something negative about your company. It’s out there in all its glory for you—and all of your other followers—to see. Now what?

Monitoring what’s happening in your social media landscape is a job you cannot ignore. The very nature of it—that whole “social” part—gets people connected and communicating. It’s up to you to see what’s being said and to determine how to handle it.

5 tips for maneuvering customer service in the social media world:

1. When (not “if” but “when” because it will happen) a not-so-favorable comment comes your way via a Tweet, a blog reply or a Facebook post, don’t delete it. Social media has found success in the business world because it allows companies to be transparent and human. People like to see angles of your business not readily available before you crated that profile page. Having nothing but flowery, ooey-gooey posts and comments screams “fake” because, guess what? No one is perfect (gasp). Keep it real, folks, positive and negative comments alike.
2. Reach out to that customer directly to find out more about the situation. Send this person a direct message or an email, give him/her a call, write an old school letter, etc. If you can’t track the person down easily through the means used to connect with you, tons of resources exist for us to find each other (thank you, Google). So, be a little Big Brother’ish, if needed, and find a way to get in touch with this person.
3. With that said, though, you do want to make a public statement of some kind. Thank your follower for the feedback, apologize on behalf of the company for the poor experience/product/whatever and ensure that the matter is being looked into further (and then do what you need to do to ensure it is). This allows your other friends/followers to see how you handled what could have been a sticky situation, furthering your street cred and people’s motivation to stick around.
4. However, in response to the previous point, “of some kind,” does not mean automated or robotic. Be human. Nothing is worse than a canned response. You know the kind. Don’t do it.
5. Empower others to monitor what’s being said and to respond on our behalf. Social media is a 24/7 monster (a cute, cuddly monster we all need to embrace), but despite your best efforts, you are not a 24/7 mechanism. It takes a village to keep up with everything out there—and to do it well. You can’t do it all, so enable others to take on as much of this aspect of your company’s communications as possible.

A good point to remember is that your customer online is no different than your customer walking through your door. Treat them with equal respect and value the power of their voice on social media.

The good news is that Thrive Creative Group offers social media monitoring in its laundry list of services. Talk to one of them about how they can tackle this and be your “village.” Click here to connect with them.

We hope this information is helpful, insightful and, if nothing else, provided a five-minute respite to your busy day.  Thanks for reading.  ‘Til next time. . .