Help, My Photography Business Is Being Blackmailed

You probably know the old marketing adage: a happy customer will tell no one, but an unhappy customer will tell 20. When we’re happy, we’re complacent. We just exist with what we have. But when we’re unhappy we tend to need to blow off steam – and the unhappier we are, the louder we get.

If you’re talking around the office or at your kids soccer practice, people listen and forget quickly.

But what about in today’s world with online reviews? Write a bad review and it can haunt a business forever.

Online reviews sound like a good thing in theory. There are many different places you can leave a review, and they really can help a person make a decision. For instance, on our recent trip to Europe, we relied heavily on reviews for the apartments we rented. We only chose places with a number of reviews that for the most part had positive things to say.

But like everything, good things can turn bad.

This week, all kinds of bad review scams have been brought to my attention.

A friend here in town runs a service business. He had a customer come in last week and ask for all kinds of services. The work was done, only to have the customer come back in for payment and ask to be comped on everything. His threat was he would write a bad review if he didn’t get the services for free.

My friend did the right thing, asked for full payment and showed him the door.

Restaurants are also reporting a record number of people coming in and eating a meal, only to ask for the meal for free as the bill arrives. If not, they threaten, they will write a bad review. [Read more…]