So, when do you ever take a break from your phone, television or computer? May be you think you don’t spend that much time relaxing. And perhaps you find it harder to resist checking or scrolling through your phone or computer. Don’t worry, you are not alone.

In this 21^st century, technology is ever evolving no wonder most people are always having a gadget in their hand to check what’s new. But now, it’s becoming vital to shut down all things digital once in a while and focus on you.

I am going to discuss a hand full of important ways to kick start your digital detox without quitting along the way, but first, let’s understand why you should consider it.

Digital Detox Benefits

Our tech gadgets are always handy—phones, laptops, tablets etc. That’s the reason why experts are advising that constant need and reliance on our digital toys can turn unhealthy.

No doubt, technology has become a necessity for most things. However, when your life becomes too dependent on it, you can easily start ignoring other more important things in your life.

If technology stands in your way of your relationships, job, education, finances or whatever, then this is a red flag for destruction. Carrying out a digital detox once in a blue moon is an effective way to spend more time socialising or doing more useful things that you’ve been yearning to do like relaxing during a ‘me time’.

A digital detox shouldn’t last for months. It could take a day or two and can greatly help you to focus on what matters in front of you and not just what’s on your smart screen.

You can choose to focus on yourself and those around you and not worrying, snooping around on social media to see what others have been up to lately or finding work-related emails when you are out of office. Take the digital detox for a day or two, every now and then.

Technology Cleanse Tips

It’s never an easy thing to lock your phone or laptop away and be completely cut-off from the rest of the world, but if you can ease into it by trying for a day first, you’ll feel the difference.

Change One Habit At A Time

To make the quest a bit realistic, try give up one thing at a time. You can start by leaving your phone at home when you’re going out or by checking your emails only once during the day. After choosing the one habit to change, try it out on your first detox adventure. Once you achieve this, focus on another and combine them in the next digital detox. This will help you stick with your digital detox program and ease the challenge the first day.  

Alert Friends, Family and Colleagues

You may be discouraged from taking a digital detox because you’re worried about how your friends and loved ones will reach you especially in case of an emergency. Letting people know when and for how long you will take the digital detox challenge without your phone or laptop can help you feel more relaxed. When you do this, be sure to have the contact of someone who can reach you by other means in person or via landline in case of an emergency. You can also inform your social media contacts that you will be having a social media holiday so your friends and family will know what’s really going on. This will help you clear your mind of any worries, allowing it to just focus on yourself.

Log Out From All Social Networks

If you are taking a social media detox, it can be more difficult achieving success when your phone is constantly sending you notifications from various apps. This could make for a bait to get you back into the waters if it keeps vibrating or beeping next to you.

Be sure to log out of all your social media accounts. This will bar any notifications and you won’t have to be tempted to check your phone. If you can’t log off, then at least turn off your notifications so that you don’t receive them.

Make Deliberate Effort With Friends And Family

Have you ever tried to talk to someone while they are glued to their phone? Most often we consider that rude, however, so many of us do exactly that, in most cases unknowingly. With time, constant multi-tasking and self-conscious decisions lead to a lack of focus.

Try spend quality time with your family and friends. You can intentionally leave your phone at home, in the car or your bag so that you give your complete attention to others.

If you need to check something, schedule a time to do so and only check it then.

Spend Time In Places Where Use Of Phone Is Prohibited

When you begin your digital detox journey, visit places where phones are not allowed as this will make it easier for you. If you are a fan of yoga or meditation, this could be the ideal place to hang out. You can also consider some amazing self-care and relaxation time.

You can also take up swimming or jogging. This helps you avoid the temptation of checking your phone.

Be Easy On Yourself If You Really Have To

Sometimes totally shutting yourself from the use of technology can be a hard nut to crack particularly if it is your first digital detox. If you are afraid of stopping the detox altogether, you can go easy on yourself and take a short break. Give yourself specific time to use your phone or laptop such as 1 hour in the morning and another in the evening.

This will help you stick to your detox program without feeling too daunted. You can then shorten that time during your next detox until you are able to stop it completely for a day or two. 

Try And Do Something Totally New When on Your Digital Detox

Digital detoxing can present opportunities for you to try out new things you’ve longed to do. Use the time you are away from your phone or computer to offer a helping hand to someone, focus more on parenthood, help your mum with grocery shopping or volunteers at a charity during the weekend. If none of these makes you tick, then you can as well focus on just relaxing by meditating or getting a massage.

Digital detoxing should not be stressful—it’s meant to be a positive and more relaxing period.

The post Digital Detox Benefits And How To Do A Technology Cleanse in 2020 appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.

Ideally, your social media page can be your bank of positive feedback and great testimonials or your public disaster (a place where unhappy clients slam you with awry and negative comments).

As hard as you may try, it’s almost impossible for everyone to give your brand a glowing review. Unfortunately, social media is often the next destination where disgruntled users go on the offensive, ensuring that the rest of your community gets to know that they’re angry.

Your masses on social media can be ruthless, sometimes with good reason. But with your social profiles acting as the face of your brand, you need to handle with care any less-than-complimentary post that pops up from someone who likes your brand (or used to; so it appears)?

Here are five ways to deal with the negative comment smoothly, and in the best way possible.

1. Acknowledge Negative Feedback

In most cases customers post negative feedback online because they feel they are not being listened to (either through phone, email or in store). So they choose to lash out to be heard. Some may do this to genuinely warn others not to use what they believe is a poor product. But the more social media savvy fans will do it to simply hurt and compel you to pay attention.

Rapid response is of the essence here. Quickly acknowledging the client’s issue before it escalates and is picked up by other customers and prospects along the way can save you a lot of anguish. You don’t really need to have an immediate solution but an objective, non-judgmental enquiry into what exactly happened is enough to initiate the process towards constructive engagement and creating an opportunity to turn your negative experience into a rewarding one.

And of course, you’ll need to follow this up with solid, practical actions.

2. Take the conversation out of the spotlight

Forums on social media may not be ideal for resolving complex issues. More often than not, public forums make it easy for the unhappy customer to harden their stance. Courteously offer to go on with the conversation on an appropriate forum; whether through email, phone or any other existing online support forum. Taking the conversation out of the spotlight should not be used as a means to “delete” the comment or silence the critic. It’s better to have people view your constructive response to the negative comment posted by a customer than get a flood of messages condemning you for curating out every negative social media comment.

As a general rule of thumb, since you’re the admin of the page, never remove negative posts (this will only make it look like you’re hiding something). People always complain but as the social media manager, what you do after the complaint is what matters. Losing your cool would be the trashiest and most unprofessional fight your brand can ever have with a customer in public. Don’t do it!

3. Look at it from the customer’s perspective

Your customers don’t care about the issues that resulted to the problem they are having—whether a supplier let you down, or delivery was sent to the wrong address. All they understand is the inconvenience this has caused them, and possibly their customers.

Don’t be too quick to list all the excuses as to why it happened. Even if your reasons are all genuine, your irate customers won’t care. They will only view this as a way of shifting blame, turning it into a red rag to a bull.
It is worthwhile therefore to start every interaction from the customer’s viewpoint– what happened, what it meant to them and, ultimately, what you need to do to make it right.

4. Apologize when it’s your fault

Of course, managing social media isn’t for the faint-hearted. There are many companies on social media that find it really hard to say sorry. In most cases, it’s because they don’t want to bear the blame. Or probably don’t agree with the customer’s standpoint. But, if we can see it from the customer’s point of view as highlighted above, bitter arguments would be avoided.

So if it’s obvious that your product failed, a sincere apology followed by a quick refund or replacement should nip the whole issue in its bud. If it was a case of service failure, then an apology along the lines, “We’re truly sorry that you did not receive the service you expect from us on this particular occasion” would be a good start. Following this up with something tangible like a money-off voucher for their next purchase can also help calm the situation.

If the issue is universal, make an effort to personalise your responses without sounding like a robot so your customers are sure they’re not dealing with a customer service bot.

5. Walk the walk and talk the talk

Once you’ve acknowledged a problem, be sure to follow up with concrete actions to avoid going back where you began and potentially upsetting your customer and prospects even more. Once you’re out of the spotlight and got the conversation going with the unhappy customer, ensure you fully understand the problem and provide a realistic plan on the next steps to be used to fix it. If possible, pass this useful information on to your customer service representative.

In conclusion

The next time that negative feedback gets posted on your blog, Facebook or Twitter, the first thing to do is to take a deep breath. Especially when you’re just starting out, negative comments can really sting and with your ambition to succeed, you can be tempted to go personal. It’s crucial that you build a thick skin and deal with it calmly without blowing your top.

The post Negative Feedback and How to Deal With It appeared first on Darryn Van Hout.