How to Respond to Negative Feedback from Customers

If you've ever used the internet (and I'm fairly confident you have), you're familiar with the concept of a "troll." These pesky creatures lurk on comment boards for the sole purpose of spewing venom, or sparking trivial arguments.

If you share content online, on a blog or on social media, odds are you've received a nasty or nonsensical comment from a troll that left you scratching your head. How do you respond?

You don't. Responses validate their opinions, and provide fuel for their fire. When in doubt, follow the first rule of the internet: Don't feed the trolls.

Just like feedback from trolls isn't terribly useful to improve a blog post, companies occasionally receive negative comments from customers that are confusing, unproductive, or irrelevant. And while customer support reps would be wise to listen to and use constructive feedback from customers as a springboard for improvement, not all comments are created equal.

This presentation from Customericare identifies five types of negative customer feedback, and separates the constructive from the counterproductive. Take a look to understand what you should take note of, and what you can disregard, when you formulate a strategy for categorizing and addressing customer feedback.