Facebook slander non disclosure agreement

[solidsilver]

I run a business and every now and then I have to issue refunds because my services, as deemed by the customer, were inadequate. I won't go into the specifics. I give the refund and then the customer slanders me on social media. Is there any way that when I give the refund I could get the customer to sign a non-disclosure agreement saying that they won't do this.

Thanks

 

[Virtual Reality Hire]

If they are unhappy with your service, and are entitled to a refund, then surely making them sign a NDA before refunding them could be seen as a form of blackmail?
If you think what they write on you page is unfounded I'd suggest writing a professional reply to outline why your services are actually good. Potential customers may see your professional response and decide that maybe it was just a bad customer.
But if this is happening a lot then you might want to look at how you operate your business and see if you can make any changes?

 

[Rickeo]

Don't take this as gospel as I'm unqualified to give solid advice on this issue.

After reading what you've had to say, I can't see giving refunds to clients subject to them signing a non-disclosure agreement being a) legal b) ethical.

A non-disclosure agreement will only protect you from different aspects of your companies workings being discussed. It wont protect you from a review either honest or untrue (as far as I'm aware).

Obviously your clients will be entitled to a refund depending on payment method and depending on what you're selling/offering, there's laws to say consumers are entitled to a refund after X amount of days depending on these factors. Whether or not you wish to offer them a refund after this time frame subject to them signing an agreement pertaining to the fact that they wont talk about your brand or business in a negative way, is up to you and to be honest I'm not sure if that would even hold up legally.

The best way to deal with this (in my opinion) would be to respond to the social media post/review and explain your side of the story and that a refund was issues, apologise and offer to work with the client to fix anything they may be unhappy with. This will turn a negative review into something positive, show others you are about your clients and customers and are willing to fix things when they go wrong.

Negative feedback can be turned around and be used as a positive, I'd more likely choose a company with a negative feedback who have responded well over a company who has just positive feedback as it shows that they are more genuine/real/trustworthy.

 

[solidsilver]

Thanks for your replies. I run a beauty business and sometimes the refund is justified and sometimes it isn't. I give refunds because sometimes its the easiest option with a very opinionated customer. I tried to be fair and if I have done a bad job then I admit it and issue a refund and think no more of it. In this case a very irate customer came in and demanded a refund. She made all sort s of accusations and would really not listen to reason. She had also been to a competitor for advice , who obviously said that I had done a bad job. She wouldn't listen to my argument that our competitors would really not say that we had done a good job. She accused me of bad customer service, not listening to her and then talking back to her when I discussed the issue. The easiest way to get rid of her was to issue a refund. She then made the remarks on social media.

My first reaction was to ignore the social media but have decided, as people have suggested, answering her in a professional, calm manner. Hopefully that will do some good.

 

[Virtual Reality Hire]

Unfortunately you will always get the odd customer like this. Well done on staying clam and professional as that can be a challenge in itself when running a business and coming across difficult and unreasonable customers.