Question

Topic: Customer Behavior

Responding To Negative Feedback

Posted by mike.soderholm on 5/19/2009 at 9:51 AM ET 250 Points
We are a smaller company growing fast. We are accustom to responding to all the different forums for good and bad comments about our products. Now that we are growing it's getting harder and harder to respond to everyone especially any negative feedback. What is the best way to manage negative feedback?
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted on 5/19/2009 at 10:28 AM Accepted
    Address it - and link to your response on your blog.

    (1) Restate what their complaint is
    (2) Explain the validity (or not) of the complaint
    (3) Personally call out the individual to try your fix - or your fixed product, and invite them to re-comment on their new experience
    (4) Follow up with them.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/19/2009 at 11:57 AM Accepted
    Dear Mike,

    Have you considered playing the “what if …?” game?

    From the exisiting forum posts you’ve addressed it ought to
    be possible to come up with a fairly detailed list of questions connected with your product that you can then turn into
    a detailed FAQ page.

    So, your questions would be "What if someone wants a refund?", and so on.

    You could link the major points on your FAQ page to their related postings in existing forums, particularly when a forum raises an issue or red flag about your company or one of your products.

    By contacting the administrators of the relevant forums and offering them some benefit (perhaps ad space on your site?), you could get them on your side and have them working with you to either stop complaints dead in their tracks, or by poionting people to your FAQ page.

    You could also make more of your contact and feedback forms, and you might consider sending your customers a survey that asks them what’s going wrong so you can fix it in the next version, and then give people free upgrades as a thank you.

    This loss leader could help your image, increase loyalty, and
    help thin out your customer’s issues negative issues.

    But whatever you do, you must address these issues. My suggestions might help.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/19/2009 at 12:53 PM Accepted
    Respond professionally to all negative criticism. Critics that complain publicly actually care a lot about your offering, so if you handle a problem smoothly, negative critics often turn into evangelists.
  • Posted by mike.soderholm on 5/19/2009 at 2:36 PM Author
    I completely agree that it's most important be honest and professionally to your critics. The question I have is how do other companies keep track of all the feedback coming from different directions. Do most companies have a full-time position in PR or Customer Service responding to feedback?

    -thanks
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/19/2009 at 11:57 PM Member
    There are companies that monitor social media analytics such as www.andiamosystems.com and www.networkedinsights.com
  • Posted by sbarton1220 on 5/20/2009 at 10:46 PM Accepted
    I think the best way to respond to negative feedback is to :
    1. Acknowledge the problem.
    2. Apologize for the problem.
    3. State what you're doing to fix it and what you will do to ensure the problem won't happen in the future.

    Further, make sure to respond in the appropriate forum - for example, if you're finding negative feedback on twitter, respond there. Be immediate with your response, even if only to say "we're aware there's a problem. We're researching the cause and will have more information soon."

    Good luck!
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Customer Behavior)