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Being an entrepreneur these days is like being a rock star on the rise. You can have a ton
of people who like your music, but there's always someone out there who had a bad experience
listening to your song or who just doesn't like your kind of tunes. Today, especially
with social media, there's lots and many ways for people to come at you with their negative
criticism, whether they be valid or invalid. There's many ways to take it. You can get
depressed and do nothing about it, which is probably the wrong route to take. Or the other
route is really to take some action and be proactive.
What you need to do, I have some good tips, one of which is to make sure that you always
respond promptly. In the world of social media, a whole day is an eternity. Try to make sure
that you keep on track, know what people are saying about you and be able to respond right
away.
Secondly, don't forget, although it's very human, do not have a knee jerk response. Do
you remember what it's like to have a fight with your spouse, somebody you love, a good
friend or your boss? If you have a knee jerk reaction, all that can happen is negativity.
You need to stand back, be neutral, figure out if the remark actually makes sense or
not, if it's litigious or not, and if it's solvable or not. Then take the time to contact
the person and make sure that you, in public, thank them for what they have commented on.
Ask them to please contact you directly, given a specific email address, and say, let's talk
about it. Either speak to them by email or by phone and help to resolve their issues.
Whatever you do, don't try to post a fake remark to counteract something horrible that
you have read. It will eventually backfire and it will hurt you more in the long run.
Next, you should be able to join the conversation or lead it. What's really important is to
have your own website presence, to have your own Twitter presence, your own Facebook presence,
and in any way, you can get out there in discussion forums to make sure that you keep on the beat
of the market. At the end of the day, if there is a comment made, that you can address it
right away and then take the lead.
Lastly, turn negative feedback into your best friend. Take something awful that somebody
said about you and find it as an opportunity to improve your product or service.
At the end of the day, the best way to improve any chances of you not having negative criticism
or having to deal with it in the first place or last place is to make sure that you have
excellent customer delivered calls and customer delivered value. Make it easy and fun for
people to purchase your product and make it in such a hassle-free way that they have no
other way but to say yes.