Negative WOM is bound to happen, but here’s what you can do to lessen the impact:
1> Ask happy customers to submit reviews
2> Create positive content
3> Bring the discussions in-house
1> Ask happy customers to submit reviews
Odds are you have a ton of happy customers that haven’t considered submitting a review for you. Encourage your fans to post online comments about your brand and let them know how important word of mouth is to your business. A polite and simple request for a review from happy customers can do wonders toward balancing out a few negative comments.
Learn more: Yelp, Epinions, Amazon
2> Create positive content
In searches for your brand, are you showing up with great, positive content? Start a blog, earn links and own the top results for both your brand and your products. If an online firestorm develops, your trusted blog will not only dilute negative results with existing positive content, but it will also be a critical platform for addressing issues.
3> Bring the discussions in-house
Create a forum allowing discussions to take place in-house, otherwise they’ll happen elsewhere and be much harder to track, manage and resolve. If a heated conversation is going to take place about your brand or your products, it’s best to have them occur on your forums or your blogs. Not only does this make it easier to follow and engage the conversation, but it also allows your fans to jump in to help support you and solve other customers’ problems.
UPS: Building a business case for customer support
PepsiCo: Recruiting talent with social media
Radian6: An exclusive chat with CEO Marcel LeBrun
BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media