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Our first instinct is generally to go on the defensive.  Before you start churning out excuses, take a deep breath and objectively listen to the criticism being offered.  Is there any truth to what is being said?  Can you understand that person’s point of view, if you don’t can you ask them to elaborate or expand on what is being said?

You have this one opportunity to listen to this person, understand them, get an ideal understanding of their point of view and empathize with them.  Don’t blow it by talking over the top of them or discounting their point of view.

Discuss

Its ok not to necessarily agree, you can always agree to disagree – but you should certainly discuss.  If this person is completely out of the ball park or lost a grip on reality politely make your point of view, state your argument and then at the same time explain that you completely understand that they are entitled to thiers and in this case you are open to agreeing to disagree.

Keep It Professional

Always keep it professional, do not let the person bring the conversation down into smutsville, if they are unreasonably digging for an argument or being completely unreasonable check with others as to their point of view.  If everyone else thinks that this person is just being an asshole then its completely likely that others will to, if they do then they have quite clearly lost their credibility so you don’t need to be all over it. with responses  Don’t delete the thread – keep it there to show the fact that you do listen and that “Yes” sometimes you have to deal with difficult customers to.

Be Honest

Don’t try to lie or squirm your way out of a situation, if you have made a genuine mistake then admit it.  As soon as you have been proven to be a fibber then you have lost your credibility and everyone will know it.  If you don’t know the facts then find out, if you don’t have the answer explain that you are in the process of getting the answer – in no instance delete the post as this will annoy people more and reinforce the fact that they are dealing with the a bad company.

Be Informed

If you don’t know the facts then you need to get them pretty quickly, if you have negative feedback then you need to be thankful for it, you have a unique opportunity to turn this person around from a negative influence to a positive one by your actions.

Ask Advice

If you get a very tricky situation to deal with and you are not sure what to do you should speak to your media agency, head of PR or CEO – take multiple streams of advice and then take action based on your best option.

Learn from your mistakes

If you get it wrong admit that you got it wrong – learn from your mistakes as its certainly the most effective way to learn

Comments (2)

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written by Steve Vaile, November 04, 2009

Jessica you are more than welcome, I would prefer the cash to a coffee! No worries I am glad it helped. Could you please send me a link to the post or the tweet so I can take a look at how you responded just for my reference only.

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written by Jessica Alvares, November 04, 2009

Great advice - thanks to this post and your advice I just turned a rather sticky situation for our company into a positive PR placement . Thank you Stephen for very good advice I think you may have just won me a promotion. If you ever get to Pasadena Texas please feel free to drop in for a coffee. I sent you my email.

Jessica Alvares.

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