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As we often say, every brand experiences negative feedback. But it’s how you handle it that separates you from everyone else. If you’re willing to engage genuinely and honestly, you can expect one of these three positive results:
1. Love
2. Respect
3. Truth
1. Love
The response you should always aim for is to turn a former critic into a loyal, adoring fan. By acting quickly and making things right, you’ll get customers posting things like, “I love these guys. They saw my problem, approached me, and fixed it.” An upset customer might talk to five people, but a formerly upset customer you win over will talk to 10 times as many.
2. Respect
If you can’t earn their love, you should at least work to win their respect. You won’t always be able to fix every problem, but a genuine effort can still turn the conversation around. In this scenario, you’re looking for a response like, “They couldn’t fix my problem, but they came to me and tried to help. I respect them for it.”
3. Truth
Finally, sometimes you’ll find yourself dealing with someone who just can’t be reasoned with. When this happens, it’s not the attacker you’re trying to speak to, it’s everyone else following along. If you make an honest attempt to fix the problem, everyone else will see the critic being unfair and know you tried to do the right thing.
