Social networking sites such as Yelp, Angie’s List, and
Urbanspoon allow users to post reviews of restaurants and other
businesses. But think twice before you
post a negative review; you could end up getting sued for thousands of dollars.
Jane Perez of Fairfax, Virginia, went through that very
situation. After her contractor’s
company, Dietz Development LLC, completed work on her home, she posted
unfavorable reviews on Yelp and Angie’s List with false accusations that they
had damaged her house and stolen jewelry from her. The contractor, Christopher Dietz, took
matters into his own hands and sued her for $750,000 in defamation
charges. Back in December of last year,
a judge ruled that the accusations be deleted from the websites.
Even if the comments are true, some businesses are getting
in touch with the customers that posted bad reviews and asking them to take
them down. Eric Winick left a review
online stating his frustrations of having to wait so long to receive his food
at a restaurant. Not long after, he got
an email from the owner of the restaurant, asking him to take down the
review. The owner tried to play to
Winick’s sensitive side, saying that he was just trying to provide for his own
family.
Facebook and Twitter can easily “make or break” a company’s
reputation. If one person posts a status
about disliking a business, it can then be read by anywhere from hundreds to
thousands of people. Negative online
reviews can even lead to layoffs for a company.
A lot of people do not realize how much of an impact a few words can
have on a business.
Have any of you ever posted a bad review and then heard back
from the company itself?
I have never actually posted a bad review, but I have had friends that posted a negative review on Facebook about a local diner near my residence. The owner seen this and actually offered them a gift card to take down the comments because he too played to a sensitive side and was saying his business was struggling and he needed only good publicity. I was amazed that the owner was willing to go to such an extent but he actually has had a fairly good amount of growth in his restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI agree I think that with how popular social networking is, it is very important to have positive reviews about your company on facebook and twitter. There are so many people that can find out about a negative comment in a matter of seconds.
ReplyDeleteComing from a service background,it is so important to me, that we receive good reviews. If we do not, we want to make those people that are unhappy, happy. It is hard to please everyone but we can only do our best to please most. The sad part is, 95 percent of the time the negative is looked at more than the positive.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Cordell
I believe that online reviews have had a big impact in the business environment, especially with certain places which their primary goal is customer service. I can honestly say that there has been and improvement in certain companies of how they treat their customer because of this good or bad reviews. For example banks and phone companies are now improving their customer service based on their online surveys and reviews/feedback from their customers.
ReplyDeleteNegative comments do have a serious impact on businesses, but it is the customers right to express their opinions. I feel it is the business's responsibility to face negative criticism. Wether true or not, it is up to the firm to have good customer service, put off a positive image, and handle shortcomings properly. The best way to handle negative comments is to give the customer no reason to complain. It is important to take the bad reviews with the good. You can't focus on just the good reviews, its a delusional image and makes it harder for customers to build trust and loyalty. Customers need to be presented with both good and bad reviews so they can form their own opinion. When a customer trusts and is loyal to a firm, they will know false claims and will not believe them.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good point. We do have the right to free speech, and other potential customers want to be able to see what the general population thinks of a certain business. I do not necessarily agree that businesses should ask customers to take down bad reviews.
DeleteTo me this will be an ever growing issue. There is a fine line between free speech and defamation of a company. Its really hard to say what the impacts of your comments can be now days no matter if they are true of untrue. I have never given a bad review before but in the future I will take this into account before i post anything.
ReplyDelete