Handling Negative Reviews or Comments

by Ret David North

How do you handle negative reviews on your Facebook page or on Google? Or how do you handle snarky comments or criticism on social media? Especially now, when so much of what we do on a daily basis is online, your engagement with your community via online platforms can make or break whether visitors and church shoppers will take interest in becoming a part of your congregation. This includes how you respond (or don’t respond) to negative, hateful or spam comments on social media, or negative reviews on Facebook, Google, and even Yelp. Here are some do’s and don’ts for handling negativity on social media.

Don’t ignore negative messages, especially on public platforms. Unless you are a church with thousands of negative comments and messages a day, you do not have the luxury of affording those comments going unnoticed or unacknowledged. This not only makes the commenter feel as if their experience and anger has gone unheard, but it makes visitors, church shoppers, and everyone else who can see that comment believe that you are trying to avoid confronting the issue and the person behind it. In this moment, everyone who can see the unacknowledged comment or message will begin to doubt your level of public engagement with your community.

Gauge the validity and level of personal charge in each message. From here, you can decide the most logical response to each individual message and, if another pops up from the same person, you can also figure out how to deal with the person.

Only delete messages that have no validity whatsoever. If you have any reasonable doubt that something said in the message has validity to it, deleting the message is the same as ignoring it completely, and can also give the impression to visitors that you have more issues than that one comment that you are trying to avoid. However, if the comment has some validity but violates your standards for community conduct on your platforms (i.e. vulgar language, insults or slurs, etc.), you can delete the comment so no one else on your platform is bothered by it, but then reach out to the sender personally and engage in constructive conversation to identify the problem and figure out a productive solution. In an instance like this, Facebook also provides the option for you to hide the comment, which prevents anyone but the commenter and those connected directly to them from seeing the comment. In this instance, the comment might not necessarily be crazy enough to delete but could cause some conflict in the community if left completely visible; hiding the comment is a method for fallout control that enables the commenter to still feel like they were heard.

Respond in a timely and professional manner. No matter how much validity is contained in a negative message or comment, responding on the public level and on the personal level with the sender of the message without emotional charge and from the angle of wanting to learn and do better is the most productive way to handle negative comments. Sometimes, these instances end up boiling down to simple misunderstandings. While you want to right the wrong with the person who sent the message, you also want to maintain the narrative with others seeing the thread to ensure that they know you engage with your community, even through negativity, and that you are not afraid to be humble and learn when a mistake has happened.