This is especially true if that feedback is unfounded. As I always explain to my clients, always take the high road as this is the long run can turn a possible negative into a positive. [ see blog post entitled: How to deal with negative reviews ]
However, this past weekend I came across a comment on one of the social media sites I manage that was so wrong. In fact, the commenter had this company confused with another one.
Let me give you a little background: The commenter in question was telling people to never use this company as they were horrible and they just fired a guy who was involved in the California wildfires. She said this company fired him, as the fire destroyed his company van while he was trying to save his family. She said this company deserves to go bankrupt and they’re horrible, et cetera et cetera.
Now if this were true I would agree, and in truth I would’ve quit this company, No matter how much they paid me!
BUT, they had this company confused with an East Coast Company with franchises in California. My client is an independent company, with no franchises and only operates in Massachusetts. So this was just a case of confusion, perhaps the company had a name similar or something like that, I never did find out.
So I responded to her that we are not in California and don’t have franchises anywhere. She went in and deleted her comment, and there was no damage done to the company’s reputation.
Now what if I had ignored this comment, as many companies seem to do on social media?
The company would’ve faced the possibility of this goes viral and then losing tons of business. At that point he probably would’ve reacted, but they may have done irreversible damage the reputation, and even faced going out of business for something he did not do.
Can you imagine working so hard to build your business and having it torn down by a viral comment about something you did not do?
The problem with the age in which we live in, is people immediately respond to things on social media. Once something is out there, it’s out there for good. So if you don’t respond to them quickly, you really face an uncertain future. Because your reputation is something you can’t get back once tarnished. This is your most valuable asset and you must do everything you can to protect it.
So as I said, respond to comments as soon as possible. Now, this was over the weekend and it’s not always possible to be at your computer or even your smartphone 24/7. This is why it helps to have another set of eyes and ears paying attention to your social media and web properties.
Bottom Line:
This is why I always stress to use a quality website management company. So, in the event you miss one of these horrible, mistaken comments, there is somebody else that may pick up the ball and run with it and save your business.
You hear the term “solutions provider” tossed around quite often these days. It sounds great, right? A company will study your unique problems and goals and come up with a solution that meets your needs. Sounds great, sign me up.
Not so fast. In reality, typically web development firms will not create a solution that is necessarily best for you, but rather best for them. If you have a meeting to discuss whether to tweak your website or to build a new one, 99% of the time you will receive the recommendation to build a new site. If you tell them you have a $5,000 budget, you will receive an estimate very close to that amount. And if they are a shop that focuses on Microsoft Technologies, they will steer you in that direction, knowing full well that many not be the best for you.
I am always amazed at the short sightedness of companies, going for short term profits rather than taking a longer view. For RooSites, we want you to be a customer for years to come. We know if we do the right thing by you, that you in turn will have us manage your website and refer us to others.
In the past couple of weeks we had examples of “doing the right thing”. I wrote about the first example in a blog post about this on April 2nd, entitled: Sometimes having a client NOT spend money is best. Read Post → It was a perfect example of how we could have pushed the client to build a new site, which would have made us money. BUT he does very well in searches, and his website looks ok and certainly professional. Also he had gained several new patients from his appointment request form in the past few months. So I advised holding off a year or so. Again from a purely profit standpoint, not a great move, but in the long run it should pay off with a happy client and referrals.
The other example was concerning a company’s website where they had a Drupal content management system and a separate WordPress blog hosted elsewhere. One of their biggest issues is that their blog content isn’t being indexed with his main site. As blogging is very important to the company, my first thought was to bring everything into WordPress. (Drupal is a great CMS but if blogging is important I favor WordPress) But after further investigation, the cost seemed too great. So, I came up with a plan to install WordPress directly onto their server, create a custom theme to match his Drupal site, and then import the posts. This would save him 50% or more and achieve everything he wanted to do from an SEO perspective. This was a good example of being a solutions provider, not just shoehorning in a solution that is easy for me or more profitable.
Bottom Line: If you’re dealing with a company that seems to provide solutions which are best for them, and not you, contact us today. We are a true solutions provider.
