Gramma C's Process for Handling Irate Community Members
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Thu, Aug 21, 2008
Tony G. asks, "What is the best process in handling an irate customer posting about your company?"
I'm assuming this is not your grandmother's online community, but that this is a posting to a community your organization manages. Some rules of the road:
Rule #1 - Online communities are about understanding true customer experiences. True experiences that are negative are a fact of life for every major brand.
Rule #2 - Online communities are about feedback. Negative results are legitimate feedback.
Rule #3 - Online communities need to provide a safe environment where community members are comfortable expressing their viewpoints. Hate speech, threats, obscenity, cyberbullying have no place in such a community. Profanity is not appropriate to most communities. Any member who engages in inappropriate behavior should be warned, should have all future posts moderated or should be expelled from the community, depending on the nature of the offense.
If a customer is legitimately angry and expresses that anger in strong but acceptable terms, your best bet is to connect with that customer by telephone to express your organization's regret and to take whatever steps you can to rectify the situation. If you don't have their phone number, then email them. On the community post, reiterate your message to them.
When initially discussing the issue, I wouldn't try to explain how or why the situation arose. First, chances are, at this early stage, you don't have all the facts correct regarding the situation, and what facts you may have may make too many excuses on behalf of your organization. Second, there will be a time for explanations after you have resolved their issue.
If a customer is legitimately angry and expresses that anger inappropriately, try to edit out the offensive parts of their community post while preserving the original complaint. Don't make an issue out of this offence yet. Reach out to them to correct the situation. Return their anger with quiet professionalism. Often this will get them to calm down and carry on a normal conversation from then on.
Once the situation is resolved, your organization should do an analysis of the problems that occurred and what steps you are going to take to resolve these issues going forward. As your final message on this subject, post the results of that analysis and what steps, if any, your organization will take. A prime reason members provide feedback is to see the organization adapt and grow based on that feedback. When the community gives you lemons, make Limoncello.
Expelling a community member should always be the step of last resort. Try switching their comments to "moderated" instead and post edited versions of their comments. Member expulsion usually results in much negative discussion, even if the majority of members agree the expulsion was warranted.
Sadly, some people behave in ways online that they would never do in person. Remove them from your community and move on.
True story: Because I emailed a newsletter to someone who had provided me his address when he downloaded a free trial of our software, he emailed me to threaten bodily harm to my grandmother if I ever sent him another newsletter. That seemed a disproportionate response to the perceived offense. I'm sure if we were talking in person he would have expressed his displeasure to me in some more socially acceptable way. I removed his name from our mailing list posthaste, and took solace in the fact that my grandmother - who survived the Depression, who bore seven children, who butchered and gutted farm animals to feed her family, and whom I once saw kill a snake with a yardstick - would have taught this fellow some manners.
See also:
- Dealing with Detractors in Online Communities