What do you do when an unhappy 'customer' starts attacking your company everywhere they can online? I say 'customer' because I have a strong suspicion that this is actually a competitor who is trying to take some of our market share and redirect people to their brand instead. In their latest round of attack posts they always mention a particular brand as an alternative and say it is 'iso certified' as if this is something that any customer would know. Also, they are always somewhat anonymous and don't reply to any e-mails we send them. If it was a legitimate customer, they would be relieved to have some way to resolve the problem. They basically refuse to give order or customer details. Coincidentally, the alternative brand they mention also has an active twitter & facebook account, which means they have someone actively marketing their brand online. So what do you suggest we do about this? Anything you can suggest to verify my suspicions? Would you retaliate or would you just sit back and play nice? Thanks!
You could release a statement for your company with basically what you have here. Say that someone claiming to be a customer has been putting down your services, yet has no basis and will not come forward with any proof that they are a customer. This is almost standard practice in the business world though, just look at commercials.
Get yourself a big fancy lawyer and sue for libel. What they're doing, customer or competitor, is technically a crime.
Who pays that lawyer? Make sure your customers know why they should choose you above any other company. Wish could help more!
Exactly what I would do. Other than that, not much else you can do. I wouldn't retaliate if that's what you're thinking If they keep it up though, and you don't know who it is, it's kind of useless to involve a lawyer and may invoke unnecessary charges.
I agree. It came to my mind - that's why I came back to tell you too vansterdam. JoesMillion was first! Keep talking about the good stuff - people note what you and they are up too. Don't fight in public. Keep doing the right thing for you.
you must stand for your right, and prove that you have the copyright or you must sate it in the press release in Internet, you must not be bother but be more positive.
Thanks for all the replies. For the press release would I actually acknowledge this person that is bashing us? Is there some way that I can find out who this person is or at least where they are from?
Taking the high road can be difficult, but is always the way to go. Provide expemplary customer service, a great product, and advertise it honestly and accurately. Even with this path, someone, somewhere will try to beat you down. The hard thing is to essentially ignore the naysayer and continue with the high road without resorting to their tactics. Anyone can get numerous free email addresses and poke at anyone else they want. Trying to connect a given email address to a particular (especially antagonistic) individual can be difficult and very expensive, and in the end, not particularly profitable. Evem of free email accounts weren't so readily available, a dedicated individual could register their own domain (anonymously) and start sending emails out under that name. (I'm not even going to look at how easy it is to spoof email addresses or use anonymizers). Generally speaking, you can't fight them by fighting back using their tactics. You can't compete and win in the eyes of your customers. Better to provide a plausible explanation for attacks, to provide a rebuttal that isn't emotional but factual, and move on with positive advertising, ignoring as much as possible the micreant.
why not use this attack as a reason to do a massive promotion. Explain the attack to your customer let them see everything then because your company is the best... you give your customer a rebate...a free gift... etc
We have experienced the same thing before. What our boss did was we answered all his accusations and then gave all the proof we had. We asked our other clients to give us testimonials so we can use this to other clients who will be interested to 1 use our services.
Yeah that happens and that is exactly why there are those Reputation Management service providers. What they do is try to send bad such negative reviews or talks that can have negative influence on your business by doing some search engine optimization. That pushes the bad talk at the back of the results page and you are again on the top. Its something like that, i am not exactly sure, you need to search if its affecting you.
Make a note of all the locations where this "customer" has left negative reviews for you / your business. When dealing with your real customers, ask them to pass comments on your products or services. Here are a few examples of ways you can do this: 1. After an order is placed, in the thank you email / confirmation email. Add a link at the bottom to a location where the customer can write a review and ask them for their opinion. 2. Customer support messages. As above. 3. Add product reviews to your product detail or service detail pages. Please only use honest reviews from real customers, I really hate reading 5 star reviews which are obviously fake. Most people arn't stupid and can usually spot a fake review, especially one that highlights a competing product. Additionally they won't just take the first recommendation that they see, the will browse a few sites and if they see this person on multiple sites with the same recommendation then they will know that it is misleading.
Release a press release, and I think you should mention their company name in it. Post it in as many places as you can.
If they cannot prove they were your customer then their sounds would be useless and no weights. If I were you I would give a prize for anyone who can reveal his info. I bet someone would willing to hand you his information for a few bucks you offers. Press release may help but it is only a hole in the air. If you cannot define who was really behind the scene then it will happen again no matter how nice the press release has been written. It cannot protect you for that long.
You could do a little research on how other companies fight online attacks by customers or competitors. Generate some positive buzz about your site or a product like others have said using a press release that you can get ranked in Google News, tweet about it, create a Facebook Fan page, etc... If all that fails you could hire an online reputation management firm to do some damage control. I've heard that ReputationDefender.com is pretty good. You'll have to check out their prices. Good Luck... There are also companies out there who deal with online damage control.
Find ways to turn the negative into positive without fighting. If they are "iso certified" and your not, Promote other strengths that outweigh that negative. Do a press release about the attack while reiterating your company's value and virtue.