Our Daily Dose of Hate

Are haters really worse than pneumonia, or are they worth their weight in gold? Haters are a mirror of your company or project, so let’s lean towards option B. I would divide them into three groups:

1. Your Haters
They’ll make you feel it acutely if something wasn’t 100%. The air conditioning in the store was too strong, the air conditioning was too weak… You surely know this. But if 15 people write to you that the air conditioning is too strong, it’s a signal you should take seriously. When people complain about something more frequently, it’s time to pay attention. And that should be taken positively. They show what’s not working in your company, and for free! Employees may not be completely honest, but a good hater will do an audit on the spot.

2. Competitors’ Haters
And these you should cherish. After all, what’s more beautiful than negative comments under your competition? A pleasure better than the juiciest fruit. And for you, it’s a gold mine. You’ll read what doesn’t work for others, quickly fix it yourself, and then offer yourself as the winner of this battle. You’ll catch your flies at the expense of your opponents. A gold mine!

3. Rebels Without a Cause
People don’t know how to work with critical thinking and have become complacent. By serving everything to them on a silver platter, they no longer even try to make an effort to find out, for example, opening hours or the price/size of a product. However, what all these haters have in common is unlimited internet and a charged battery. They write mindlessly about everything from 5G nanochips to lizard people under the bed. These haters are truly useless and worthy of being marked as spam.

The answer is quality community management. And if you can afford it within your corporate communication strategy, there’s room for trolling. It depends mainly on the brand image – whether you want conversions or want to be seen as polite. However, never stoop to insults. An insult or personal interest is always an argumentative foul.

Source: Koleštík SKVELÝ NÁPAD

Humanity is Fundamental

On social networks and the internet, we can write anything and (almost) nothing will happen to us for it. That’s why people become anonymous bots. A good strategy is to bring back humanity.

I’ll highlight the strategy of large corporations. There’s a huge difference if you sign the reaction to a hater as a company or as a person. “We’re sorry you had this experience, but we’ve fixed everything and we’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Kate”

It takes as little as a signature and the robotic response sounds more human, and our hater then has less ambition to continue their crusade against you on social networks. Look for the psychology behind it.

Source: Koleštík SKVELÝ NÁPAD

And since no one likes long-winded articles, here’s a small extract:

• 4.8 > 5. This is about ratings on profiles like Facebook or Google My Business. 4.8 looks much more organic than a pure five, which smells a bit of fake reviews.
• You MUST reply to every review. Ideally, change the word order or use the reviewer’s name so you don’t appear robotic. Add emojis too.
• Use polls on social media. You’ll learn a lot and entertain your audience.
• You MUST respond to every hate (except for truly irrelevant ones). Try to empathize with the critic, but be diplomatic and stand by your employees if they’re right. If you respond reasonably – people will form their own opinion and you won’t look like a fool.
• NEVER reply outside of opening/operating hours.
• Be prepared. Competitors might hire haters for fake reviews against you. Therefore, have pre-prepared answers to basic questions they might criticize you for, and when the time comes – use them as a response.
• Google Console is a must. You’ll find out what people are searching for on your website. If you find that 90% of customers are asking for an e-shop, accommodate them.
• Don’t fall into the phrase “Write to us in a private message and we’ll solve it together.” People want to be entertained and want to see how you’ll react. You can beautifully argue against the hater and still be the star!
• If you get a bad review and it’s obvious that it’s unjustified, then get organic good reviews. Encourage people to review through social media, at the checkout e.g. via QR code, and you’ll see that the bad review will quickly get buried in the flood of great ones.

In conclusion, just this: 1 hater is always louder than 100 satisfied clients. Don’t forget your successes. Almost everyone writes hate, but almost no one writes praise. Don’t let this distort your image of your business.