People generally dislike negative comments made about them and I guess that companies and company bloggers are no different in this respect. When we get negative comments left on a post, our first reaction is often to suppress it … moderate it out … pretend it never happened.

For the individual blogger, there’s personal pride at stake. For businesses, there’s the worry that it will reflect badly on their organisation and be off-putting to customers and potential customers who see it. Better still, don’t allow anyone to comment! That will also take away the guilt factor of knowing that the comment is there but that you haven’t approved it!

Great … the world is a nice place again!

Of course, unfortunately, the person who wanted to complain on your blog will still do so, they will just go somewhere where you won’t be able to answer their concerns. Just as importantly, they may well be totally justified in their complaint and so giving you a valuable piece of information which will help your company improve its products, its customer service or its processes.

So instead, let them express it on your Blog and give yourself the opportunity to answer their concerns. Awkward as it might be, this will prove valuable because of three key “business truths”:

• Firstly, it costs much more, both in terms of time and money, to find new clients than it does to keep your current ones.
• Secondly, customers with negative experiences are more likely to tell people about them than customers with positive experiences. However, customers who have had a negative experience which has been solved tend to be the most vocal;
• Thirdly, it costs more to fix a problem than to prevent it in the first place.

By answering their points, you have the opportunity not only to keep them as a customer but also perhaps turn them into an advocate for your company again. In any case, by allowing and responding to the criticisms, - and doing so openly - you are likely to gain respect in the eyes of other readers of your blog rather than lose it.

You may also be receiving information which will allow you to improve performance and fix a problem which already exists. Without this feedback, you could remain blissfully unaware of an issue which is costing you any number of clients who have decided not to complain but rather “vote with their feet” and look for another supplier.

So rather than suppressing negative comments, you should be looking for comments and feedback of all types and trying to encourage them. While it might sometimes seem a painful process, there is little doubt that it will be a very valuable one in the long run.

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