Some pointers:
If a complaint about your company shows up on the Better Business Bureau website or on Angie’s List, address it immediately. “You can’t do 700 jobs a year without having [a complaint],” says Ken Moeslein, CEO of Legacy Remodeling, a home improvement company in Pittsburgh. “We find that quick response often takes care of it.” With the BBB — Legacy has had two complaints during the last 36 months — that involves picking up the phone and responding directly to consumers. In one case, Moeslein read a complaint report and contacted the person to tell her she was “absolutely right.” Legacy also responds to negative mentions on Angie’s List. The key is to answer “fairly and correctly,” Moeslein says. “The people who read those are going to say, ‘He’s admitting he’s not perfect.’”
You don’t know where visitors to your website have been or what they have read. If you’re spending a lot of money advertising or promoting your company to get people to visit your site, why send them looking elsewhere for whatever happens to have been posted about you, including negative comments? Keep your own home page and website upbeat by linking to review sites such as Yelp and by posting customer testimonials.
WHEN THEY DON’T GO AWAY
But what if some complaints slip through anyway? Today, so many different forums for registering gripes exist that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. Take blogs, for instance. In August 2006, a Washington, D.C., blogger whose column was widely known and read contacted Thompson Creek Windows, of Bethesda, Md., about having windows replaced in his home. When the company’s phone representative asked whether or not there was a Mrs. and when would it be possible for the couple to be available for a meeting, the blogger, Tom Bridge, took offense. But rather than discuss the matter with Thompson Creek, he addressed the company, and his readers, online. “I don’t need you to try to manipulate my spouse against me out of some stylistic choice,” he wrote, in a post titled “Bite Me, Thomson Creek Windows.”
Thompson Creek’s director of marketing, George Schaub, did exactly what Internet experts say you should do. He responded as soon as he was aware of the post and he did so in a tone that was reasonable and friendly, the perfect counterpoint to the rude and irritated tone of the original. Without addressing the specific instance of the complaint, he explained that Thompson Creek had an excellent reputation as verified by the BBB, that almost all of its customers listed themselves as satisfied, and he also promised to look into the policy of requiring both members of a married couple to be present for a sales appointment.
“Don’t respond to the specific complaint,” Bairstow advises. When Ripoff Report or other complaint sites invite rebuttal, as some do, don’t come out swinging. “Simply provide accurate information. That shows the homeowner or whoever is reading that you’re paying attention, that you care about how your company appears online, and that you’re looking to solve the problem.”
The worst response, Bairstow and other experts agree, involves yielding to the urge to smack complainants back. In that lose/lose scenario the company or its representative comes across as angry, defensive, or vindictive, essentially confirming whatever accusation has been made. “It’s like trying to insult the person who has the microphone,” Bairstow says. That kind of response invites yet more attacks and pushes the complaint site smear even further up the page on Google listings. And your comment will be there indefinitely, since the Internet offers you no opportunity to retract it.
MANAGE THEIR IRRITATION Lots of what’s being posted on complaint sites, and even on review sites, arises out of miscommunication between contractors and their customers. In other words, it’s often avoidable at some early stage. Yes, some of the online information about home improvement companies on complaint sites is authentic. Some of it is also spurious, planted by competitors, or sniping by chronic malcontents.
Chris Cardullo of Castle, The Window People, says that after a while, spotting those kinds of posts — and Cardullo says he looks online every day — is easy. “We’d see complaints from people in neighborhoods where we’d never even worked,” he says. But not all postings on complaint sites are bogus. Many simply indicate offense at procedures — three-hour sales calls are a common gripe — that the home improvement industry sees as standard but which some homeowners see as tedious. And on review — as opposed to complaint — sites, be aware that negative reviews often make a valid point about the way your company does business, something you may not hear about any other way. In effect, whoever posted the complaint did you a favor.
Thomas Construction makes a point of responding to negative posts on review sites, and Boehm puts her phone number and e-mail address at the end of each response so that if whoever posted remains unsatisfied, “we can get it cleaned up.” (See “Mixed Messages” on page 38, for more about maintaining your online reputation.)
