What To Do When Reviewers Lie About You

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Managing your online reputation is very important especially with the onset of social marketing, blogs and forums. It's always important to answer your critics. When Dell had problems with their laptops catching on fire, they wrote about it on their blog - http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2006/07/13/431.aspx and dealt with the situation head on. Take a note from Tiger Woods, there is no point hiding your head in the sand. We'll wait to see what his delay in apologising will cost him in terms of sponsorship and fans. Here is an article on managing your online reputation that your readers may be interested in - http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2006/07/13/431.aspx

Good aid from bad reviewers! This reminded me an old saying: "a satisfied customer is a moving ambassador".

Generally, someone who is unhappy about your product/service is more apt to review it than someone is satisfied. It's key to encourage your loyal customers to post positive reviews online.

Do you think that owners should have review sites remove those lies? I think it's much more effective for the site itself to prove the review is false and keep it up there to discourage the same. For genuinely negative reviews with foundation, business owners should be relatively open to the criticism -- as is most often the case, they might not be on the front lines. As a consumer, I would be highly skeptical of all positive reviews, and would appreciate negative reviews that were followed-up on, true or false.

The customer is not always right, but he is always the customer.

I have not had this happen to me, however I have had non-customers question services before hand. I find a open, healthy conversation where you show your best efforts to resolve the issue, can help business showing you are real.

If I notice a lie, I suggest not to be afraid to call it and ask for proof.

Cheers,
Mukul

I'd be interested in what you have to say about Ripoff Reports. That site continually ranks high on Google and has been the vehicle for many a smear campaign. Some charge that ROR is an extortion outfit, charging thousands to have negative reviews removed. What can be done about that?

I don't have any inside information on the motivation behind ripoff reports, but I do remember one client that was peeved to have a less-than-honest story up there about them. Where have you seen evidence that they are extorting companies, Ed?

One factor that complicates things is that Yelp (and I'm not sure about other sites) actively discourages businesses from asking customers to write reviews, and it does so by suppressing reviews from people who haven't reviewed a significant number of businesses.

One of the reasons that the CEO of Yelp is considered by some to be the most hated man by small business owners is that they use an algorithm that suppresses reviews immediately and removes them from the business page under certain seemingly arbitrary circumstances.

Unfortunately, unsatisfied customers leave feedback about the work of the company more often, while loyal customers do not want to waste their time to leave positive feedback.

That's absolutely the case, Howard--it's just human nature--but I think we can prod our customers to help us out in that way. Some will be willing.