How many times have we heard that a comment has generated a reputation crisis for a brand? How many cases of study have we read in which a complaint from a user has caused a great damage to the image of a brand?
It is a reality that users use different social channels to express their dissatisfaction about a brand, product or service, to raise complaints to companies, and expect the brand to promptly resolve the problem with the certainty that an exposed complaint publicly and not properly resolved is not interested in the company due to the virality of bad comments on social networks.
The best way to make these comments do not cause significant damage to the company and minimize its impact is proper management of them. Ignore this reality and not act accordingly can cause that simple negative comment on a company in social networks can ‘mess it up’ and unleash a series of unpredictable effects and even authentic online reputation crises.
There are many examples that we could cite. More and more companies are victims of this neglect and lack of attention for what happens in web 2.0 and above all, a large majority still have no reaction plans to deal with this type of debris.
Companies must have action plans to manage negative reactions and comments
The lack of management of opinions related to brands, is often something that companies and businesses face through the network. For this reason, it is important to establish strategies and action plans to avoid that this type of opinions or comments may expand virally. However, similarly, positive comments and opinions can also be replicated and spread through social networks and other sites in the network in ways that can help influence consumers’ purchasing decisions and even be the wick for consumers. start a real fire on any brand.
The crisis, let’s not forget, is not generated by the negative comment, the complaint, but by the inadequate management of it.
Therefore, we must be prepared for any contingent of this type, know how to react with a Crisis plan and with a person who is capable of dealing with this type of situation, always supported by the entire team.
Companies must have action plans to manage negative reactions and comments
The lack of management of opinions related to brands, is often something that companies and businesses face through the network. For this reason, it is important to establish strategies and action plans to avoid that this type of opinions or comments may expand virally. However, similarly, positive comments and opinions can also be replicated and spread through social networks and other sites in the network in ways that can help influence consumer purchasing decisions.
A common mistake that is usually made is to think that it is not necessary to respond to comments or complaints quickly, something that as a consequence increases the chances of other users echoing such complaints without a response or a visible and transparent solution.
The most appropriate is to respond immediately by addressing, or at least, signaling concern to the user, the problem, trying to take the user to a private conversation to make it “invisible” to the rest of the community.
The good or bad management of a situation of this type depends not only on the professional who executes the planned plan, but on a whole team that evaluates, analyzes, studies and decides, among other things, how to act and what to respond. The person responsible for responding can not act alone. In this way, it would only fail.
The main thing is to stay calm, a hot response, impulsive, probably bring more complications and an inadequate response would only aggravate the situation. For this reason, it is necessary to take a deep breath, analyze what has happened and why, and, based on that, transfer the problem to the appropriate person to be treated as a team, if possible, and resolve it as soon as possible.
There is no doubt that the main problem of a bad comment is not the comment itself, but the failure to know how to properly treat and manage it .
Try to eliminate the problem at a stroke. A big mistake!
For companies, resisting the temptation to eliminate a criticism on Facebook or Google can be difficult, but trying to cover a mistake only deepens it. Managing a company’s online reputation is much more than opening new profiles on fashion social networks and eventually sharing publications.
The correct management of an online criticism can even be beneficial for the image of a brand. On the contrary, if you try to hide an error, it is very likely that the only thing that is achieved is to aggravate the situation.
The expert Silvina Moschini, highlights some interesting aspects, since companies and brands can find in the critics an opportunity if they know how to act efficiently and correctly. For this, it is essential to identify the needs of users and consumers and, of course, learn from mistakes.