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“Refuse to let small, petty people distract you from your big purpose.”

–Unknown

1.  Breathe.   Stop and breathe.  Take a deep breath before reacting to any negative news.  When you are upset at a customer one of the worst things you can do is to allow your emotions to dictate your response.  In the world of Social Customer Service one of the pieces of advice that is given frequently is to respond quickly, but not in this instance.  As a matter of fact one of the smartest things you could do is to sleep on it.  Sleeping on it allows you to gain a new perspective on the situation.  You’ll become less emotional with the situation and hopefully a cooler head will prevail. 

2.  Seek Wise Counsel.   Seek wise counsel is excellent advice.  It’s even in the bible. Proverbs 15:22 says,  “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”  This one action will help you and me from doing anything irrational and something we might regret.  Seeking wise counsel is also helpful if the person is not emotionally involved.  They will have a  better perspective and a better view of the beginning, middle and end of the situation.

3.  Consider the alternatives.  I love it when Dan Miller of 48 days says the we should not limit ourselves to either/or solutions.  He likes to look for “and” solutions.  So, in your anger perhaps you’ve decided that you should either go kick their butt or go strangle them.  Dan’s advice would be to kick their butt and strangle them.  You see you are not just limiting yourself to only one outcome.  Stop!  I was just kidding, please don’t go kick someone’s butt or strangle them.  Seriously though an “and “solution opens the door to other possibilities than just one or two things.  If you followed step #2 of Seeking Wise Counsel they should help you arrive at several possible approaches to the problem at hand.  This will help you create a clear plan of action with a predictable end result.

4.  Consider someone else.  Consider the reality that it might be in your best interest to let someone else respond to the complaint or allegation.  Even when we think we might be at the point of being sensible and non-prejudice the reality is we are directly involved.  It is very difficult to remove your emotions and feelings completely from the situation.  Consider allowing someone else see this particular situation to completion.  Besides, after this you may never want to deal with social media ever again.  So consider allowing someone else to take it over completely.  Do what you do best and that is to focus on the business or your work, not tweeting or posting!

5.  Don’t be condescending.  Whatever you do, don’t be condescending.  You might think you have enlightened the customer with your response or responses but you have only made yourself look bad and validated their original complaint.  There is a local corporate dental office here in town.  One of their patient’s posted a complaint.  The doctor felt it was his duty to respond and he did so with a lengthy post.  He did a nice job of apologizing and trying to make things right, but in between the apology and offers he became condescending.  In the end he ended up looking like a jerk which only justified the person’s reaction and complaint.  Way to go doc! Oh wait, was that condescending!

6.  Recover Remarkably.  I don’t have the perfect answer for every situation but there are ways in which you can recover remarkably.  The first is to not focus on the problem, focus on the solution.  Allow yourself and your posts to move beyond one bad posting.  Show the world that you are bigger than one complaint.  Want to counter your complaint?  Go and get fans, raving fans to be exact.  Have them post on your blog, Facebook page or tweet out positive messages on your behalf.  Most people aren’t dumb.  They know there are grumpy people in this world and you just can’t make everyone happy.

7. Don’t add water to a grease fire.  I’m no psychologist but I am pretty certain that calling someone fat and ugly (listen to podcast 020 for the story) is not the best way to NOT attract attention to a problem.  I’m no counselor but I believe name calling will only stoke the flames of rage and hate.  So whatever you do, don’t put water on a grease fire.  It will grow in intensity and could possibly cause an explosion.

8.  Focus Forward.  Focus on the recovery and not the damage.  Once the social media is out there, retraction is near impossible.  This is not a local newspaper that can print the “I’m sorry we made a mistake.”  Besides even if it was possible, it would not reach everyone who read it originally and probably be printed on page 13 or something.  So keep your focus forward.  Think about what needs to be done differently, better, or never again.  Focus on the solutions and continued improvement of your brand or company.

Social media can be a wonderful thing, as well as a damaging thing.  It can lead your business to more success than you ever imagined or destroy a reputation literally overnight.  With such a powerful tool comes responsibility and respect.  You must treat it in a responsible manner to help progress your cause.  You must respect it because, like a snake, it can leap up and bite you.  Best of luck and I hope this article has helped you.

I’d love to here from you!  Comment Below or e-mail me at ubergood@ubergoodexperience.com

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