12 Principles for Responding to Negative Online Comments

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12 Principles for Responding to Negative

Online Comments

Posted by:Charlie Pownall

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Posted December 30, 2012

Due to convenience, the opportunity to receive a direct response and the potential to

kick up a fuss when not treated as they expect, customers are turning to social media for

customer service and other product and service-related support rather than dealing

with call centres.

Despite this, a recent study shows that the top Singaporean telecoms operators together

receive an average 1,700 negative customer comments a day via social media. Such

volume requires dedicated teams to pick through the debris and assess which

complaints should be answered and how.

Singtel’s Facebook page, for instance, is testament to customers’ frustrations with what

they see as the company’s poor 3G coverage, high costs and inferior customer service, to

the extent that even the most anodyne promotion is belted with a slew of unrelated

moans.

Yet very few of these complaints are responded to. Singtel and others cannot bury their

heads in the digital sand and hope the problem will somehow disappear. After, customer

satisfaction is critical to all companies’ reputations and a positive experience can pay

significant dividends in terms of more loyal customers, positive word of mouth and

fewer calls to call centres.

But with customers increasingly taking to Twitter to escalate their unanswered issues –