Keep calm and carry on. As soon as you are notified of a less than pleasant remark from a reader, the first thing you want to do is take a deep breath. It is human instinct and completely normal to get defensive and react negatively when faced with ill words. Instead keep clam, take a deep breath and think before you respond.
The faster you respond the better. This almost becomes a game because once that comment has been posted you can count on your other readers seeing it. The ball is now in your court and once other readers see the comment they will wait for your response. Addressing the comment quickly will show your upset reader, as well as your other readers, that you are in the game and on the ball.
As much as you may want to delete the comment, do not delete it. Think of the negative comment like a child that gets caught taking something that doesn’t belong to them. When you approach the child, the first thing they do is hide the item behind their back, signifying to you that they know they have done something wrong by taking the item. Taking away or deleting that comment will only show your unhappy reader and other readers that you have done something wrong. The only exception to deleting is if the comment contains curse words or any other offensive language. If that is the case, take a screen shot of the comment and file it away for reference if anything else progresses with that problem.
Do not apologize. This may puzzle you, but one of the most important rules in any industry or business is that you never admit to doing something wrong. Though there are obviously certain cases when it is needed and okay, you should only use apologies when absolutely necessary. Typically negative comments come from unhappy readers that aren’t satisfied with a lot of things in life. Avoid saying, ‘I am sorry’ but use phrases like ‘I understand’, ‘I want to remedy this situation’, and ‘I’d love to discuss this with you’ etc.
Take them offline. Once you have addressed the negative comment quickly with ‘I’d love to discuss this situation with you more’ direct them offline. You want the negative exchange to end right there and to continue addressing the problem offline. Ask the reader to message you with their email address and/or phone number so that you can discuss everything. This shouldn’t be too hard because most readers are happy to speak with you offline.
Treat the negative comment like you would with any other comment. Just because the comment was made on your blog or on your Facebook doesn’t mean you treat and resolve the problem any other way. Treat it as if the person said it to your face and not online. Nothing changes.
Don’t take it personally. One thing you have to learn when you put yourself out there for the whole online world to see is that you will not always please everyone. As much as you want to make everyone happy, it just doesn’t work all the time. Take notice that for every negative comment you get, you probably have at least five positive comments. Don’t take the comment personally and don’t take offense. Learn from it and move on.
No one is perfect, and in a world where social media and blogs rule, we are bound to run into a few unhappy people. The only difference in a negative comment or review is that it is public and not private. Handling your negative comment correctly will speak volumes towards your work ethic. When that happens it is important to remember to remain clam, address it quickly, don’t delete it or apologize, take it offline and never take it personally. Good luck and happy blogging!
No comments:
Post a Comment