How to weather a social media storm – just say sorry

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Last weekend local wineries had their biggest event of the calendar – the annual Sea and Vines Festival. It’s usually a pretty festive event (as the name suggests) and much fun is had by all.

This year, however, one venue is counting the (reputation) cost of a disgruntled customer who aired her complaint on Facebook.

Put simply, this young woman was a breastfeeding mum of a four-month old baby, and the Sea and Vines was apparently her first big outing  – sans baby – since giving birth.

Problem is, as any breastfeeding mum knows, even if the baby is not around the boobs need …. relieving. Not only to keep up supply but, also, ouchy ouchy ginormous boobs are no fun for anyone (and can lead to mastitis – ask any dairy cow how much fun THAT is).

So she asked staff at the winery for a quiet place to pump. Not only did they refuse, but according to her account, she was ridiculed and ended up pumping outside, in the winter air, behind a water tank.

The next day, she made a complaint on the wineries’ Facebook page. Which they deleted.

She they posted a status update on her own page (they have no control over this) and at last count, it had been shared more than 10,000 times.

Oops.

During all this maelstrom, the winery made no comment. In fact, its Facebook page disappeared.

It was only when the story hit the mainstream media – in the form on the local suburban rag – that they gave a statement. And even then, the apology – for what it’s worth – was a touch backhanded.

The statement also acknowledged that taking down the Facebook page and remaining silent may have appeared as if they were in denial.

“…we are not social media experts and were unsure how to cope with the negativity”.

No shit.

And therein lies the problem. Businesses around the world have been quick to jump on the social media bandwagon, but very few do it well – and know how to deal with the very real possibility that they will cop some sort of criticism. Quite frankly, it is PR 101 – just on a much grander scale thanks to the proliferation of social media and the ease in which news travels.

You might remember I had a similar run in with a local establishment myself recently – who made it worse for themselves by deleting my negative post on their page and then continuing to attack me in the comments on my review (probably because pages can’t delete reviews – something that needs to be kept in mind).

So what should the winery have done (you know, apart from not ridiculed the woman in the first place)?

Just one simple thing – they should have acknowledged the woman’s initial post on their page, and apologised – even if they did not necessarily think their staff had done anything wrong. Actually that’s two things, but they go hand in hand

. I am willing to bet that if this had happened right off the bat, the young woman would not have been so incensed as to post an update on her page and ENCOURAGED people to share (and in the time it has taken me to write this post, the number of shares has increased to 11,000).

These days, even more than ever, businesses cannot afford to bury their head in the sand when it comes to criticism. We all know you can’t please all of the people all of the time – but you can admit your mistakes, say sorry, and move on.

Remember, saying “sorry” is not an admission of guilt, but rather a way of showing empathy to the person who feels wronged.

And social media storms such as this continue to happen because businesses seem to apply the old adage of “ignore it and it will go away”.

Not so much.

Finally, if a business – any business – chooses to have a social media presence then they must – MUST – either learn to be social media experts, or employ someone who is. Otherwise, they have no-one to blame but themselves when it all goes tits up.

Yes, social media is a wonderful way to promote your business, but it is also the prime example of two-way communication with customers. And if you are going to ignore or delete poor customer reviews, then that kind of defeats the purpose.

Till next time Nicole