David Biernbaum

Battling Negative Criticism

January 4, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
According to a survey from Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia, nearly one half of companies personally engage with consumers when dealing with online negative criticism. The second most common response was to focus on improving products. What should and shouldn't companies be doing when dealing with online negative criticism from consumers?      [more...]

Dealing with negative criticism about your company on message boards, blogs, etc, requires excellent training or assistance from well trained communication experts, in order to accomplish your true objective without making the situation much worse.

A few suggestions right off the top:

1. Give some true thought first and be objective to what the critic has written.

2. Post your responses in a professional but conversational manner. Avoid being either too "corporate," but also avoid being overly emotional, defensive, personal, or resentful.

3. Write to the criticizer but also keep in mind that you will be judged by all the other readers besides the one that criticized your product.

4. Be sure that the responder in your company uses proper grammar and doesn't misspell words. Clumsy responses will destroy credibility.

5. Don't "scream" in your response but definitely address the issues.

6. Avoid phrases such as, "you're not being fair" or "no one else has ever made that complaint." To do so will almost for certain invite more trouble.