(FORTUNE Small Business) — It’s a well-known customer service maxim that happy clients tell three people about their experience. Unhappy customers tell nine. Factor in searchable online review sites like Yelp, AOL’s Yellow Pages and Angie’s List, and those nine become thousands.Cranky customers who post negative reviews can spell big trouble for businesses that depend on positive word-of mouth – even a single bad review can pull down rankings and scare away customers. But savvy business owners have come up with a few defenses of their own. It all boils down to plain vanilla marketing and customer service, with an online twist.See This Link
Archive for January, 2008
How to keep your online reputation pristine
January 26, 2008Separating Critics From Charlatans on Web 2.0
January 21, 2008Doesn’t it make sense that customers who are truly real and have taken the steps to actually submit feedback about a business would want share their identities with the business? The business could then reach out to them and resolve any dispute that may exist. Authenticated reviews also can help prevent fake and biased reviews, as well as malicious comments by Competitors.
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Separating-Critics-From-Charlatans-on-Web-20-60588.html
Would You Like Fries With That Social Network ?
January 21, 2008http://www.redherring.com/Home/23397
When you go to general social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, it’s really all about you,” CEO and co-founder Michael Atkinson said. “FohBoh is for you and by you …Our focus is on the industry rather than the consumer.”
The site features forums, blogs, and videos on topics ranging from fast food to artisan cheese making. And even though the site is focused on industry insiders, it also includes a restaurant review section. “We can’t help it,” said Mr. Atkinson.
According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry employs an estimated 13.1 million people, making it the nation’s largest employer outside of government. FohBoh hopes to tap into this $500 billion-plus U.S. market.
Online scalping’s next territory: High-end restaurants?
January 17, 2008Some prominent figures in the New York hospitality industry don’t see much gray area. “I just find it distasteful and manipulative,” said Richard Coraine, chief of operations for the Union Square Hospitality Group, which operates several dining hot-spots like Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe, and Tabla.
“We want to know you. We want you to talk to our reservation people. We want you to know our staff,” Coraine continued. “That’s really what gets to me, is that we have no relation-building opportunity in (reservation reselling sites). There’s an added price we can’t control, and that skews the value to us. It’s very parasitic in its nature, which I don’t find to be in keeping with the hospitality business.”
But it is different, because restaurant reservations typically do not come with a price tag–and putting a monetary value on it can just look tacky. “I’m already down a hundred when you walk in the front door, and that’s not something that I find palatable,” Coraine said in reference to the fact that a site like Tablexchange means that people are spending money on a restaurant that the restaurant never sees. “I want to control the entire value equation.”
Posted by Caroline McCarthy http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9850164-36.html?tag=recentPosts
