online reputation Archives

August 27, 2016 By Fiona Lucas

Online complaints – Don’t be an accidental troll

The power of online reviews & complaints:

Online Reviews help businesses to share wins and to build trust and provide social proof of the value of goods or services. They can also provide a space for disgruntled customers to make a very public complaints. Unfortunately at times consumers act in an emotional state and do not fully consider the consequences of their actions.

It is heartwarming for a business owner to receive positive reviews for their services and products, but it can be absolutely heartbreaking when a complaint gets out of hand.

Previously we wrote an article covering many of the issues to be considered by both businesses and consumers when providing online testimonials (you can read it here). In this article we really want to focus on helping consumers through the steps of providing a review or making a complaint so that the interests of all parties are protected. Most countries will have extensive consumer laws in place. These are there to help protect both business and consumers by providing rulings and guidelines on all manner of consumer law. In Australia the ACCC is the ruling body.

How to make an official complaint:

There are guidelines for making an official complaint, and we strongly recommend that the first point of call is always to contact the business direct, before heading to social media.

Make contact with the business as soon as possible

Don’t delay. A fairer outcome for all concerned comes with a timely complaint.

Make sure you state the complaint fairly and the outcome you are seeking (replacement of an item, refund, repair).

Have proof of purchase or any contract readily available as the business may request such documents as part of their complaints proceedings.

Be polite.

Put your complaint in Writing via email or a letter

It can assist to put your complaint in writing so that there are no misunderstandings. State your complaint and your desired outcome. Having your complaint in writing also helps to document the process.

The ACCC provide a handy tool to help you determine your rights. It is a general guide only, and does not constitute legal advice.

You can find the tool here: Use your rights

Be fair and reasonable

[clickToTweet tweet=”Keeping your cool is important. Remember to focus on the issue at hand and try to avoid confrontation.” quote=”Keeping your cool is important. Remember to focus on the issue at hand and try to avoid confrontation.”]

If things are getting heated, ask to speak to someone else, or tell them you will call again tomorrow because you are upset at the moment. Don’t allow emotion to cause further issues.

If you have not had any response, then posting a question or a tweet to a business asking them to respond, without any emotion attached does seem to make some businesses take action. Please do this respectfully and only after all other attempts have failed.

If you are not getting a resolution

Don’t continue to complain, after three attempts to resolve the issue, if you are still not happy or the business has not responded, your next step is to seek advice from either the ACCC or a third party.

The ACCC provides a list of places to go for help, you can access the list here.

If you are still not getting a satisfactory response, your step would be to obtain legal advice. Do not launch into an attack online or bombard the premises with abusive phone calls. None of this will help you to resolve the issue and you may find yourself being charged for harrassment or other charges. This leads us to talk about the elephant (troll) in the room. The use of social media for complaints.

Don’t become an accidental troll (or incite others to troll)

[clickToTweet tweet=”With businesses so accessible these days via social media, it can be tempting to launch into an attack on a business ” quote=”With businesses so accessible these days via social media, it can be tempting to launch into an attack on a business when you are feeling that your complaint has not been dealt with. “]

Complaining to friends can get them riled up too and sometimes we see cases of a disgruntled customer inciting their friends to write poor reviews and complaints against the business. This is unethical behaviour and further if the people writing the reviews have never used the business, they are in fact breaching laws around the creation of fake reviews. (see our previous article on writing testimonals here).

The risk of being charged under defamation laws will loom in this instance. If your friends do go on the defensive for you, ask them to please remove such reviews and complaints, to protect their own reputations. Publically launching into a personal attack on businesses or naming and shaming can often backfire and should not be part of your plan for resolution.

What if you have written a bad review and then the problem is resolved?

In this case do the right thing and at the very least add a comment to your review that the issue was resolved and thank them for the resolution. You may or may not choose to delete the review or amend it in other ways. You have the right to leave a review for a business provided it is truthful and not malicious.

When can’t you request a refund or cancel a service?

When it comes to services, under Australia law there are certain rights which the consumer has, but also there are times when you cannot cancel or request a refund. According to the ACCC website these include:

issues arising which were outside of the control of the provider,
because you just decide to change your mind after the service was completed
you have insisted on having a service provided in a particular way, against the provider’s advice
you failed to clearly explain your needs to the provider.

For example you engage a painter and you are told that the surface needs a primer. You insist this is not necessary and direct the painter to paint without the preparation. The paint starts to peel within weeks. You cannot request a refund because you have been given expert advice and chosen to go against it and insisted they do the work your way.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The area of complaints is one where emotions can run high on both sides.” quote=”The area of complaints is one where emotions can run high on both sides.”]

The above is general information only and should not be considered legal advice.

We are happy to continue research into this area and welcome discussion on the topic. Please however refrain from naming and shaming any organisation in your comments or using inappropriate language (we are a family friendly blog!).

You may also wish to read our article on etiquette and responding to complaints from the business side here.

May 30, 2016 By Fiona Lucas

Facebook Live for Small Business

Tune in every Monday at 7:30pm Australian EST for our Facebook Live Mentoring Monday sessions.

We cover social media topics centred around building your online reputation and brand, from organic reach on facebook to avoiding scams! Join us!

Episode One: Don’t be Scammed

Episode Two: Legally Blindsided: Talking about defamation, copyright and reputation

Episode Three: Organic is Good for you (Organic Reach that is!)

Dont forget to follow us on Facebook so you get notified when we go LIVE! Click here to find us

November 6, 2015 By Fiona Lucas

Reviews & Testimonials

One of the best ways of demonstrating social proof of a business’s value is through the provision by clients and customers of reviews and testimonials.

We all know that consumers value word of mouth, however they also tend to trust businesses when they read (or hear video) testimonials because they have an expectation that the review will be genuine, provided in good faith and independent.

There are guidelines for businesses provided by the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) and we will outline these in this post.

It is important to understand that it the onus is on the business to ensure that reviews are genuine and not fake. Failure to remove a fake review could breach the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Fines can be substantial. The ACCC fined removalist business Citymove $6,000 in 2011 for posting fake testimonials from people who were not genuine customers).

What is a fake review?

When a review appears to be impartial but in fact the review was written by:

the reviewed business itself
a competitor
someone paid to write the review who has not used the product
someone who has used the product but written an inflated review to receive a financial or non-financial benefit*

*if a product has had a sponsored review, then the commercial relationship must be clearly disclosed (ie paying a blogger to write a review on a product)

Be aware of behaviours which the ACCC considers to be misleading:

asking friends and family to review a product without disclosing their relationship to you (we see this on Facebook pages often). They must disclose their relationship to the business within the review
soliciting others to write reviews either of your own business or a competitors when they have not experienced the service or used the product
do not write reviews yourself when you have not experienced the good or service reviewed or which do not reflect a genuinely held opinion.

These are important to be aware of. The concept of a genuinely held opinion means that you may not have experienced the good or service, but you have had dealings with the person or business in such a way (perhaps through provision of free advice or online information) which mean you are not afraid to put your own good name against their product or service.

[ctt tweet=” Always remember that when you put your name against a business, product or service, you are endorsing that business.” coverup=”I8aeN”]

Offering incentives (prizes, money, discounts, benefits, trading reviews for goods/services) for reviews

You can only offer incentives where the incentive is offered to a reviewer equally whether it is positive or negative (you cannot offer an incentive for a positive review). Reviews must be treated equally and negative reviews not removed,
At the time of making the offer it must be clearly stated that the incentive will be granted whether review is positive or negative
You must also disclose on the reviews that an incentive was offered so that readers are aware .

Our recommendation is that you do not offer incentives.

Editing or Omitting reviews

[ctt title=”A business may be seen to be misleading consumers if they edit or omit negative reviews” tweet=”A business may be seen to be misleading consumers if they edit or omit negative reviews” coverup=”Rt1b2″] Ensure that your business has a content moderation policy which outlines how reviews are managed and under what conditions they maybe removed and that this policy is easily accessible by reviewers. Usually this would be where the review contains malicious links, or spam or where they are know to be fake. Fake reviews (usually on online platforms) generally use the same “speak” and often are repeated over and over on the site or on several sites, don’t make sense (often you see fake spam comments on blog posts also) or there is a massive spike in reviews at the same time. There are always exceptions, for example after a successful event a business may see a genuine “spike” in reviews.

Be aware that your business reputation and integrity is at stake. Be transparent and fully disclose any commercial agreements around testimonials.

If your business is the target of harrassment via fake reviews

The ACCC advise Businesses who are affected by fake negative reviews to lodge a complaint to the platform which publishes and review and also to any regularatory authorities. In extreme cases where there is ongoing harrassement or threats, the Police may need to be contacted. Unfortunately a very small proportion of people will post reviews which are not a genuinely held opinion, but motivated by dislike of a business or a staff member. We often see this in online platforms where people rally others to their cause who have not experienced the good or service but start posting negative reviews. This can seriously damage a business reputation.

In rare cases the negatives can actually boost a business as was seen recently with Irish business The White Moose Cafe, when comments made by the manager towards customers who were Vegan in regards to their needs, sparked an online social media war. Thousands of Vegans posted one star reviews, but the cafe owner found the controversy brought in more and more customers (no doubt of the non vegan persuasion) and many more reviews. They now have over 15,000 reviews with an average of 4.8 out of 5 – and they sell t-shirts. We don’t recommend trying this. So many things could have gone wrong including worst case some kind of violence. In fact we are watching for any flare ups. There are many pages and groups started against the Cafe, with equally as many started against the people who are against the Cafe – and this is behaviour that concerns us should people outside of the restaurant become involved. It certainly makes for an interesting case study.

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You can learn more at the ACCC site Managing online reviews

December 22, 2014 By Fiona Lucas

Reputation management matters

Branding vs Reputation

Someone said to me recently, “reputation doesn’t matter, it’s all about how you brand”.

Wow I thought, that takes the personality out of it, although of course I could understand what they meant. Certainly in business, or for individuals (particularly celebrities), if you create a lot of hype and gloss about something you can get traction even if its not quality information that you are promoting. There are plenty of snake oil salespeople out there but I for one don’t intend to add to them.

“All you have to do is been seen” they said. Yes, true for some people that seems to work, but I certainly do not think it builds any kind of longevity. What you do catches up on you at some point. Just what is it that they are seeing?

There is an audience for those who create hype and gloss, often vulnerable people who are seeking quick answers or desperate for change. That is why there are so many “get rich quick” schemes.

Smoke and mirrors

Puffery abounds in all forms of advertising and never as much as online when often consumer laws are pushed right to the edge in order to make claims about being the “best”, the “top”, make six figures in xx minutes”. For me it’s all about ethical marketing practices, promoting and highlighting the truth of what you do. We all know (or we should) that it takes work to get results. If you pay for a course it won’t guarantee you results unless you take action (unless of course the content is not there and you paid virtually for air, and sadly that happens). You might might six figures in xx minutes if you have a great product, but you wont if there is a mismatch between what you say and what you offer.

When it comes to the online world and social media the only results you can really guarantee is that if you continually stuff up your reputation will get damaged. People talk. People share.

Reputation management is imperative in today’s world and should be part of every business (and every personal) strategy.

There is a famous quote by Warren Buffet “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you will do things differently”. It’s worth starting to think about it if you haven’t already.

If you are a school leaver or job seeker, what is it that will be discovered about you first in a search online? If you are trying to make a name for yourself in any industry, what kind of name do you want associated with your own

Authentic experience

This is how I see it, it’s my version of something I read at some point and it really hit home with me.

The most damage to reputations comes from a mismatch or misinterpretation of what is said about your business (or you)
and the reality of others experience of you.

So you can do all that hype, puffery and smoke and mirrors stuff, but at some point, the experience people are having of you and your business will be the defining point. You may get away with it for a while, but do you really want to end up on something like “sixty minutes” as the latest scam?

If you have a great business or product, or you yourself are the product (such as celebrity, actor, job seeker, entrepreneur) then reputation management matters!

A quote from Seth Godin comes to mind also “the key to getting a reputation for being brilliant is actually being brilliant, not just acting like you are“.
That says it all really. Be authentic.

What is it that you say you do? When someone works with you is that what they find?

At iRespectonline we get down to the nitty gritty, we explore the experience others are having of you and we help you to bring the best to the fore, and to take action on any negatives.
We don’t work with just anyone either, we look for synergies within your values and your mindset. Whether it’s producing a blueprint for your image online or our social media workshops and training to bring congruence to the whole team, it’s all about reputation.

So have you been caught up with the “bright and shiny” objects? Have you had an experience where there was a mismatch between what was offered and what was delivered?

We would love to hear your stories. Please share with us your experiences (no name and shaming please, lets keep it to respectful discussion).

Fiona Lucas.

If you would like to stay up to date, please sign up to our newsletter mailing list here. We are revamping our newsletter so you can be the first inline in 2015. We don’t spam, our reputation depends on it 🙂

If you would like to work with us, please drop us a line here.

June 1, 2014 By Fiona Lucas

When the reviewer becomes the reviewed

Restaurants are finally getting a chance to even up the score. For years we as customers have been able to comment, praise and critique restaurants via various forums (ie Trip Advisor, Yelp, Urbanspoon etc. A recent article by Inga Ting on Goodfood.com.au outlines how Restaurants are now using social to gain insights into their customers and even give them ratings!

Now from what I can see it’s not a public viewing so no need to panic that your public reputation might be damaged, but certainly it does mean that we need to be more considerate when reviewing our experiences and make sure we are being fair.

I have some reservations in that if a customer does have a bad experience I would hope that the restaurant would make note of real issues and perhaps even place a note to make sure that the next time the customer is in, they have a truly positive experience. Marking a customer as a PIA (pain in arse!) is unfair where standards are not being met, but it is all relative. Most of us have come across someone who will complain just to try to get a free meal even when the service was great after all!

One area I noted was the comment that people stayed on the table after dessert, I guess it’s a sign of the times that restaurants want you to eat up and move on, but I’m of the old school type. If I am fine dining and I want to linger over coffee because I’ve had a great experience, then I don’t like to be pushed out. I understand in an era of line up and no reservations you do have to be mindful of the next sitting, that is just manners, but don’t book me at 8pm and expect my party to be out at 9pm – it’s not good for the digestion!

What I do like is that if you do have your likes and dislikes in your online profiles you just might find you get an even better restaurant experience. By posting your reviews and opinions a better picture of the experiences you like to have will be found. If a restaurant knows you are a foodie, avid instagram poster of food pics etc, then it is in their best interests to make your experience a great one – lots of free promotion for them! You can find out more about one of the new review sites Dimmi here.

It’s an interesting side to the picture and I will be interested to see what others think. Please add your comments and let’s get a conversation started!