Have you ever received negative feedback or a complaint? Or have you been attacked by haters or trolls? We’ve all had this happen at one point or another. In this episode, we learn from Jay Baer that haters are our most valuable customers and we should NICELY respond to each of them. This is unconventional wisdom that I have not followed in the past.

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Jay Baer Teaches Us How to Handle Haters, Trolls, and Complaints:

“A customer you ignore is a customer you should be prepared to lose.”

Jay Baer tells us that when you answer an unhappy customer (even if you can’t fix it) it increases their advocacy by 50%. ? If you ignore them it further reduces their advocacy by 25%. ?

If you answer them you have a chance of helping them. If you do not answer them you have zero chance of helping the customer.

Today customer service happens in public, if someone is upset they will let you and everyone on the internet know how and why they are upset. ?

2 types of complaints

On Stage – Public, social media, review sites

Off Stage – Phone calls, emails

More and more customer interactions are happening in a public place. As time rolls on all customer interactions will be happening in public.
When you have these people who complain online, you need to respond to them. You have the opportunity to fix their problem and retain them as a customer.

Complaints can trigger the flight or fight reflex. Flight ? would be ignoring; fight ? would be getting upset and fighting back. You want to respond quickly, but not so quickly that you are reacting. Let yourself chill and then respond.

Don’t use this as an opportunity to defend yourself or your business, use it as an opportunity to make that customer happy and loyal to your business. Once you do this these types of customers become your most valuable customers!

You should listen to this: Getting More out of Life and Business

These customers that take time out of their day to complain to you are more valuable than the silent customers. You can leverage these complaints to know what you need to fix or be better at.

Jay Baer’s Playbook For Handling On-Stage Complaints:

1. Listen Harder ? – You have to find where the complaints are, most of the time they are in-direct and may not reach out to you or tag you in their social media post.

2. Be Quick ? – the expectation for response time is fast.

3. Respond with Empathy ? – the reality is that you have no idea what is actually happening in that customers life. Empathy is key to breakthrough in any conversation that has any sort of tension or disagreement in it.

4. Reply only Twice ✌ – Don’t get sucked into the argument or conversation. Reply only twice, no matter what they say, or what the circumstances are.

Jay Baer’s final thought: ?

Remember it’s almost never personal even though it feels personal. Also, regardless of the complaint, there is almost always a kernel of truth in it. If you step away a little bit, you will see the small truth in the complaint.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

▶ Read the Book: Hug Your Haters
▶ Read Jay’s New Book: Talk Triggers

How have you creatively handled complaints, haters, and trolls? AND (or) share a story of a funny complaint you’ve received.