What I was trying to say before is that negative criticism unaddressed or deleted can backfire in this way:
I am one of your customers. I have paid money for your product or service. It has some flaws, faults, or shortcomings that stand in the way of me being a happy customer. I am upset and/or disappointed. I come to your website or forum and tell you about it. It's not a positive review full of praise of your product, in fact, it's quite negative.
I would not have come to your site to tell you about this unless I wanted you to read this. I would not have come to your site and taken the time to tell you the problems your product or service has unless I also wanted to give you an opportunity to change things and make me into a happy customer.
What do you do?
A. Respond to my message on your site. Apologize. Attempt to solve the problem. Attempt to clear up misunderstandings. Tell me about your plans to fix things. Maybe offer me a refund if you can't. Give me the email address of the proper department to complain to. Tell me that you have sent me an email and are willing to discuss the matter directly with me.
B. Ignore my post completely. Let it sit there without a response.
C. Delete my post or comment to erase any evidence that your company, product, or service isn't perfect.
If you choose Option A, you have the opportunity to change me into a happy customer. When others see this, they will know you care about your customers. For a potential customer that is undecided as to whether they are going to purchase what you offer, this could very well be the deciding factor...how you handle a customer's problems. It is an indication how you will likely handle their problems if they should have one. It really doesn't matter what you say as long as you are attempting to take a negative situation and turn it into a positive one. For people that come along later and see that you have tried to resolve the issue, they will likely remember the negative a lot less than you will imagine, and remember what you did, instead.
If you choose Option B, you show me and the world that you don't care. I am likely never to purchase your product again. I will go away very dissatisfied and likely will be giving your competition my business, in the future. Potential customers will see this too, and it delivers the same message. They may not decide to become your customer if you do this too many times.
If you choose Option C, you will make me angry. I am not only likely never to buy your product again, I will make sure everyone I know knows about what happened. I will become a thorn in your side, posting about my experiences and your choice to delete rather than respond anywhere and everywhere that I can, possibly in places you can never access, offline as well as online. It will no longer be about your product or service and it's flaws. It will be all about you and your company and how you mistreat your customers. I will be loud about it. I will make sure other people read it and hear about it. When your potential customers see something like this once, it might not make much of a difference, but when they see many people complaining how you treat them when they have issues, they will likely not be your customers. They will be afraid to trust you. Your competition will get their business. People like me do pay attention to stuff like
this.
Ask yourself before you delete it: If this was a direct phone call to the company, would you hang up on this person, put them on hold till they hung up, or would you address it with a response? Do the same thing for that post or comment. It really is no different, except that the world is watching how you handle this customer.
Recent Posts
