Social Media Has Changed A Rule...

In the days before social media there was a rule that everyone talked about...

"If someone loves your service they will tell one person, but if they are unhappy they will tell 10 people."

Social media has changed this in ways we never imagined. If someone likes your work they might give you a review and dozens may see it, but if they are unhappy they can attack you in so many ways. From bad reviews to posted attacks, people can damage your business and reputation.

Worse, it is very difficult to fight back if what they say is untrue. Try to get a post taken down because someone is lying and you will find how hard it is. We see restaurants get a 1 star review and the owner has to respond to say "we don't offer the dish you were complaining about, and we are closed on the day you say it happened". But the 1 star review stays in place.

So what can we do to protect our reputations? There are actually companies that help with this, but they can be expensive.

• First we need to ask for reviews from happy clients, so that the public sees that we have great overall reputations.
• Second, engaging in an argument is destined to lose, but asking for a chance to correct the issue (if there is one) often works to lower the tension.
• Provide excellent service, but understand that not everything ever goes well... so pay attention to clients and try to alleviate issues before they lead to bad reviews.
• Always as for reviews from happy clients.
• Defend yourself if the facts are wrong, but not in an argumentative way. A friend got obliterated on social media for a laundry list of issues. His response was that he was sorry that she (the bad reviewer) had that experience, but she had put the review on the wrong persons site. He clarified that he never worked with her, and had never sold a house at that address. He looked it up and she had worked with an agent with the same last name, and had placed the review in the wrong place. The bad review was down within a couple hours, problem solved.

A key takeaway from this is to watch your social media and reviews. If a bad review that is not deserved sits online for a week before you notice the damage may already be done. You can search yourself online to see what comes up, check the main review sites weekly, and ask friends to let you know if they see anything... all effective ways to monitor your online reputation.

The new rule is that an unhappy client can tell thousands, so it has become an even more important thing to monitor. The best advice I can give is do the best work you can do, take care of issues when you can, and understand that you will get a bad review at some point. Social media and the internet changed the old rules... we must keep up.