Nearly everybody in the world has noticed this. Some people are not nice. On the Internet, this is true too. Bloggers very frequently have to deal with Internet trolls. There’s another area where people have to spend all day dealing with angry or disruptive people. Yup, it’s customer service.

Yet, for some odd reason, the way a good blogger responds to a troll is very different from the way a customer service representative is supposed to handle an angry customer.

In customer service, your job is to fix the customer’s problem and keep the customer a customer.

While a company needs their customers, even if some of them may be grumpy, a blog would do better without trolls in the comments. The blog doesn’t need the troll to keep reading the blog, as keeping the troll as a reader would only result in more angry comments.  A good blogger will delete angry comments from trolls so nobody else can feed the troll.

In customer service, you have to apologize to the customer, even if it was not the representative’s fault. Bloggers rarely need to apologize to trolls, and doing so would be silly. Imagine having to send the following message to a troll, “Sorry that you think that my grammar is poor, my ideas are stupid, and that this website is ugly. I will work on this problem, and notify you once I have obtained a grammar reference, a Ph.D, and a better theme for this blog.”

But there is one thing that both bloggers, customer service representatives, and pretty much else need to know. Patience. A customer service representative shouting at a customer would probably get fired. A blogger that feeds the trolls would probably get his or her reputation ruined and not be considered a serious person.

In the end, both the blogger and the customer representative will benefit from being patient with those that are angry and disruptive.

For some more reading on how to deal with trolls and angry customers, I would suggest that you read:

• Seth Godin’s “The Customer is Always Right“
• Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger post “How to Deal with Negative Comments On Your Blog“
• “How to Deal with Trolls Online” on LifeSpy
• Business Opportunities And Ideas: “How To Deal With Angry Customers“

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