5 PR Tips for Making a Successful Complaint on Social Media

Consumers have discovered that complaining on social media can go a long way. A customer may always be right, but be forewarned, being nasty won’t get you very far. Behind every social media account is a person, or people as the case may be. These days customers have quick access to companies through social media networks. Business owners and managers have taken notice and are spending time developing social media policies, social customer service teams, and engagement campaigns. And just like any customer service job, it’s all about the people: If your customers and employees aren’t happy, you could have a real public relations disaster on your hands. No one likes bad customer service and companies spend ample talking about how to improve these efforts. But what happens when a customer is just plain rude and nasty? The customer service rep may try the old “kill them with kindness” routine but inside they really want to tell you ________ (you can fill in the blank). Here are 5 PR tips for making a successful complaint on social media:

1. Get to the point. Address your problem, but keep it quick and to the point. People want to help you so tell them how.

2. Forget the threats. Unless you’re a major public figure, threatening messages of blasting all your friends and family probably won’t mean much to the person on the receiving end.

3. Watch your mouth. Avoid rude and profanity laced language. No one wants to help a jerk.

4. Don’t jump the gun. For example, was something not delivered on time? Give it to the end of the day or call customer service to help you track it down before you make a big stink on social media. If it’s already on its way and delivered shortly after you share your complaint, you’ll just look like a dummy.

5. Be reasonable. People run companies. People also make mistakes. Give the company a chance to right their wrong.

Odds are if a company has a social media account on Facebook, Twitter, etc., they have someone monitoring it (at least this social media marketing girl hopes they do). If they don’t respond or are rude, then go ahead and complain, blast it out to your friends and family, or just don’t use their service again, ultimately the latter will hurt them the most. But whatever you do, give yourself a chance to be helped by approaching the situation in the best way possible.