When Unhappy Customers Start Talking

Unhappy customers can do a lot of damage

Now, a local case study on social media damage control is unfolding, as one of the Facebook discussion participants, a Rhode Island-based blogger with a blog called “I{Heart}Rhody,” recently published a negative review about a local restaurant after a bad first experience. Interestingly, Scott, Christa & I are regulars there and had had a similar experience as the blogger — and on the same day.

An Ethical Dilemma — But Only For A Moment

I started to comment the blog in agreement, but then stopped when I remembered how much damage I had seen negative social media cause for a company in the Nestle vs. Greenpeace Social Media War.

A negative review doesn't have to rule the day!

This morning, I kept my word and called the restaurant, asking to speak with the manager or owner if they had time. I was speaking with a server, who asked what the call was about, so I told her who I was and why I was calling. I explained about the blog post, the power of social media, and how to do damage control. She was very grateful, and gave me the manager’s phone number. I spoke to the manager and talked to her about the same things, and she’s contacting the owner.

Both the server and the manager were very grateful I’d called them and alerted them to the negative publicity, and both asked for the blog address so they can make things right.

So now, we wait to see how this local case study will evolve, and if they will take the advice I learned from my awesome colleagues who took part in the original discussions on New England Multimedia’s blog and Facebook Page.

Negative Publicity Can Help A Business, But…

By the way, I believe honest negative publicity, like the piece I{Heart}Rhody published, can be a positive thing for a company. It brings attention to issues a company may be ignoring or may not know about, and gives them the opportunity to address those issues. Also, when employees and management are made aware of the power that customers wield on the internet, they become more aware of customer service. Every customer is a potential critic with a keyboard waiting to publish a review.

However, I also see a terrible power that now exists, with the possibilities of extortion, revenge, dirty competition, and other unsavory uses of social media.

Ethical questions this has raised for me now:

1) Is it the customers’ duty to track down the owner or manager and report a negative experience before publishing a review?

2) If you saw a negative review of a company, and thought the owner/manager might not know about it, would you contact them?

3) What do you do as a company if the negative review/publicity isn’t true, but you can’t prove it? (We experienced a near-miss like this, but thankfully the guy went away)

4) How do you handle reviewers who just want free meals, services, or products? (I worked in the restaurant industry for years, and had my share of “disgruntled” customers who really just wanted their meal “comped” — lingo for getting a free meal.)

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Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.