Social media outreach is all about building relationships, being relevant and useful, and listening and responding to the people engaging with your brand. That is all tricky enough, but sometimes you have to listen and respond to unhappy people in a very public place.

Dealing with disgruntled customers on a company social media profile can be a challenge, but it is not impossible to convert an angry commenter to a loyal customer. Bathrooms.com found this out when they were accused of terrible service on one of their social media pages. They faced the challenge head on and ended up with a customer that was more than happy with the service she received, today they share with us how they made this happen.

The background

One day, a customer posted an angry comment on their Facebook wall, mentioning a product flaw and the many emails she had sent about the issue that had not replied to. “…I’m really at the end of my patience with it,” she wrote. “I have tried phoning – I’ve held on 3 times for between 16 and 25 minutes, but it was never picked up. I emailed before the flush stopped working, to ask for a new cyphen and some bath clips. I got no reply. Then I send about 40 emails when it had stopped flushing altogether, and got told they’d sort it. Since then I’ve sent over 100 emails trying to find out whether the items were going to be sent – and you are the first response I’ve got!!”

The initial response – listen, then get the customer in touch with the right people

The person monitoring the social media page noticed this comment and immediately assured the customer that they heard her complaint and were going to get in touch with the appropriate people to handle her issues.

As they looked into the problem, however, the employees at Bathrooms.com noticed something odd: they couldn’t find the record of her purchase anywhere. They ran a public search on her name, finding one person in the UK with that name. They cross-referenced the associated address with their records to see if the order was placed under someone else’s name. The problem was brought to the attention of the COO, who started monitoring the situation.

The escalation – when other people weigh in, agree that something has gone badly wrong

During this time, the customers friends began to comment on how terrible the situation was, saying they would never use Bathrooms.com. The people handling Bathrooms.com’s Facebook page agreed that the situation was horrible, that the friends were right to offer their support and that any resolution would be shared publicly to anyone who was interested.

When they realized there would be a short delay in resolving the problem, employees took to the Facebook page to tell the customer. They even joked about being a virtual wall for any frustrated people to bang their heads on, which amused the customer so much that she stopped being angry and was willing to wait to see what would happen.

The solution – when the problem is revealed, solve it as soon as possible

Eventually, Bathrooms.com were able to figure out what was wrong. The product was indeed faulty, and she certainly had sent many emails complaining. There was no record of it at Bathrooms.com, however, because she had ordered the product from another Bathrooms company. She simply confused the two brands when she took to Facebook!

She was so pleased with the service she got from Bathrooms.com that she quickly deleted her negative posts, replacing them with one singing the praises of Bathrooms.com’s service. She said “I have just spoken to a great guy called Philip who was a star. Wished I’d gone with these guys instead!!”

Conclusion

Every social media crisis will be slightly different, but they can all be solved using the same basic plan:

1. Acknowledge the customer’s problem, apologize that something went so wrong, and tell them how you are going to begin addressing it.
2. Figure out what went wrong, and get the problem in front of the people who can set it right.
3. Keep the customer informed of the process.
4. Resolve the issue as publicly as it started, so other customers can see how well you provide customer service under stressful situations.

Bathrooms.com and their social media team followed this process and they went from potential social media crisis to a customer expressing gratitude for how they handled the situation. That is definitely a social media win!