Head the Online Complaint Off at the Pass

I recently had a discussion with an old friend about how businesses should respond when take to the internet to voice their complaints.  While browsing several automotive industry blogs, I found an excellent article on this topic at Drivingsales.com.  The author illustrates why it is so important to properly plan your business’s response prior to engaging the customer.  It is much easier to resolve these matters amicably than to have the matter litigated.  It is much harder than one would imagine to prevail in a lawsuit against someone over a negative review.  An easy to read explanation of why that is the case can be found here.

So, before you follow your first instinct and fire off a nasty retort to a complaint posted by a customer, take a break and plan what you are going to say.  It also wouldn’t hurt to train your staff on how to handle these kinds of complaints, including escalation procedures, who responds to them, etc.  What are some of your best practices for answering complaints that show up online?

Image courtesy of Business2Community