Negative social media can impact any type of business online. In the home improvement industry, it’s even more worrisome since potential customers often rely on other customers’ experiences to make a buying decision. The way you respond to bad reviews and negative comments on your social media, says a lot about your business. Should you ignore them? Should you just delete the information? Handling it properly makes all of the difference in the long term.
It’s a Nightmare for Your Business
A bad review on social media is a big risk for any business. Some are downright malicious in the way the customer treats the business. For a small business like many construction companies, even one negative comment on a dominant social media site can cause plenty of lost potential customers. What you don’t want to do in this situation is to lash out against your customers, even those posting unfair, not real, or even downright wrong comments on these sites.
Get More Information
The first step is to find out if what the customer is claiming is true. Put aside your frustrations and anger and focus on the facts. What is true? What steps can you take to find out more, such as discussing the situation with your contractors or other team members? You may quickly find that it is a competitor spreading a rumor rather than a truth-based incident. Then, consider these tips.
- If the information is incorrect and you’ve taken the time to ensure that is the case, ask for the information to be removed.
- If you cannot get the incorrect information removed, post a comment in the review thread indicating what steps you took to verify if the information was accurate and discuss the findings.
- Be sure to welcome the individual to call customer service or you directly to make it right, if you find out the information is correct. Post this in that same comment thread. Be sure to reach out to the individual in any way you can.
When trying to remove or deal with inaccurate information, it is important for you to support your side of the story, but don’t make the customer look bad. Provide information about the steps you took to improve the situation, including how you helped this particular customer. The customer may never come back to the site to remove the negative information, but you don’t have to fall victim to the review. By showing what steps you took, you’ll help protect your home improvement business long term.