Crisis Response On Social Media That Protects Trust

One bad review can feel like a fire alarm for your entire business and the wrong reply can turn a small spark into a viral mess. 

Social media expert Dawn Renshaw, founder of Stoney Creek Social Media, walks through what “crisis” really means in day-to-day small business life, why the “let’s get it deleted” reaction to a bad post is usually a dead end, and what response can shift the tone fast. 

Episode Resources

Stoney Creek Social Media

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Transcript

Why Crisis Response Matters

Richard Piet 0:07

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome back to the Kindness Marketing Podcast. We're talking about kindness marketing, but with Dawn Renshaw, founder of Stony Creek Social Media, we also talk about other things, uh, I suppose you could say ancillary things, things related to social media and kindness marketing, etc. Today, we're going to talk about crisis response and social media. Hello, Dawn. Hello, Richard. Thanks for being with us today. This is a tricky one. People in a crisis, let's suppose there's been an issue with a business, and now the owner or operator of that business is trying to do the right thing somehow and use the tools they have available to them to um, I was gonna say handle the crisis, but to respond in some way.

Defining A Business Crisis

Richard Piet 1:05

Let's talk about what crisis means. What does crisis mean to you?

Dawn Renshaw 1:09

In in the business world, um, like I said before, I've been in one business or another for over 35 years. And so, you know, definitely, no matter how hard you try to prevent a crisis from happening, um, it's gonna happen. Um, and the best thing to do is to have a plan in place for when that happens because a lot of times when that happens, you're not thinking clearly, your staff isn't thinking clearly. Um, if you have a customer, they're not thinking clearly. It's just the nature of a crisis.

Richard Piet 1:41

What defines a crisis? Is it typically some kind of uh review or some sort of online thing that happens? What is a crisis?

Dawn Renshaw 1:54

Um,

Negative Reviews And What To Do

Dawn Renshaw 1:55

a lot of times we look at it where um we have a client now that um they have a fleet of trucks, and for some reason, not a lot, they don't get a lot of negative reviews, but this one person I think just follow theirs follows their trucks around and waits for them to, you know, to uh make a mistake or think they're driving too fast or something. And so they they they'll leave a negative review. And you know, we talk about it, and there's just a lot of times people want to, you know, first thing they want to do is let's get it deleted. Let's get it deleted. Well, oftentimes Google reviews are are very difficult to delete. If they weren't, then nobody would have negative Google reviews. So um Google has a tough job. Um, but you know, a lot of times in the situation, you know, you have to look at it one, was it a disgruntled employee, a disgruntled customer? You know, look at the at the foundation of where it's coming from. Sometimes people just want to be heard. We had another client who got one that said somebody cut them off in traffic. And, you know, so what I usually recommend in that situation is if you go to the review, like I said, sometimes they just want to be heard. If you've if you've actually, you know, found out that it's actually something that happened, you know, and just go in and say, you know what, hey what? It's sorry, you know, sorry it happened. You know, we have addressed the issue with the employee, you know, a review like this can really hurt our a small business like mine. And I understand that you're frustrated and it should not have happened, but this can really negatively impact my business for a long, long time. Is there anything that we can say or anything that we can do to to make you take this, you know, this negative review down? Because the driving of our employees really isn't the heart of what our business is.

Respond Once Then Go Offline

Richard Piet 3:42

So you should respond publicly, acknowledging this is difficult for us.

Dawn Renshaw 3:48

Right. And then the second thing that's very, very important if you say, I am Dawn Renshaw, I am the owner of that company. Here is my personal cell phone number, here is my email address. I would love to talk with you about this situation offline. So if you can get them offline as soon as possible, you know, that's the best thing to do. Um, and you know, when you leave that first response, if they come back and they're like, you know, start trashing you and your company like that, don't go, don't respond again, because then it just winds up into a mudslinging event. So, you know, I always say that you respond, you respond kindly, you respond, you know, I don't think anyone wakes up in the morning and they're thinking, oh, you know, what company can I go leave a negative review for? Yeah. I don't think anybody really does that. So, you know, there had to have been a reason, but you know, maybe it's the third time someone cut them off that morning. You don't know what it is, but sometimes if you can just, if you can just get to the heart of them and say, okay, you know, I understand you're frustrated and I understand that my employees shouldn't have done that. I will talk to them. But, you know, overall, my company can really, because those negative reviews can really impact. Although I always tell them not to get too upset about it because if somebody, like if you have uh say a roofing company and you get a negative review because one of your drivers cut somebody off, you know, the driver really has nothing to do with your ability to put on a really nice roof. So I do think that that plays a factor, but oftentimes, you know, don't come back at him and say, I talked to the driver and he he didn't put cut you off. The best thing to do is is own up to it. And so that's where we go with reviews, you know, and oftentimes that's what happens is that it's just somebody that just wants to be heard.

Richard Piet 5:31

And this is important to understand. There's a couple things in there that I linger on. One, it might be tempting to respond emotionally and to continue to engage, uh, number one. Secondly, um uh the the approach of I I think you can say kindness, right, in acknowledging it is also a primer in this response. And it's important to keep those things in mind and not continue to uh have it blow up.

Dawn Renshaw 6:06

Right, right. And not to take it personally. It's really difficult, especially, you know, in by situation or your situation, our business is us, you know. And so if somebody, you know, gives you a negative review, it it is personal, but you have to remember, and that's whether it's business, life, whatever it is, I always try to put myself in the other person's shoes and say, okay, what led them to do this?

Richard Piet 6:30

Right. Okay, so uh that's uh the notion of online reviews, usually Google. Uh is there another kind of example of a crisis that a business might run into then that involves some kind of social media or or public response?

The Spa Story And A Bad Stance

Dawn Renshaw 6:50

Yeah, there's I have a couple of them. One of them, there was a a spa here in the portage area that had, I don't know the whole situation, and I it's my memory isn't isn't great, but I'll get to the basically the the heart of it is um there was somebody that had won a gift certificate. They were in the spa with their child. The child had autism. Um, and I guess there was a moment where he had reached his his patience limit and and had an outburst. From what I remember, the owner had come in and made them leave and caused a big scene, yelling, screaming, that whole thing. And then when it blew up on social media, people were against against that. Instead of owning it, basically the owner stood by what she said. She was like, you know, it's my spot. I have the right to say who can be there and who can't be there. Never once owned up to the fact that maybe she was a little harsh. Maybe, you know, there was a lot of things that she, I felt like could have done to ultimately redeem her business. I'm not saying that you have to lie or say, oh, you know, I shouldn't have that. That, you know, I mean, you really have to think about the situation. Um, and never apologized and ultimately, like I said, lost her business. And I have another situation very similar. I had a bowling alley that reached out to me, very similar situation. They had uh an autistic child that was throwing bowling balls. And so the manager on staff went and said, you know, I'm sorry, you guys have got to leave immediately. You know, they were concerned about somebody getting hit, you know, by a bowling ball and getting hurt. Yeah. Um, well, the parents again went out, went on social media, right or wrong. I'm not saying, and just and had the situation and it started blowing up and people were rallying around them. And he, the owner called me. He's like, Dawn, I don't know what to do. He goes, the manager, you know, I don't, I wasn't there. I didn't, I don't know how it was handled. I think that they just panicked and, you know, said to get out. So I said, you need to call that family and let them know that they can bowl for the rest of their kids' life for free. Um, that you will close, you know, that you'll come in after hours. He's like, Man, I don't want to do come in here every weekend. I don't want to come in after hours. And I said, odds are they're not going to. I mean, they might come in once or twice, but you know, that's what you're gonna have to do because I mean, right now it is is ramping up. And sure, could the the family have taken advantage of it? Probably. Um, most likely they're not going to. Um, and they didn't. And the guy put it out there, and the biggest thing that he did is he went on and he apologized and said, you know, I I'm not, I'm really sorry for the way that that was handled. And that was it. He didn't say that he was sorry that they got that, you know, they got kicked out, sorry, and he just said he was sorry the way it was handled, it wasn't handled properly, and that he's offering the, you know, the child to come back in and bowl. And up until a few years ago when the the land was sold and the bowling alley was leveled, it, you know, he was still in business. And yeah, but you know, so there's just the same situation, you know, not exactly, but pretty close. Um, and one, you know, one business went out of business and the other business had another, you know, had it, had it thrive, you know, for a long time. And, you know, and I talked to the guy a few years later and he's like, You were right, gone. They you know, they came in maybe once or twice and bold, and and that was it. But, you know, it's it can get out of hand real quick.

The Bowling Alley Apology That Worked

Richard Piet 10:24

Yes. And I I think what I'm picking up out of this is some acknowledgement about how a complainant may feel can neutralize the whole thing or or a lot of it.

Dawn Renshaw 10:38

Yeah, and again, I I will always go back to the word kindness. And, you know, like I said, you know, he, you know, showed some kindness to the family and you know, acknowledged he didn't throw his staff under the bus. It didn't say they shouldn't have done what they did. He just apologized for the way it was handled and said that it was the manager on duty was just trying to keep everyone safe. And so, yeah, and that's just the way I look at it and just acknowledging that, you know, that you know, maybe it wasn't handled the best way, but this is how I'm going to resolve it. And that that happens quite often, whether it's reviews or a social media post or something is for someone just to go in and own, own that they might have made a mistake.

Build A Plan And Train Staff

Richard Piet 11:22

Yeah, and this goes back to the beginning of your remarks and saying you should have a plan. And in addition to that, perhaps that plan needs to extend to your staff, right? The notion that someone in a situation like that should know how to respond to it and there should have been a discussion about it. Do you advise that?

Dawn Renshaw 11:47

Absolutely. I absolutely, you know, you can't plan obviously for every little thing that happens, but you know, even in my business, we talk about, you know, maybe if, you know, a social media post go out and there's a uh, you know, God forbid, a typo in it or the the link doesn't work or something like that. You know, we own it. You know, it's like we're sorry, this is what happened. We're human and we're not perfect. And so, you know, things like that happen. We're very sorry. You know, how can we, how can we make it right for

Post-Crisis Follow-Up And Transparency

Dawn Renshaw 12:18

you?

Richard Piet 12:18

Are there any steps a business should take after the crisis is over? Is there some follow-up that could happen?

Dawn Renshaw 12:27

Yeah, I would definitely, you know, reach out to everyone involved and just say, you know, again, we're sorry this happened, you know, is everything okay? Is there anything else that we can do? You know, and just keep, you know, people talk. I have, you know, just last weekend I was somewhere where someone's like, oh, I had to get off of Facebook because it's so negative. And I I just kind of cringe to myself because social media is really the only place where you can determine who you see and who you don't see. You know, if you have a friend that's posting negative stuff, you know, you don't have to unfriend them, but just unfollow them so you don't see it. And, you know, oftentimes people will be like, well, you know, I don't see any posts from you. It's like, do you like any of my posts? Well, no, I see them, but I don't like them. So, you know, social media has a job to do based on your activity. If you're not liking any posts, they don't know what you like and what you don't like. So they're they're not gonna have an idea. So I always tell people that, you know, if you want to see more of a certain person's content, go make sure that you're liking their post, make sure they're commenting. But, you know, make sure that you, you know, talk to everyone involved and also make sure that it's you know, that you put out a statement on social media saying this has been resolved, you know, and thank you for everyone's support during during this situation. And if anybody has any any concerns, so you know, come to me. This is I'm the owner. I this is my phone number, this is my email address. Um, just be very transparent.

Richard Piet 13:58

And then it's done, right? I mean, you you don't want to continue to linger on it either, right?

Dawn Renshaw 14:05

Right, right.

Richard Piet 14:05

Yeah, right. So that acknowledgement, those steps that have been taken, and then you move on. So this is this is some of the some of the response. And uh I don't know. I personally try not to respond if I feel in the throes of emotion about something. Right. Okay, Richard, take a minute, calm down, and then think about it, because that can make a difference, can't it? So this this is part of uh our own our own awareness, I suppose, and uh as well as a plan that people understand about about how to handle these things. There's education, both of those examples happen to involve autism, but th that's a whole other uh level of understanding, and maybe it's helpful to to just know we may not we may not understand what's happening here. It may not be intentional. Uh so this is oh boy, it's complicated, isn't it?

Empathy And Why People Lash Out

Dawn Renshaw 15:09

It really is. And one of the things that I always go back to is uh for a job, one of the the careers I had, I had to take a uh strength binders test and it sits I scored very high. One of the top five was empathy. And that's something that I talk about often with my staff, is a lot of times when someone's lashing out at you, it has nothing to do with you. You know, it's I always talk about like like things build, like the, you know, like someone cut you off, and then this happened, and then you got this call about this, and then you had a flat tire, you know. So a lot of times, you know, there's a lot of things that build up to that. And so often if you're just, you know, if you just look at them and you know, I don't, you know, there I really don't feel in my heart that people just really wake up in the morning, like I said before, and just say, okay, I'm just gonna go leave someone a negative review. I'm going to bash this business, I'm going to, I just don't believe that about people. Usually there's a a reason why, but you know, and that crisis part of it, that's what's so important because I like in those situations, you know, if somebody puts out there this happened to me, you know, people jump on that bandwagon super fast.

Richard Piet 16:19

Yes. And what is the natural instinct to ignore it or refute it, like your one example? And uh that is not the approach that should be taken, is it?

Dawn Renshaw 16:34

No, but it's it's we have a probably, I would say a good 50-50 where 50 people are like, I'm just gonna ignore it and hope it goes away. Um, and then the other 50% of them are, you know, ready to put on their boxing gloves and we're gonna go at it. So um, you know, but the the biggest thing I could say about about especially about negative reviews is if you can get that conversation offline, the better. Um, one last example, we had a uh a pizzeria

The Pizza Review Response Lesson

Dawn Renshaw 17:03

that was a client and somebody had gone on there and said something, uh left a review saying that their food was cold. Well, you know, people started. Well, the employee, one of the employees of the restaurant before I got to it, a younger employee said, You just need to eat your food faster. Not the response that we're looking for. Nope. Um, but immediately, you know, they had been in business for over 40 years. So immediately their longtime customers just started coming. I've been eating there forever, you know, and started, you know, reputing it. So that was kind of a fun thing um to look at. But you know, ultimately we went in. The owner of the business had given me the um the ability to go in and say, you know what, we're really sorry. You know, sometimes we just don't hit the mark that we're looking for, you know. This is my name, this is my phone number. Come in, there'll be a gift certificate waiting for you in the cash register for your entire meal. So, you know, and sometimes people say, Oh, is that, you know, is that the best thing to do? Um, are there gonna be people that might take advantage of it? Yes, there is.

Richard Piet 18:09

Well, uh, this is uh one of the illustrations of the complex nature of uh uh customer relations, right? The idea that um and this is this is Richard talking. One of my pet peeves is when someone tells me as the customer what I have to do to correct the problem in in the business. So that's what happened with the pizza. You just need to eat faster. No, yeah, no, uh, but uh the notion of of training people and helping them understand how to respond, this is now into the nuances that I bet a lot of us don't get to. We're busy, we're making pizzas here, we're we're trying to get it done. Oh boy, this is this is interesting, isn't

Final Takeaways And Where To Follow

Richard Piet 18:59

it? But uh, if you uh out there have questions or can relate to the notion of crisis response and you want to talk a little bit about it, Dawn is ready to do that. Clearly, she has helped others uh face crisis response and do so with kindness. All right, Dawn. We'll stay in touch.

Dawn Renshaw 19:19

Perfect. Thanks, Richard.

Richard Piet 19:20

Dawn Renshaw, Stony Creek Social Media, our expert here on the Kindness Marketing Podcast. Follow us where you get podcasts. Subscribe on YouTube. We'll be back.