Whether they be unhappy customers or Internet trolls, the ability to leave online reviews for businesses can be extremely hurtful to an organization’s profits. Not every review is filled with truth. It is just one side of the story, and if it is targeted toward your business, are you ever in the right to share your side of the story?
A few years ago, my beautiful wife and I were celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Since we didn’t want to lean on family too much to watch our children, we decided to stay in-state, and get away only for the weekend to Key West. With limited time, I wanted to make sure every waking minute was magical for the weekend so I performed endless research on every restaurant, beach, hotel, and adventure possible. I am not lying when I say that I read every review available on every single business. I left no stone unturned. I found the right hotel, I booked reservations for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner and scheduled spa days and fun in the sand.
During my research, I came across a company called Ocean Vue Adventures that offers snorkeling and glass-bottom boat tours. Among their slew of great reviews, they had one very negative review that stood out. If this was a stand-alone review, and you read it at face value, even among all other positive reviews, you would likely take your business elsewhere. And then something amazing happened. The company shared their side of the story about the interaction. And it was different than the poster’s view – and completely believable. You read it and you instantly realize that the negative poster of the initial review was indeed in the wrong. They were entitled and snobby, and were misinterpreting the events to suit their needs. (Check out the review titled “Worst Customer Service“). I chose to do business with this tour company because of their integrity and decision to stand up for themselves.
In retail, we believe the customer is always right, but that doesn’t mean that their stories are always accurate. Doesn’t the truth deserve to come out? Another similar event happened for a dealer client of ours this week. An angry service department customer left a salacious review of the dealership, and even created a relatively hilarious and rude meme about of the General Sales Manager, posting it to their FB page. Simply put, the poster had just bought a certified vehicle at a competing Toyota dealer and brought it to my client, instead, for service, opposed to the store he just bought it from. His wheel was falling off. My client tightened the lug nuts. A few days later, the wheel almost fell off again. When brought back, it was revealed the selling dealership (their competitor nearby) had put on the wrong lug nuts. When my client corrected the error, the customer demanded to be able to return the vehicle and get a new vehicle for the exact same dollar amount in which he purchased it. The General Sales Manager at my client’s store said he would obviously have to return to the dealer that sold him the vehicle initially. Apparently, that was unacceptable and the customer took to FB and other review sites to share his displeasure.
Now, my dealer is in the right. Not the customer. The other dealer was in the wrong. But that is not where the aggression was directed. While I advised my client to respond back with a fairly funny and magnanimous response (a little outside of the norm for reputation management standards), I can’t help but admit that my dealer’s side of the story deserves to be shared. ANY reasonable customer would agree that the purchaser should take the vehicle back to the dealership they purchased it from, and not burden another local store with this issue.
As businesses, we want to be liked, and great companies work hard to win over customers. But not every interaction results in an agreement. Perspectives may differ and feelings get hurt. That is why dedicating yourself to reputation management is important. But just because sides can’t agree on an end result doesn’t always make one party more wrong than the other. So I ask… is it ever right to tell your side of the story?
(If you ask me, my wife and I had an amazing 10-year anniversary weekend. I believe she would say the same. But you never know. Again… everyone has different perspectives. Best to get her take on it too.)
