There is no escaping social media in the event industry. Notably, reviews that customers leave about your events on social media can have a significant impact on your company’s reputation and even affect attendance at your future events.
Knowing how to effectively respond to negative reviews of your event is an essential part of event management.
Handling criticism on social media does not need to be a wholly negative experience, and the way that you respond to such criticism can actually benefit your clients’ perceptions of your company.
Read on to discover for yourself the proven best practices for dealing with negative reviews and online backlash about your events.
Best practices for dealing with negative reviews and online backlash about your events
Dealing with negative feedback on social media is one of the downsides of living in the digital age. But negative reviews and online backlash for events do not have to be the end of the world for your business, there are several ways that you can handle criticism on social media so that the bad experience does not become a business death sentence.
Respond to negative feedback quickly
Handling negative feedback should be a quick-response process as soon as you detect it. If people are going to leave you a negative review they will most likely strike just after the event, so have your wits about you and give a fast response to minimise any unwanted damage!
Give thought to your response
Even though you should respond swiftly after receiving negative feedback, it should still be well thought out and meaningful.
Handling criticism on social media does not mean simply shutting it down. If there is value to the criticism that you have received, albeit negative, you can work out how to use this constructively and improve on your future events.
Be honest with your response
Following on from what is mentioned above, you must always be thoughtful and honest with your responses.
Being honest about any genuine mistakes will help you maintain your event reputation online because customers would much rather see that you have taken their constructive criticism on board and are working to better their service, rather than simply try to dismiss the issue they have addressed with you.
When responding to negative reviews on social media honesty really is always the best policy.
Keep a friendly tone
Handling criticism on social media can be an unpleasant task, to say the least. You have worked tirelessly to ensure that your event runs smoothly and you only want your attendees to have a great experience. We understand that it can then be beyond frustrating when you are met with negative feedback once the event has finished. But it is important that you do not match this seeming rudeness.
Preventing you from ruining your event’s reputation online can be as simple as remaining friendly and polite when you are met with unprofessional correspondence from attendees.
There is so much value for you as a business to respond to negative social media feedback in a professional manner, giving an apology when needed, and offering to resolve any issue they feel they encountered during your event.
Make sure that you respond to all feedback
If a client has taken time to provide you with feedback on your event, then it is just good customer service to give them equal attention and respond to their feedback.
If an attendee feels they are being listened to and that their feedback is being valued, they will feel valued by your company in general and are more likely to give you their custom in the future.
Know when a response is not enough
A constructive response to your feedback is often the only needed approach to negative social media comments about your events. However, in cases where you feel like there has been a genuine mistake on your part at the event, you should work to rectify the issue and make it right with the customer. Sometimes simply an apology will not cut it.
What your customer might value as an apology will vary according to the type of mistake that you are compensating for. If you really want to make a heartfelt apology to your client then be creative with what would make them personally feel valued.
Hopefully, we have demonstrated how through effective event management you can minimise the impact that negative social media feedback has on the attendance of your future events.
If you work in the events industry and are planning an event soon, then a crucial part of the event planning process will be hiring an event photographer. Booking your event photography through Splento is a great idea – for the affordable price of just £99 per hour, you can expect expertly retouched images within an impressive turnaround time.
And best of all, they promise that you will have nothing to complain about afterwards!
Contact Splento today for your event photography needs.
