Sometimes their expectations are too high. Sometimes events out of your control anger them. And sometimes you just catch them on a bad day. Whatever the reason, unhappy customers are simply a fact of business. Even companies with stellar reputations for customer service will occasionally catch the ire of someone who had a bad experience.

While it’s sad to lose a customer, it’s even sadder when that customer takes to social media to tell all of their friends, and whoever else is listening, how awful your company is. Fortunately, with a little proactive planning, you can make even the most disgruntled customers refrain from bad mouthing your company online. 

1. Put your listening cap on

Don’t give unhappy customers an opportunity to stew in their negativity. The longer they’re stuck with, for example, their unsatisfactory product, the angrier they’ll get, and the greater the odds that they’ll start telling the world their unhappy tale.

You want to give your customers an easy outlet for any issues they have. That means multiple points of customer service contact, including phone, chat, email, and a helpful customer service website. If you offer a product with a high price point, that also means providing a dedicated account person who can handle issues promptly. People have a surprisingly high tolerance for services that don’t quite meet their expectations, but they have a low tolerance for companies that don’t bother to listen when things go wrong.

2. Take immediate action

Now that you know what the problem is, what are you going to do about it? That’s the question that immediately pops into a customer’s head whenever they take time to tell you their issues. While you can’t change the fact that your customer is less-than-satisfied, you can limit the damage by having a concrete plan and carrying it out promptly. Even if you aren’t able to solve their problems 100%, taking action and doing it fast will regain some your customer’s esteem and prove that you actually care.

3. Create custom responses to customer complaints

When a customer contacts you with a complaint, don’t respond with a boilerplate or scripted response. When your customers get an automated response, all they hear is “We don’t care about your problems.” When they’re  peeved, they want some evidence that their problems matter to you. Train your customer service and marketing people on how to sympathetically respond to each and every problem that your customers report. Even if the worst happens and they cancel or return your product, they will appreciate that you seem to care.

4. Reach out to the bad mouthers

But what happens when they’ve already commented on what an awful company you run? Is all hope lost? Well, no. You obviously can’t stop them from saying bad things about you on social media, but you can try to stop them from doing it again. Use social media monitoring software to track mentions of your company on the Internet.

When someone says something negative, proactively reach out to them and apologize for the bad experience. They’ll probably be caught off guard that you took the time to contact them, and more likely than not it will cool their anger and they’ll stop seeing your company as the villain.

About the Author

Logan Strain is a writer for Instant Checkmate, one of the world's largest people search engines. He specializes in writing about brand strategy, online reputation management, and social media marketing.

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