Comments on: Six Steps For Dealing With Detractors

By: Greg Uhrlen

Greg Uhrlen — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:17:58 +0000

Hi Jason,

Engaging detractors in a professional light often times will expose their true issues at hand for others to see. In the past, I owned a small out-of-print music sales business. We had a customer who was looking at a catalog of ours, read the wrong description and thought it applied to the item above. She purchased the item and the day it arrived, the flaming started. We engaged her professionally, offered her a refund (including all postage) but she was not satisfied. She complained about us on 4 different music selling sites with the tail getting taller by the day. We kept answering her in a calm, professional manner and eventually she was banned from each of these websites for flaming. We even received compliments from non-customers on the way we handled her rants. Since it was a small business, we had to handle this situation aggressively. Otherwise, if we would have let her rant, it would have damaged our reputation in a niche music selling field.

By: Silence in content marketing is no laughing matter « Talefoundry | A White-Label Content Marketing Agency

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:53:21 +0000

[...] to do the same thing. The goal should be to get a dialogue going. Even hecklers are welcomed! Jason Falls can teach you how to deal with hecklers here. So if your content isn’t getting that job done, you need new [...]

By: Randy Murray

Randy Murray — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:47:46 +0000

These are some great points.

Social media, especially twitter, is a great equalizer. It use to be that a stakeholder with a legitimate complaint would have no recourse other than grumbling to a small group of friends. No that complaint is written against the sky. This should be incentive for companies to reform their dealings with customers and vendors and some companies are learning hard lessons about this (Toyota, BP).

By: Student aid

Student aid — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:52:12 +0000

I wonder also about addressing the detractors within the company? We had several skeptics who were quite vocal last week. Even habitual moaners still have to be treated politely by online customer service and gently encouraged to go away, just as they would be if they were on the phone (and anyone who has ever done. I think my designation of offended publics and disgruntled stakeholders may bleed a bit negative. Offended could mean confused by a pricing issue.

By: Sunday reading, July 11th « BLITZKRIEG BOPP

Sunday reading, July 11th « BLITZKRIEG BOPP — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:10:22 +0000

[...] Six Steps For Dealing With Detractors [...]

By: There’s always a person on the other side of those pixels … | Randall Helms dot COM

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:04:02 +0000

[...] This is an expanded version of a comment that I left on Jason Falls’ post Six Steps for Dealing with Detractors on Social Media [...]

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:57:00 +0000

Good thoughts, Randall. Thanks for adding them!

By: Randall Helms

Randall Helms — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:46:50 +0000

Is how you handle detractors off-line different that how you would handle them on-line? Do you do something differently than what I’ve suggested?

hi Jason,

It's probably a temptation that is best avoided! One of the problems with dealing with disembodied pixels is that it is easy to forget that there is a person on the other side, and therefore it is easier to be less polite than you would be face to face (which is of course why so many people behave online in ways that they never would in meatspace). Even habitual moaners still have to be treated politely by online customer service and gently encouraged to go away, just as they would be if they were on the phone (and anyone who has ever done any customer service work knows how essential it is to be polite even to those who really don't deserve it!)

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:57:00 +0000

Good thoughts, Randall. Thanks for adding them!

By: JasonFalls

JasonFalls — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:57:00 +0000

Good thoughts, Randall. Thanks for adding them!

By: Randall Helms

Randall Helms — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:46:50 +0000

Is how you handle detractors off-line different that how you would handle them on-line? Do you do something differently than what Iâ€™ve suggested?

hi Jason,

It's probably a temptation that is best avoided! One of the problems with dealing with disembodied pixels is that it is easy to forget that there is a person on the other side, and therefore it is easier to be less polite than you would be face to face (which is of course why so many people behave online in ways that they never would in meatspace). Even habitual moaners still have to be treated politely by online customer service and gently encouraged to go away, just as they would be if they were on the phone (and anyone who has ever done any customer service work knows how essential it is to be polite even to those who really don't deserve it!)