How to Respond to Angry Customers on Social Media Ep 246

Most organizations prepare for system changes with FAQs and talking points. When Honor Credit Union switched its core banking platform overnight, 110,000 members woke up to something unfamiliar, and some of them were not happy about it.

Jen Wagner and her social media team responded to nearly a thousand comments over two weeks. Not with scripted replies or copy-paste answers. With real people, talking to members like humans. The result was so striking that Honor's social team became the first-ever recipient of Humanergy's Green Path Award.

In this episode of the Humanergy Leadership Podcast, David Wheatley talks with Jen about what actually made it work, months of preparation, a clear response framework, the mindset shift that kept the team energized, and why empathy is a practice, not a personality trait. If your team is heading into any kind of major change, this one's worth your time.

Topics covered:

• How Honor's team prepared for and responded to a major core banking conversion
• The three-step response structure that kept communication caring, honest, and direct
• What it looks like to hire for empathy and then build systems around it
• Why the most frustrating comments were actually the most valuable

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Transcript

David Wheatley (00:11) Well, welcome to this episode of the Humanergy Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, David Wheatley, and I'm joined by Jen Wagner from Honor Credit Union. Her team is one of the first recipients of Humanergy's Green Path Awards — and actually responsible for the idea of a Green Path Award.

Just a quick intro: Jen's team managed the Credit Union's social media account as they went through their core change. We'll talk more about what the core is in a minute, but the way they handled the social media account was just wow, in my mind. I went back to my team and shared what I'd observed, and Mimi on my team said, "Hey, we should have an award for this." Hence the Green Path Awards. Every year we're going to announce two recipients, and this year one of them was the Honor Credit Union social media team, represented here today by Jen Wagner. Welcome, Jen.

Jen Wagner (01:14) Thank you so much for having me, David. I don't like to use puns very often, but it truly is an honor to have this award presented to us and to be the first recipient. Thank you so much.

David Wheatley (01:27) Well, thanks for stimulating the idea. Before we get into that — for those who aren't credit union people, what does it mean to change the core?

Jen Wagner (01:38) Essentially, we changed the interface people were using to do their online banking and bank from their app. That's important — it's people's money. Some people log in daily to check on things, and things looked a little different. We upgraded the online banking and the app, really for our members' security. We wanted to provide top-tier security features and meet industry standards. Technology changes, so we want to rise up and meet those standards and continuously evolve to offer our members the best possible interface.

David Wheatley (02:29) I think you're doing it a bit of a light service there, though — the core is really the operating system for the credit union. Your piece was the member-facing piece. And for 110,000 members, everything switched one Sunday night.

Jen Wagner (02:58) Yeah, and I'm always trying to put things in layman's terms. I haven't come from the credit union industry — I've been in it for two years here at Honor, so it took me a while to pick up on all the different banking terms. But yes, it was the full operating system. It was the interface. It was a heavy lift for our team, and members were experiencing real change as a result.

David Wheatley (03:19) And you communicated ahead of time?

Jen Wagner (03:24) Yeah, we did communicate ahead of time — this is happening, be ready. We sent direct mailers, emails, had it on the website. We were trying to reach people ahead of time so it wasn't a big surprise.

David Wheatley (03:36) Talk me through the preparation. I was watching the social media side, particularly the Facebook responses. How did you prepare the team for that Monday morning?

Jen Wagner (03:44) It was months of preparation. We worked with different departments and within our own department, really trying to identify what the top questions would be. What things are going to change for members that they'll be asking about? Based on that, we compiled a Q&A sheet — all the potential questions with answers. A lot of it was things like, "Where do I find my bill pay? Where are the things I use all the time?" We wanted multiple avenues to provide answers, including a dedicated website page so we could guide people to that resource.

David Wheatley (04:45) What stood out to me over those two weeks: you could see people posting on Honor's Facebook page, ranging from slightly frustrated to angry, and it didn't feel like they were getting rote answers from a script.

Jen Wagner (04:58) No, that was a rule for my team before this started. We have these answers, but we're not going to copy and paste anything. We're going to talk to people like humans because they were frustrated, and we would expect that. Who likes change?

I got a new vacuum recently. It's much better than my old one. I don't like it — I don't know what the different buttons do. I'm sure it works better, but I miss my old vacuum. So I completely understand when you log into something and it's your money, and you can't find what you want to do, or it looks different. That's frustrating. My husband heard a lot about that vacuum in the first couple of weeks. I had to kind of relearn it — and now we're best friends. But at first? No.

David Wheatley (06:08) When we talk about the Green Path at Humanergy, we talk about three things: being caring, honest, and direct in communication. That's what really resonated. It didn't feel rote, it didn't feel scripted. Every single response, for a couple of weeks that I was monitoring, felt like it came from a real heart of caring, honest, and direct. You had empathy for people, you were honest about what was happening, and you were direct about the next steps. What set you up for that?

Jen Wagner (06:42) I think responding on social media is really about making people feel heard. A lot of the time, people may not know exactly what they don't like, or they just want to voice that they don't like it. And honestly, I'd rather have them do that on our platform than go complain to a lot of people — at least if they talk to us, we can do something about it.

I really wanted my team to treat people like it was their own mom. I'm sure people get a lot of questions about technology from their parents. I know I do. Sometimes they're frustrated and you have to say, "Yeah, that is really frustrating. I understand, because I've been through it too."

We used a structure in our responses: First, acknowledge the frustration. We're not trying to make it go away or jump straight to "well, why didn't you try this?" It's completely reasonable to be frustrated when you can't find something you used to do. Second, offer solutions — "Have you tried this? Have you tried that?" And third, point them to other resources. "Hey, we have this website with a full Q&A. You can also contact us by phone." A lot of times people just want to be heard and they want their problem solved. If we can do that within one comment, that's the goal.

David Wheatley (08:34) Feel validated, and then a quick solution or something that drives to an easy solution for the member.

Jen Wagner (08:43) And apologizing. A lot goes with saying, "We know this isn't ideal." Some people had problems logging in, had to re-upload the app. They didn't expect that. They're frustrated, rightly so.

David Wheatley (09:03) That genuineness — it wasn't rote, it wasn't trite. And I imagine there were moments, especially over those two weeks, where your team was frustrated by the same question that was just answered a few lines above. What were you doing to keep the team centered?

Jen Wagner (09:30) It was really fast-paced. I went back through our records just before this podcast to see how many things we responded to in a couple of weeks — it was about a thousand comments. And that's a very small percentage of members who were really struggling and came to us through that platform. I'm sure the phone lines had a lot more.

What made it work was that every department was in it together. Everybody knew it was about the member, not about us. Sometimes if we couldn't get to the bottom of an issue, we'd triage it to another department, and they would call the member back right away. Sometimes it took multiple people to solve one issue. There was something really uplifting about knowing we were all in it together and had backup — and no matter what, we were going to find a solution. Knowing that was our common goal is what got us through it.

David Wheatley (10:37) That alignment — all hands to the pump for this period of time. There were even things set up like, no vacation requests during this window. Everybody was going to be here. And interdepartmentally, everyone was sharing. I'm sure a lot of preparation went into that too. Looking back through the data — what were some of the most challenging responses you had to deal with?

Jen Wagner (11:00) Some of the harder ones were when people didn't give us a clear issue. They just wanted to voice frustration. And you have to just let them do that, then try to move them to a private message or a phone call so you can actually get to the bottom of it.

I've been there — where you get frustrated with a company and you just want to complain or leave a bad review. But when people come to the brand directly instead of going elsewhere, that's actually the best case scenario. I liked seeing the comments for that reason. They're getting help. They're voicing it to us where we can actually do something about it.

It was like playing detective sometimes. Someone would comment and we weren't sure exactly what was wrong. "Let me direct message you — I want to hear more about what you're dealing with." And once we did that, a lot of times just being heard and being asked the right questions was enough to get them there.

David Wheatley (12:35) A comment like "this sucks" isn't helpful on the surface, but you still treated it with the same caring, honest, and direct approach and tried to take it offline. And quite often I saw people responding, "No, give them a call — they dealt with it really well."

Jen Wagner (12:44) Yeah, and that's the goal — that people give us that chance. We said that a lot in our comments, naturally: "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help." Because they could have just been upset and complained elsewhere. You have to ask the right questions to get there, but once people get the frustration out and feel heard, they're usually able to say, "Yeah, you know what I actually don't like? It's this, this, and this."

David Wheatley (13:36) There are a lot of credit unions coming up to core changes, and most of the organizations I work with are going through major change of some kind. What advice would you give to social media teams getting ready for something like this?

Jen Wagner (13:52) Lots of coffee. Caffeinate. Honestly — I'm a former college athlete, and I was treating it like game day. I'd get up excited. I didn't know exactly what was waiting for me, but I knew it was going to be busy, and this was our moment to show how much we care as a brand and be real people.

So I'd say treat it not as a challenge but as an opportunity — an opportunity to show how much you care and to win people over one solved problem at a time. Part of that preparation is mindset. It's not "ugh, these people are upset." It's "this is an opportunity to help somebody and maybe turn someone into a fan who wasn't one before."

David Wheatley (14:46) Train for it.

Jen Wagner (14:48) Yeah, exactly. And be ready to be agile, because things will come up that weren't on the Q&A list. When you see multiple people having the same issue, that's your signal to work with other departments — "Hey, I'm seeing this a lot. Are you? What can we do?" My team was super proactive. We found that some people needed to be walked through things via video — instructions on a screen weren't enough. So people on my team started creating video tutorials and posted them on the resource page, so members could see exactly what they were experiencing.

David Wheatley (15:42) The better we prepare, the more likely we are to pivot in the right direction. And the caring, honest, and direct framework — we often say most people are good at two of the three. What you're describing is drilling it, practicing it, seeing what questions come up and how you'd respond — getting into that fluid practice your athlete instincts recognize.

Jen Wagner (15:53) Yes, exactly. Because it is practice. I talk to my 13-year-old about this all the time — empathy is a practice. It doesn't come naturally all the time. Someone might be being short with you, but what's going on in their life today? What might be happening from their perspective? Can you understand better why there's friction?

David Wheatley (16:46) That's one of my favorite ways to think about it — you don't know what's happening for someone, and this might be the last straw. You think it's something small, but for them, this is the last straw on top of everything else going on. All they need is for somebody to be responsive, to listen, understand, and then provide a simple solution. It takes a great weight off, if you can be patient like that.

Jen Wagner (17:05) Exactly. And that takes practice.

David Wheatley (17:19) Once again, congratulations. I know you wouldn't want to be standing here alone holding the trophy. Do you want to shout out some of the people who were critical to making this work?

Jen Wagner (17:28) Yes, definitely. My team — Hannah Orcillo, who runs our social media day in and day out and was so quick to respond. And Kayla Smith, who normally creates content but doesn't respond day to day. She was willing to jump in and let this take over her life for a couple of weeks. I really appreciate her going outside her normal role.

And honestly, I'd love to say I drilled caring, honest, and direct into them like a coach — but these women are just like that. They care on a daily basis. We were really supportive of each other. We had a big group chat going the whole time, keeping each other going, encouraging each other, picking each other up when someone was struggling. Having a team you know you can rely on and who will support you — that's huge.

David Wheatley (18:49) I appreciate that, and the shout-outs. There's always a bigger team behind this kind of work. And I love that in some ways you said, "Hey, I hire for this." If you hire people who are naturally caring, honest, and direct, it's much easier to plug that into this kind of work.

Jen Wagner (19:03) It's not just me, though — Honor as a whole does that. Our entire focus is serving the member and putting them first. Nothing was a bigger example of that than this online banking upgrade, seeing everybody work together and jump at the chance to do whatever it takes, even if it took several teams. It was really affirming as to why I work at Honor.

David Wheatley (19:39) Jen, thank you so much. Congratulations again to the team, and thanks for sharing your story.

Jen Wagner (19:46) Thanks for all you do with Honor, David. It's so valuable that there's a company out there that specializes in teaching this caring, honest, and direct communication between teams. Thank you for everything you do.

David Wheatley (20:01) It's a great partnership. We appreciate it too.