Cyberspace Review Sites Can Threaten Reputations

With social media and Internet review sites becoming increasingly popular, customer feedback is taking on a life of its own.

And sometimes it can seem like eternal life, with companies having little recourse when their reputations are unfairly besmirched by hard-to-please customers, disgruntled employees or even mischievous competitors.

Marcia Yearsley, owner of Edgewood Manor and Sweet Seasons in Eureka Springs, said she believes she lost business after a negative review of one of her guest cottages appeared on the travel review website TripAdvisor.com.

Yearsley was made aware of the negative comment by a customer, although in her case, it wasn’t until long after the post first appeared on the website.

“A potential customer called me months later,” Yearsley said. “She said, ‘Let me ask you something. Are these properties clean?'”

The customer then referred to a post on TripAdvisor from September 2009, in which a former guest called the property “filthy” and “rundown.”

To offer more protection to businesses, Yearsley believes TripAdvisor should offer an alert service, so that business owners are notified when a negative review appears.

Other problems arise when the source of the comments cannot be verified. TripAdvisor requires posters to certify their review is an honest opinion, and that they are not a family member or competitor. Yearsley believes that is easy to get around.

TripAdvisor lists its guidelines for reviews, one of which is that reviews must be written by actual travelers and not by ownership or management posing as guests. Additionally, current or past employees of a business are not supposed to post reviews. No information is available on how, exactly, TripAdvisor verifies this, and a representative from the company could not be reached.

While it might be easy for anyone to post a review, it is not as easy for reviews to be edited or removed. On its website, TripAdvisor states that once a review has been submitted, it cannot be edited. For changes to be made or for a review to be removed, its author must contact TripAdvisor.

Additionally, although newer reviews are listed first, posts on TripAdvisor never expire. Comments can be left up for five years or more, with no indication of any management change or other adjustments a business may have made in that time.

 As business owners are looking for more ways to protect themselves and their brands on the Internet, one option becoming available is the use of an online reputation management company. These companies look to offset the negative reviews that a business may have received with positive feedback.

Defend My Name, a company based in Tampa, Fla., offers online protection services to businesses that have been subject to harsh reviews. By posting positive content on social media websites and managing keywords so that positive reviews appear higher on the search engine page, Defend My Name helps a business rebuild its positive reputation.

KwikChex, a British company offering defamation services and reputation rescue, works in much the same way by helping its clients come back from bad reviews (many of which have been posted on TripAdvisor). The company responds to negative reviews on behalf of its clients, and then uses social media websites and blogs to post positive comments that can help boost their clients’ reputations.

KwikChex is currently seeking legal action against TripAdvisor on behalf of some of its clients who have been the subject of reviews that refer to harassment from employees or are otherwise more insulting than an honest and helpful review.

Other companies offer services to help businesses create a positive influence in the business world. Playmakers Systems LLC of Washington, D.C., specializes in what it refers to as “influence strategy” and focuses on helping businesses become aware of their reputations. The company also works with organizations to help them manage crises and navigate new policies and issues that surround a business’ brand and its reputation.

In Little Rock, advertising agency Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods has worked with several of its clients on reputation management. Bryan Jones, director of interactive services at CJRW, said that having a personal relationship with sites like TripAdvisor can make a difference in reporting fraudulent claims, which the company has done on behalf of some of its clients.

In 2009, Italian pizza restaurant Mazzio’s, a CJRW client, saw that some customers had complained about its service on Twitter. CJRW worked with Mazzio’s to reach out to those customers who had “tweeted” their complaints and to make up for the bad service they had experienced.

“The end goal of online reputation management is not to quiet a squeaky wheel,” Jones said in an e-mail, “but to please customers and prevent squeaks from happening.”

While help from other companies can make a difference, Yearsley, who said she uses TripAdvisor when she travels, believes the review sites themselves should be doing more to protect the business owners.

“They protect their posters,” she said. “If there were fraud protection services being offered by these places where people can slander your business, I don’t know if I would buy it. But I might.”