How can organisations use Web 2.0 technology to respond to negative consumer comments online?

Question

I am examining how organisations can respond to negative criticisms made against the brand online. Blogs, social networks, forums etc are being used by consumers to complain about brands, products and organisational practices. The volume of negative user generated content increases on a daily basis. How can companies monitor this ever increasing volume of content effectively, and how should the company subsequently address these criticisms? Can these organisations use the same online communities to address threats to the brand equity? As an online community, what are your thoughts?

Answer 1

You have to ignore the negative comments.  Nothing good comes of addressing them.  They just pop back up. /

Answer 2

Some companies have assigned customer service reps to scour the net for bad publicity.  They are authorised to correct problems and/or deal with the issues.  There are some great places to start, Consumerist.com is one I recommend highly.

The important thing here is not to get sites to pull down negative comments (that actually works against you), but to actively post and privately contact people who have complaints.  

On the bright side - a lot of consumers don't check the net for complaints until after they feel they have been wronged by a company.

In my opinion, the large number of negative blog posts is largely due to unresponsive customer service organizations where clients have to wade through 45 minutes of phone-bot menus and then get told to wait 30 days, maybe everything wil be fine.   Your CS organization has to be authorized to resolve issues, not just shut people up.