In life, you’ll hear people say that there’s no pleasing everybody. The same thing applies in business. Even though you have loyal customers, you’ll find that you can’t escape the presence of detractors.
People will naturally have different opinions on things. What others find appealing and interesting, other people will find useless and troublesome. And with the help of listening tools like Google Reader, you can easily find out who’s saying what about you and your brand.
In as much as positive reviews about your company or product are nice to read, you have to place more importance in the negative comments as there may be some hint of truth to it. You have to remember that the more you ignore these critiques, the more they can affect your reputation.
The question now is, how can you fix the negative critique?
First off, you have to find the people who share unflattering remarks about your company. You need to know what they say in its entirety, not just by the summary you see on your listening tool.
You have to remember to be logical about what you do. Being defensive about your stand on things isn’t really recommended. Read through the entire post and try to see things their way. This will help you understand where their comments are coming from.
I put heavy emphasis on reading the comment because not only does this give you a better grasp on the other person’s comments, you also avoid being impulsive when acting on the critique.
If you think that the person has a logical reason behind what their complaint or comment, find a way to mend it. Look for a solution that’ll work for both parties. You can either look for the answer yourself, or ask the person for suggestions. Either way, you show the person that you care enough to acknowledge what they have to say and find a way to deal with it.
It isn’t so much as asking the detractor to retract his comment, but asking the person to update his negative post or comment with what you’ve done to patch up the issue or to make a positive blog entry about your immediate action towards their concern may help rebuild your image.
You’ll find that if you’ve got lots of negative comments or blog posts directed towards you, these tips can be very helpful in making sure you address such issues immediately and avoid harboring negative online presence. Not only that, but you also start building a deeper relationship with your followers by being proactive about what they say about you.
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