In crisis communications and public relations, one of the growing trends we are seeing both in research and in practice it the issue of dealing with negative comments. Some have debated whether or not to delete these negative comments, but some have advocated to keeping these up.
However, once you have dealt with the situation at hand with these negative comments or even positive comments, what are the next steps? What are companies doing right now to address these online or on Facebook? How do you communicate to these audience members you have dealt with the situation successfully and are moving forward? This is of course a growing issue and topic of conversation among public relations and crisis communicators involved in the social media domain of research and practice.
As professors, we see our student evaluations come into our inbox as soon as the semester ends. It is an opportunity to hear what our students think about our teaching styles, course materials, and what they learned from being in your class for the last couple of months. With each of these evaluations, you will get some good ones and then some not-so good ones. Occasionally, you will get some that will entertain you by saying you have an excellent taste in shoes. 🙂 It is good to take these evaluations and review what are some things you did well and what are some things you can improve on.
As businesses, we are seeing a boom in the use of consumers relying on sites that provide online reviews of products, services, and other aspects related to the overall reputation of a brand or company. Restaurants have seen this play apart with restaurant review sites like Yelp and check in applications like Foursquare. Many brands on their website have a place for consumers to review their products – some only post positive reviews, while others provide a balance of views from their customers. One of the risks of course with these review sites is you really do not know if the person is a customer or just had a bad experience – or if they are a “reputation assassin” for the brand. You have to look at the context and what they are saying – in addition to the timing and number of comments posted.
I had a personal experience with this recently that involved my car, a Ford Mustang named Edna Mode (yes, I named my car after the fabulous character from the movie “The Incredibles.”) I wanted to take my car in for some service, and I went online and saw the review of the local Ford dealerships. One popped up for me that had two very good reviews saying that the dealership was transparent, supportive, nice, and welcoming to their customers.
So, I went to the Ford dealership in Louisville at Town & Country Ford, and I have to say – the online reviews were right on target. The managers and service representatives were very friendly, supportive, and transparent. They brought me out where they pointed out some things I needed to do with Edna and what the next steps should be. They did this is a very transparent and friendly manner – which was definitely great to experience. I was very impressed and I really do appreciate the great customer service I received at this particular dealership.
In some cases like the one I experienced, the online reviews were true and representative to the overall culture and environment of the company I went to. We have to continue to explore the impact of online reviews and how this influences people to make decisions on whether or not to buy, invest, or go to a particular location.
As PR professionals, we have to be proactive in monitoring these reviews, addressing them in a proactive manner, and take action steps on what we need to do after receiving possibly a negative comment or two. The first thing people are going to see online are these comments, so it is essential we need to be proactive in addressing these to manage our online reputation effectively.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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