Tuesday 5 March 2013

Submitting Business Ratings Online: Do's and Don'ts

By Samantha Bernice Bernard


Company reviews can both be helpful and harmful, but not just to the business in question. Before submitting company reviews, a person should understand the possible ripple effects of their submission to scam blogs, consumer advocacy websites, and online opinion sites. Oftentimes the mishandling of a complaint can lead to more harm than good. This article explores how to resolve company complaints or the right way.

A person should always consider their options before submitting their opinion or review online. To send reviews into cyberspace is definitely a positive for consumer advocacy. However, it may not lead to what the person intended. Some possible negative outcomes of a poorly thought-out review or rating of a company or individual may even lead to a lawsuit.

Most times a lawsuit is unlikely, but the negative of just writing a negative business review online will never actually solve anything. It will certainly cause some headaches for the business involved, but will not resolve the issue. Consumer advocacy efforts and postings should only be made as a last resort.

Just imagine an average worker in the workplace who has a complaint against another employee for a minute. How would this person go about resolving the issue? They should first speak with the person directly. Many times this alone will solve the issue. However, if further measures are required, a person should go to the supervisor, management, the business owner, or the corporation's headquarters. The same goes in consumer advocacy cases. Only be speaking with the person or company directly can one hope to resolve an issue.

If all attempts turn out fruitless and a person decides to submit a business review online, it should be well thought-out with no grammatical errors. Furthermore, the review or complaint should leave out any unfounded accusations or assumptions as to the intent of the misdoing. Then, a person should seek out the best mediating third party to help ramify the cause of discourse.

Company complaint sites and blogs are not an efficient way to seek out change. Many of these companies use exploitative measures to 'fix' or 'mediate' the reports. Their method of mediation is acting as a third party to the suggested steps to resolve disputes or complaints listed above. They won't refund a customer who has a complaint with a product, but the company or business in question might.

Throughout history, everyone has been entitled to their own opinions and the freedom of speech protection has been in the forefront. It's only human nature to want to be heard and recognized. The ease-of-use of the internet has made it extremely easy for people to be passive-aggressive and just complainbut not look to solve a problem or complaint. A poorly written bad company review can lead to the blind leading the blind.

In review, when a person has a complaint with a company, business, product, or service, he or she wants to be heard. It's totally understandable. However, one should be aware of the possible rippling consequences of voicing his or her opinion online before following the appropriate channels to seek out a solution. Just putting a submission on a website will never solve a problem. Talking with the person or company involved will.




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