Response to “The threat of a bad review”

The nzherald this weekend featured an article on travellers using the threat of a bad review to gain privileges or discounts. The article stemmed from a news piece out of the UK in which 80 properties had claimed they’d been threatened with a bad review if they didn’t do something for the customer like upgrades or discounts. Articles like this tend to undermine reviews generally or play up the extremely small ‘ dark side ‘ of the issues.

This is a very valid and real problem for all review sites being discredited  and one that has been discussed at Fossick.

Blackmail undermines the system.

I spend a significant amount of my time trying to convince motel or hotel owners that reviews are not a bad thing and  that fake reviews are an industry phenomenon rather than a consumer one. Most fake reviews are written by people that benefit from them, usually the hotel themselves or,  much less often,  a competitor. They are rarely written by genuine consumers. Fake reviews are mainly about our own business morals. Pretending to be a consumer and raving about your place,  to my mind,  is akin to downloading music or movies off the internet. It’s possible but not ethical.

Blackmail or threats on the other hand, are the other side of  this coin. When the consumer uses ways or means to try and get what they want, in non-ethical or moral ways.  As with anything, as soon as it works (aka it pays) some people will do it. Think spam, phone scams,  ” your computer is broken ”  scams.

However, what the Herald article didn’t do  was look at  ways to minimise any impact or help yourself  avoid getting stung.

 1. Don’t get too worried – it’s not that big a problem.

The British study mentioned claims there have been 80 reported incidents in the last year. 80 out of how many room nights sold in the British Isles – several million. So lets not get too wound up yet. The likelihood of it happening to you is probably about the same as you being involved in a traffic accident – yes, it could happen but despite the volume of cars out there, it’s statistically pretty unlikely.

2. Like toddlers at the supermarket – you don’t have to cave.

99% of the time  the customer (the annoying unreasonable sod of a customer )  is still right  but occasionally they too cross the line.  When someone threatens you with a bad review, over an unreasonable situation, with long term business in mind  , it often seems easier at the time to give in and just placate the situation.  For the same reason that giving in to the 2 yr old, who is currently threatened to cause mass embarrassment by having a tantrum in the  line at the supermarket,  it’s is not always the best solution.

The threat is generally worse than the reality.
I’ve got angry and thought about writing a bad review on a company, but most of the time in a hour or two I’ve got over it and never do. Plus the actual words written out, although powerful ,  are just one opinion. Just one review. It also makes a difference if the issue is  a genuine problem or they’re just gunning for a discount.

So they write a bad review –  if that’s your only review - this might be a huge problem.
But the key to dealing with this type of threat is not to allow one or two customers the power to affect your business. To remove this power you need to be doing #3 or if they’re trying to manipulate you look at #4.

3. Encourage all your customers to write reviews – don’t wait to be reviewed.

I like to call this “taking the microphone back”. Sure you don’t have control over what people say into a microphone, but you can share it  generously around a room.

Waiting to be reviewed is like sitting in the audience and waiting for people to decide to come up to speak. The people that automatically choose to speak are those that really want to say something, those who like the sound of their own voice, or who really loved (or hated) their experience. Most will never say anything. Encourage them.

Usually there are a tonne of happy customers in that room . You need them to speak – to balance the voices and opinions, to get the  real “wisdom of the crowd”.

To get them to the microphone, you’ll need to ask.  When you have a strategy of sharing the microphone around, one or two terrible reviews will make very little difference.

Customers skim reviews, discarding the overly positive and the really negative
What they’re looking for is themes, stuff that comes up time and again; to get a sense of a place. A wide number of reviews. Different commentaries . A focus on certain aspects such as breakfast or wifi or security parking. A feel of what others thought – an impression – something that will tip them into the ‘ yes, that’s sounds good – I’ll buy it ” camp.

4. Been threatened – document the incident

So you’ve been threatened with a bad review for an unreasonable situation. There are always people out there trying to rip off the system or pay less than expected. One of the best ways to handle this situation is to document it. Send an email to a friend  detailing what happened. It’s quite cathartic, but it’s also a digital record of the event. At Fossick we’ve set up an email address that we don’t access called blackmail@fossick.com. Feel free to send us the email.

If a review then comes up that is really unreasonable  write to us. We can then check back on the email and edit or remove the review is necessary. However 90% of the time a really negative review is actually best handled publicly by a courteous explanation.

At fossick, we’re happy to help with replying to these style comments or tricky situations. Drop us a line on keepusbusy@fossick.com

5. Try and listen past the threat

“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds.”  - Norman Vincent Peale

Even the worst situations and complaints can have seeds of truth. Customers can be unreasonable at times, but they also have the ability to go straight to our weaknesses and push us in the grey areas. Listen to the complaint  and try to empathize. A lot of the time people who get angry do so because they don’t feel they’re being heard. Hear them. You don’t have to do anything or agree, but listen and empathize. Then very succinctly say no, but  try to give a reason.

” I understand that you’re upset and this is an unfortunate situation.  If you wish to write a review then please do so, but  we are unable to ……..discount / upgrade you at this point because …. However,  I can offer you ….. I’d like to think about your situation / talk to one of my staff etc etc. 

Threats, blackmail and nasty customers are not fun things to deal with but there are things you can do to help yourself or minimize the impact to your business.  If you’ve had a incident or would like to comment and share your thoughts on this difficult grey area – we would love to hear your comments.