Professional companies set up complaint departments
because they are an asset to their company.
Not only do they convert lost sales and help bring back old/ex-regular
customers, but they highlight where you need improvements. Some companies, not mentioning any names (BT
maybe, Lloyds bank maybe) will use their complaints department to assess
whether their new cost cutting measures will pay off. Basically if the cost of losing the customer
is more than the savings proposed, then they will not implement them (very
Fight Club isn’t it).
Don’t remove complaints. It will mean going to an online Internet
reputation management company and paying them money, to try to get the review
taken down from a website, using a rough hash of the law. Plus if I were the CEO of that online
reputation company, I would drum up business by having my staff post negative
reviews online about a random selection of companies. I mean I am not claiming to have noticed that
some complaint timelines seem to follow in alphabetical order, like how on May
the 3rd, there were complaints posted about Barry’s Bakery, Bon Bon
Market, Blertie’s Bangers and Caros Crackers.
I mean I am not saying that they do that, but
it’s a bit of a coincidence how online complaint consumer posting boards have
become increasingly used, at the same rate that online reputation management
companies have grown in popularity.
Though, if it is true that they are manipulating the Internet in such
ways, then this article won’t be on the Internet for very long (welcome to
catch 22, Mr. online reputation manager).
Also, I find it a very non-coincidence, that of all the companies with
poor reviews online, there are no complaints about online reputation management
companies. It’s almost as if they are
purging the web of negative comments and reviews. I wonder if this one will slip the net
(because we are on the Inter-net, oohh how I tickle myself.)
If you don’t fancy having an online company remove
your negative review, then you should address it, both online and offline. Respond to the complaint and try to find out
who posted it. Try to resolve the
problem and see if they will remove the negative review on their own, or amend
it to say that you stepped up, took the blame and compensated them………..Quick
note though:
DO NOT THREATEN THEM TO REMOVE THE
NEGATIVE REVIEW/COMMENT.
FIRSTLY: This country
(the greatest one in the world btw) has anti-harassment laws to stop that sort
of thing, and Judges LOVE to be the one that fined a threatening company.
SECONDLY: They will get their friends on Facebook, Twitter and
Gimp-hunter-hunnies to post a negative review online about you too, and before
long you will be flooded.
THIRDLY: I personally have written
sooo many articles on how to get online revenge, and if the person you threaten
has read them, then expect things like them hiring third world workers online
to post 500 negative comments/ posts/ blogs/ Amazon reviews/ articles, all
about how awful you are. They may even
grab an email address that is spelt a little similar to yours, and email all of
your clients and potential customers telling them that you fondle goats. I am just warning you that is all.
Worst case scenario, is that you can’t get the
posting person to remove the negative comment or review from where ever they
posted it. In that case, post a reply to
it online and explain your side of the story.
More importantly, explain how you are fixing it so that this thing will
never happen again. You don’t HAVE to
follow through on everything you say you will, but it will look better on
yourself online, at least until the dust settles anyway.
The author of this post is a top marketing expert who can be found here - Circle Brandon in Google Plus Now
Go here to read more reputation management articles.
