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How can brands best prepare and distinguish between genuine customer complaints and Internet trolls? Here are our six steps for managing online customer service.
The Internet has always been toxic long before 2016, this most polarising of years. In 2015, a quarter of UK teens reported being trolled online. For brands keen – rightly – to use social media as a customer service channel, the line between angry customers and trolling can become blurred.
Firstly, what is “trolling”? There is nothing wrong with complaining about a brand’s performance or service online. However, for me customer complaints become “trolling” when the interaction becomes offensive, persistent and personal against the staff representing the brand. Some trolling is a deliberate attempt to seek a reaction.
Brands cannot expect the public to have a Seneca-like sense of perspective, but can manage their response through a clear policy and regular social media training. It’s key that we recognise that human nature is to blame for Internet trolling, not social media. Social media is just the platform, what people choose to do on it is up to them.
Firstly, let’s look at how trolls act.
Why Internet trolling happens
The Internet gives distance and a sense of anonymity to would-be Internet trolls, called “online disinhibition”. The Internet troll therefore so acts with little or any care for the feelings of the recipient that would not happen so often in offline environments.
This video explores the psychology of the Internet troll:
This doesn’t account for angry customers who stray across the line and start insulting brands’ customer service or social media teams, but is worth understanding how people can become disconnected from normal human interaction when communicating over digital channels.
How brands can prepare for Internet trolls
You will have heard the mantra “don’t feed the trolls”, and it’s true for those seeking a reaction, but what about those whose points need addressing?
I have managed communities for a global hotel chain, and electronics and computer games brands so have experienced a wide range of customer service and trolling issues. Here are my brief tips on how to deal with difficult customers and Internet trolls alike, all of which should be supported by an effective policy:
Step One: Set up policy and response protocol. This should include customer service/social media, PR, marketing, legal and senior management teams. It will define the manner of response and the tone, and it will empower teams with confidence that they know what to do and that management has their back. The vast majority of cases can be dealt with by the customer service/social media teams, but every so often some more senior input may be required.
Step Two: Train your team. Test the response protocol with simulations in a private setting, and make sure you have had crisis communications training.
Step Three: Listen. An always-on 24/7 team is out of reach for most organisations, but monitor as much as you can during business hours, set audience expectations by citing the hours you will respond, and approach each response on a case-by-case basis.
Step Four: Assess/research instigator of each interaction. Are they an irate customer with a legitimate complaint? Are they an antagonistic troll? Look over their history. How many genuine followers do they have and what is their social media history?
Step Five: Diffuse. If genuine, try to diffuse the situation and take issue offline as soon as possible with direct personal contact. Quite often just being listened to is enough to calm people down. If they only want to deal in public over social media, then tread very carefully.
Step Six: Assess your response protocol regularly. How many steps does it take to solve a problem typically? What’s your response rate? Any best practice case studies you can use as part of your training?
It is hard not to take it personal when dealing with aggressive customers or trolls, but social media teams must detach themselves emotionally. Social media is here to stay so brands should embrace it as a means to improve their customer service.
If you need assistance articulating your social media offering or general digital transformation, please get in touch.