Are your customers telling you the whole truth?
A new era of reputation management began in the late 1990s with the emergence of seller ratings on eBay and book reviews on Amazon. Word of mouth became exponentially more powerful without geographical limitations, and soon enough, online reviews would find their way to every industry and every product everywhere. social media
Before long, sites like Kudzu, Yelp, Angie’s List, and dozens of others began soliciting user reviews. Today, it’s easy for anyone to share a review about any company. Many of these review sites were helped along by search engines (from its earliest days, Google has favored user-generated content), and today their influence has been magnified many times over by social media.
Pacesetter’s Perfect Storm
Among the first construction companies to learn this the hard way was Pacesetter, one of the largest window replacement contractors of the early 2000s. In late 2001, they sold some windows to a web designer, and that relationship ended very, very badly.
The disgruntled client created a website, PacesetterSucks.com, shared his experience, and made it easy for others to share their own stories. As it turns out, hundreds of Pacesetter customers had similar accounts to share, the website attracted tremendous attention, and within four years, Pacesetter had to close its doors. Read the entire story in Jim Cory’s fascinating article, Pacesetter’s Perfect Storm.
Social media in 2018
Today there are hundreds of sites where consumers can research products, leave reviews, and discuss their buying experiences. The reputation of your company lies at the fingertips of your customers, and they have the ability to influence your future business. If you want to learn how to manage your social media presence, download Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World – a comprehensive guide to tackling the challenges that builders, remodelers and home improvement professionals today face.
