Just how important are online reviews to a business’s success? Increasingly, they’re key. Nearly half of consumers use social media as a source of information before making purchases, according to the 2020 National Customer Rage Study. An estimated 14% of consumers who experienced a problem with a product or service posted their complaints at least once on social media, according to the study.
Clearly, businesses that hope to foster positive customer relationships need to effectively address online feedback. Yet nearly half of complainants responding to the study said they didn’t receive a response from the company.
Challenges
of online
complaints
While
effectively managing negative online feedback is critical, several
factors can make it more difficult than dealing with complaints
received through other channels, like phone calls or in-person
visits. Face-to-face
interactions incorporate body language, expressions, and other verbal
and nonverbal cues, while online complaints typically include only
text, said Lauren Grewal, Associate
Professor
of Business
Administration
at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and co-author of
another study, “Complaint De-Escalation Strategies on Social Media.”
That can make it more difficult to accurately interpret a message.
The
anonymity of social media can make the use of negative language seem
more acceptable, and social media communications are immediately open
to public scrutiny. That might prompt some customers to try to put
themselves in the best light, increasing the likelihood they blame
the firm for any failure, Grewal said.
How
to respond: quickly, and take
it offline
Despite
these challenges, businesses can handle many complaints in ways that
shift a negative experience to a positive. A first step is to “put
your ego aside and recognize your business may have made a mistake,”
said Johanna Grange, Co-founder
of Oak Street Social, a social media marketing firm.
Respond within about 24 hours and move the conversation offline, Grange said, noting that all social media platforms have a way to exchange direct messages. Moving the exchange offline allows for more personalization and can make it less likely to escalate.
Active listening and empathy can have a bottom-line impact.
Responding with
active
listening
and
empathy
When
working with an irate customer, active listening and empathy are
critical in helping to defuse an intense emotion, like anger, said
Anne Roggeveen, Professor of Retailing and Marketing at Babson
College, and also a co-author of the de-escalation study.
De-escalation is a first step to building trust.
“Active
listening” means paying attention to customers’ complaints and
responding in language similar to what they used. Of course, this
doesn’t mean mimicking the complaint, but using the same types of
words.
For
instance, say a customer posts a complaint like this: “I’m so
angry your airline changed the time of my flight on short notice,
forcing me to ask for time off work when I’m new at my job. On top
of that, you lost my luggage.”
Assume
the airline responds with something like “I understand your flight
changed on short notice, complicating your work schedule, and then we
lost your luggage.” That sounds more personal and responsive than a
comment such as “the airline will review your complaint soon.”
Crisis negotiation literature has shown that active listening
engenders feelings of rapport, Grewal said.
Empathy
means connecting at an emotional level by “showing genuine
concern,” Roggeveen said. In the above example, an empathetic
response might include a sentence like, “I can see that you had a
bad experience with our airline and you have every right to be
frustrated.”
Research
has shown that negotiators who exhibit genuine concern can more
effectively de-escalate negative emotions, as the other individual
feels understood and emotionally supported, Grewal said.
Benefits of effectively
managing customers’ complaints
Active
listening and empathy can have a bottom-line impact. The
de-escalation study authors found that increasing active listening by
1% increases the probability of customer gratitude by up to 14%,
while boosting empathy by 1% increases the probability of customer
gratitude by up to 90%. It’s likely that customers engaging
in these interactions will be more willing to continue to do business
with the company.
When
their concerns were satisfactorily addressed, more than 70% of
complainants in the Consumer Rage study indicated they would
recommend the company to others
Customers’ complaints can have another upside: “Someone cares enough to say ‘This could be improved,’” Grange said. The customers’ insight might help you enhance your product or service, or more effectively run your business, she added.
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