When you were in school, how many of you were the ‘straight A’ students who actually looked forward to receiving your report card in the mail so you could show your parents? Yeah, me either.
I got good grades in the subjects that interested me, especially in college when I could concentrate on my major (communications). However, there were other subjects that were part of my required curriculum that I struggled to pass. Even though I worked my butt off (and even graduated cum laude), I still had that fear of negative feedback on my report card.
Apparently a lot of people are not afraid of negative feedback… and they really should be.
My SUV was recently hit, causing damage to part of the bumper and wheel well. Since the vehicle is pretty new and was in great shape before the accident, it was important to me to have it repaired at a reputable shop that would make it look perfect again.
My husband knew of a body shop a couple minutes from our house, so we dropped it off for a quote. However, while I was waiting to hear back from them I decided to google the shop’s name along with the keyword “reviews”.
Holy Crackers – the reviews were TERRIBLE!
A dozen people took the time out of their day to post reviews on yelp, yahoo, google and more. They complained about the terrible customer service and that it took a really long time to get their vehicles back. Not one person posted a favorable review on the body shop! Seeing nothing but bad feedback resulted in me immediately deciding not to use the body shop for my repair. I hadn’t experienced their supposedly terrible customer service, but decided that I didn’t even want to give them the chance to ruin my day (or my SUV). Based on this negative feedback, they not only lost the money that I would have spent, but also all future recommendations that I give to my friends.
There are millions of internet users and I know I’m not the only one who looks for feedback before making purchases. Whether it’s checking tripadvisor.com to determine if that hotel is really as nice as it seems on their website, or looking to see how many stars an ebay seller has, other people’s feedback has a huge impact on future decisions.
So here’s my tip for all the small (or large) business owners out there, keep an eye on your feedback. Make it a point to google your company’s name to see what people are saying about you. If you’re the ‘face of your company’ it’s also a good idea to google your own name to see if it pops up anywhere.
Don’t forget to come back and visit Pocketful of Joules, I’ll be writing a future blog post on what to do if you see negative feedback on your company.