Trolling and negative reviews

Trolling and negative reviews are two very different things. Although a dissatisfied customer may become a troll, it is important to understand the differences and act accordingly to avoid further problems and of course to avoid damaging your business’ reputation.

We live in the “online world” where almost everything we do happens online. This can be a great thing as businesses are more accessible to customers and communication is highly facilitated by platforms like social media etc. Unfortunately, with that comes trolling and negativity and in recent years we’ve seen a massive increase in this phenomenon online and what is called “social” media turned into something that looks more like “toxic” media. So as entrepreneurs, we need to be prepared for it. We cannot go down the toxic path and we must always defend the interests of our business.

Trolling

This is a common expression to describe the activities of the so-called keyboard warriors or trolls. Most times these people have no complaints, they don’t have a genuine reason to say anything against their victims, sometimes individuals, sometimes businesses. Usually, they are just toxic, they have no arguments, just toxic words to incite hatred or more toxic behaviour.

Sometimes a dissatisfied customer can present a troll behaviour and we must act fast and solve the problem before it escalates further.

Negative Reviews

A negative review is far different from trolling. No one wants to get a negative review from a client, we run a business and we always want our clients to be happy with the services we provide. But if we make a mistake, we want to know about it, so we can correct it and improve. A negative review can be a great way for us to shine too.

It all depends on the way we deal with things and how we take that feedback.

Turning a negative into a positive

I would say that in both cases we must never follow the negative path. We have a business to run and that would be the end of it. I would say, we must find if it is a legitimate dissatisfied customer or just a troll and then solve the matter in a positive and professional way.

A troll won’t change their behaviour regardless of your approach. Most times these people are not clients at all and have never had contact with the business, they are just there to be toxic and cause offence. Reporting that behaviour to the platform and blocking the person from commenting would be the right approach.  If the person was indeed a customer, then it is important that you acknowledge the reason for their dissatisfaction and create a communication path, privately with the customer, in order to solve it. I would use the same approach to a negative review.

By acknowledging the customer and creating a communication pathway to get a solution for the problem, you are showing the client and others your great customer service. We are all humans, and we all make mistakes. It is the way we deal with those mistakes that make the difference. If we acknowledge them and move forward, we can grow and shine in a very dark situation. If we follow a defensive or toxic path, we can ruin our business.