A Year In Print
There is no substitute for a personal recommendation. If a friend goes out of their way to recommend a business to you, you are far more likely to act upon that than you would be through traditional advertising. In today's world it is a lot easier to reach people with the advent of the internet. There are literally hundreds of review sites now as well as social networks where people can voice their opinion. The printing industry is no exception to the rule here.
If you are clever about your marketing, if you provide an amazing service, product or service then news can spread very quickly online. On the flip side, if you give people a reason to complain you can bet your bottom dollar they will! Companies have had their reputation destroyed in a matter of hours on Twitter. These days you can't really escape it, you can't opt out. So you had better make sure you don't give anyone a reason to complain. The annoying thing of course is that competitors, a disgruntled employee or a customer who simply got the wrong end of the stick can also tarnish your reputation, causing serious damage!
Tyson printer were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of such an attack last year. It was very upsetting and the damage was not easily un-done. Thankfully, we have a fairly large and loyal customer base who know full well that Tyson are trust worthy and wouldn't dream of going anywhere else for their printing needs. We were strong enough to survive such an attack, but a less established company might not be. This is very worrying for small businesses in particular.
So what can be done about this realistically? People should be free to voice their opinions of course. And it's only right that if a company is not treating people fairly that they should be called out. What can be done about those out with malicious intent yet have not been treated unfairly? It's a tough one, and I don't know the answer! I've never been a fan of censorship in any form. Perhaps the onus should be on the consumer to thoroughly investigate such claims to verify them. If a company only has a few complaints out of thousands then common sense would tell you that the company is trustworthy, those few people just got unlucky, or perhaps they made up the review all together.
Bear in mind that an alarming number of online reviews are created on behalf of companies themselves. My advice is to take them with a pinch of salt. Value personal recommendations above all else, and if you find one damning review among thousands it's probably okay to ignore it!
If you are clever about your marketing, if you provide an amazing service, product or service then news can spread very quickly online. On the flip side, if you give people a reason to complain you can bet your bottom dollar they will! Companies have had their reputation destroyed in a matter of hours on Twitter. These days you can't really escape it, you can't opt out. So you had better make sure you don't give anyone a reason to complain. The annoying thing of course is that competitors, a disgruntled employee or a customer who simply got the wrong end of the stick can also tarnish your reputation, causing serious damage!
Tyson printer were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of such an attack last year. It was very upsetting and the damage was not easily un-done. Thankfully, we have a fairly large and loyal customer base who know full well that Tyson are trust worthy and wouldn't dream of going anywhere else for their printing needs. We were strong enough to survive such an attack, but a less established company might not be. This is very worrying for small businesses in particular.
So what can be done about this realistically? People should be free to voice their opinions of course. And it's only right that if a company is not treating people fairly that they should be called out. What can be done about those out with malicious intent yet have not been treated unfairly? It's a tough one, and I don't know the answer! I've never been a fan of censorship in any form. Perhaps the onus should be on the consumer to thoroughly investigate such claims to verify them. If a company only has a few complaints out of thousands then common sense would tell you that the company is trustworthy, those few people just got unlucky, or perhaps they made up the review all together.
Bear in mind that an alarming number of online reviews are created on behalf of companies themselves. My advice is to take them with a pinch of salt. Value personal recommendations above all else, and if you find one damning review among thousands it's probably okay to ignore it!