From the course: Serving Customers Using Social Media (2019)

Acknowledge the customer's anger without blaming your company

From the course: Serving Customers Using Social Media (2019)

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Acknowledge the customer's anger without blaming your company

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- Customers often turn to social media when they want attention for the hurt or wrong they feel they have suffered, and when they consider themselves the wronged party, they often consider your company the villain who did them wrong. As a social customer care agent, you must demonstrate you're reading their complaint closely and you must show empathy, but how far should you go? When a customer tweets, "I hate your company. "You're a pack of liars and thieves", you're not going to reply, "I can certainly understand "why you consider us liars and thieves." You'd never throw your company under the bus that way, especially not in social media, but you can acknowledge a customer's anger without explicitly agreeing with their reasons for being angry. It's kind of tricky, so follow these three writing tips and you can pull it off. The first, use vague but empathetic wording. Let's imagine you work in social customer care for Landon Hotels, and a customer, Zachary, posts this comment on your public Facebook page. I'm not sure how this hotel stays in business. This was the worst stay ever. Of course you're going to investigate this issue and follow up with Zachary privately, but you do owe him a response on your public Facebook page. Try starting with one of these vague, but empathetic responses. Oh no! That's not right! Not good! Oh my! That's not what we like to hear. These phrasings show you understand his anger, but don't agree that the hotel is filthy and his stay was the worst. They also work because they use the less formal style of social customer care without sounding too casual or sarcastic. The next thing you can do is thank the customer for sharing the information. You'll have to do more than this to calm and satisfy an angry customer, but you can start by thanking them for sharing. Here's a tweet from an upset Carrier Airlines customer reporting an unpleasant interaction with one of their employees, and here are a few ways the response could be written. Thanks for letting us know about your stressful experience with flight number 123 from Baltimore, or we're glad you shared this information about your experience with our gate agent in Baltimore. Of course, you'll follow these thanks with a clear explanation of how you're going to look into this situation, but thanking an angry customer is a neutral, reasonable start. The final technique is to ask a clarifying question. This way, you acknowledge the customer's distress by starting a conversation, which is a natural way to use social media. Here's an angry tweet from customer Rochelle who's had repeated problems ordering a ride using the Red30 ride-hailing app. She didn't get a ride, but she did get charged. Here are a couple of ways that Red30's response tweet could include a question. "Hi, Rochelle. "So sorry our app's been freezing on you! "Were you using 4.27 or 4.28?" Or, "Hi, Rochelle, "We want to help fix this problem right away! "Were you on the Book a Ride "or the Confirm screen when it froze?" It's a balancing act, isn't it? As a social customer care agent, you love your company and are reluctant to throw it under the bus. However, you also want to show you understand the customer's perspective. Use these three writing techniques and you should be able to do both.

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