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If a blogger criticizes your product what will/can you do?

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Question added by Sidrah Nadeem , Global Marketing Manager , Hill & Knowlton
Date Posted: 2016/04/06
Shaikha Ali AlSowaidi
by Shaikha Ali AlSowaidi , Owner / Marketing Consultant , Marketing Consulting (Company Confidential)

Ah, the joy of online, public criticism!

Since social media is so broad and can be access by, well...anyone, the issue of bloggers criticizing your product occurs more often than we'd like it to. So here are my own personal steps to rectifying the situation.

STEP #1

Find a way to contact the blogger - either by personal email or by leaving a comment on the blog - and ask the blogger to contact you in return. Keep it simple.

Example:

Dear <insert name here>,

I am <name> and would very much appreciate it if you would contact me. I understand that you are dissatisfied with <product/service> and would love the opportunity to find out why and to see what I can do to help.

Thank you.

Regards,

<Name>

 

STEP #2

Once the blogger contacts you and tells you what their problem was/is with the product/service, DO NOT BECOME CONFRONTATIONAL! This is very important, because once you become confrontational, defensive, or begin to deny how they feel about the product/service, you close that door of understanding and you also lock the door on the opportunity to fix the problem. Be kind, understanding, and appreciate what they are saying (even if what they are saying is untrue).

STEP #3

Build a working relationship with the blogger once you've resolved their issue. Their criticism may have come from a place of dissatisfaction with the experience in buying the product rather than the product itself, but whatever it may have been you have to try and build rapport. I've found that by coming to a mutual understanding, you can often "recruit" the blogger to write about your products in a positive light. This can also be made possible by offering them something in return. Which brings me to...

STEP #4

Create a place in your budge for free/promotional products that can be offered to social media tycoons. What I mean by this is find a blogger, YouTuber, and/or Instagram guru that you can send products to and who will promote your products online to their followers/subscribers. Now not only are you creating a positive relationship with people, you are promoting and marketing your product and reaching a whole new group of people that you may have otherwise not been able to reach.

STEP #5...and the final step

Keep communication open. Let the blogger(s) know that although they criticized your product, you are willing and able to make things better...either for them or for future consumers. Thank them for providing information on how you can make things better and you appreciate their insight. ALWAYS TAKE THE HIGH ROAD. No one ever got anywhere by continuously insulting one another and cyber-bashing.

Loraine Domingo
by Loraine Domingo , Career Break , N/A

Take it as a constructive criticism and use all the blogger's input/feedback to modify and improve your product. Use all the points to consider he/she made when he/she provided his own opinion about your product. Criticisms are good at some point because it helps every enterprise to see what they actually missed before during and after production. 

Hisham Hashim
by Hisham Hashim , Business Development Manager , RAS SERVICES P.L.C

Well at first if it's a constructive one I would consider it and try to improve some features. But what I see is that everybody criticizes based on their use of the products which doesn't necessarily make your product that bad. I would try to contact the blogger and would like to know more about what he encountered and would like to curb it by discussing with him.

Nuridin Islam Diab
by Nuridin Islam Diab , Training Manager , Bbusinesss LLE

Thanks for the invitation. I would take the criticism objectively and get in touch with the criticizing blogger and follow the steps Shaikha shared with us here. 

Ahmed Mohamed Ayesh Sarkhi
by Ahmed Mohamed Ayesh Sarkhi , Shared Services Supervisor , Saudi Musheera Co. Ltd.

i can make more adv. and bring a good authors and make adv. to my items

 

Khalid Ghaffar
by Khalid Ghaffar , Consultant for Business Development , Waters Corporation USA

take criticism always a headwind to propel with more thrust :)

Rami Assaf
by Rami Assaf , loading and Storage Operations Supervisor , Arab Potash Company

Thanks for invitation

I am apologies to answer this question because it's not my specialist field 

ACHMAD SURJANI
by ACHMAD SURJANI , General Manager Operations , Sinar Jaya Group Ltd

Here are some steps you can take to manage criticism of your business, products, or even staff on social media and online review sites.

1. Get Listening

The first thing is making sure you hear what is being said about you by monitoring the social media sites where you have a presence. Check your Facebook page regularly, monitor your Twitter mentions and set up Google Alerts so you can track when your business is being mentioned online. You may also want to check your Yelp, Google+ Local, Trip Advisor and other listings for customer comments. Don’t forget industry, product or even local community forums. For example, does your neighborhood or home owner’s association have an online forum?  Folks may be reviewing local businesses there.

2. Should You Respond?

You may feel tempted to respond quickly to a negative comment or even delete it. But negative reviews aren’t always worth a response. Some posters may be negative just to get attention, or their comments are just so over the top and rude that responding to them will only draw attention to an issue that clearly is a one-off or that no one else is aware of. Sometimes it’s just best to ignore these posts.

3. Don’t Let Negative Comments Linger

Social media doesn’t wait for anyone. Fans have come to expect a timely response from brands they follow. By chiming in early you can quickly stop others from jumping in on the topic while demonstrating that you value opinion and feedback. 

Even if you don’t have an immediate answer, tell the commentator that you hear them, acknowledge their complaint, and promise to investigate further. “I’m sorry to hear this…” is a great softener and shows you care.

4. Always Acknowledge, Never Deny

Accept that the customer is always right and acknowledge it and investigate to get to the root cause of their feedback or criticism. Where did your business go wrong? Was it a simple misunderstanding or do you need to make changes internally? Avoiding feedback or criticism may come back to bite you.

5. How to Apologize

If you find that your business has been in the wrong or you’ve let your customers down, apologize sincerely. Acknowledge that you’ve investigated the complaint. State clearly that you regret the poor service that the customer has received (i.e. you know what a pain it is when things don’t go as expected), cite it as a lesson learned and let everyone know you will take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Above all, avoid formal language. Take off your sales and marketing hat and be human. End your posts with your name, so the complainant knows who they’re dealing with. Be conversational: “I’m so sorry you had this experience. Let me look into it right away and get back to you – Todd,” instead of: “Your comment has been acknowledged. We will look into this matter further.” You might even own up to the fact that you’ve been experiencing some hiccups in one particular area – whether it’s a new product line, or shipping times – and that you want to hear more if consumers have further issues.

Consider offering to make things right. Ask the customer to email you so that you can either reimburse them or perhaps offer a discount on future purchases. Be sure to follow through on this, look out for the email and respond promptly.

6. Take the Conversation Offline

If you need more information or genuinely feel that this conversation would be better served offline, ask the complainant to contact you directly via email or phone. Make this the exception rather than the rule – and only do it after you’ve publicly acknowledged or apologized for any issues and restated your commitment to customer service. The goal here isn’t putting out the fire out by taking it offline but offering an open invite to continue the dialogue further and address the complainants’ specific concerns. It’s a strategy that works.

7. The Bottom Line

When your business reputation is on the line, demonstrating your commitment to customer satisfaction – and backing it up with action – is a must. Ironically, one unhappy customer converted back into a loyal fan of your business can be far more influential in the word-of-mouth driven world of social media than one happy customer ever can be! So go ahead, embrace comments negative or otherwise – you might just win some more fans!

ghazi Almahadeen
by ghazi Almahadeen , Project Facilitator , Jordan River Foundation

thanks invite very much. ............ Support answer loraine 

TARIG BABIKER AL AMIN
by TARIG BABIKER AL AMIN , Head of Planning and Studies Unit , Sudanese Free Zones and Markets Co.

Successful blogs have one thing in common: focus. They provide content for a very specific niche.  The first step is to know what blogs are right for you

Mohamed Hendy
by Mohamed Hendy , Commercial director & Co- founder , The matchers

there are great answers... good job

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