Time is Money! When It Comes to Deleting Spam Comments
Everyone likes a bargain! Sometimes however you’ll want to pay for an app or WordPress plugin that is really valuable, but why pay when you can get one that does the trick for free?
I deleted Askimet as my spam plugin in WordPress when they moved to pay to play and really tried to wring $5 a month out of their users after years of free service. I understand that everyone needs to make a buck, but in the world of WordPress what they offered was not unique.
I searched for spam filtering plugins. I found Cleantalk and tried it for the seven day free trial period. I liked the interface, but just did not feel that paying for it was worth it to me. Cleantalk bills $8 per year. Not a lot, but free is free.
Now I am trying out the free WordPress plugin Anti Spam Bee. This plugin appears free – well at least for now.
Before you buy of any plugin, make sure to try it out. I may be back with Cleantalk, but for now I am going free, free, free with the big yellow bee of Anti Spam Bee.
Sometimes a well meaning friend will send you a link to a bad review about you or your business that they found online and it can spoil your day. Here are a few things to know about how to handle a bad review.
Not all bad reviews need a response
Not everything needs you to respond. In some cases a response may be worse than just letting the review stay out there. If you do decide to write a response, take a deep breath. Never respond to or write a rebuttal when you are upset or angry. Take time to craft a thoughtful response and be conciliatory in your comments. Acknowledge the feelings of the reviewer.
You cannot please everyone
This is hard for some business owners, but you cannot please everyone every time. Take the bad along with the good and know that there are simply some “trolls” out there that get their jollies crushing you online.
Consider the review placement
If the review is on Google+, Yelp, or another highly visible site, I do recommend that you consider writing a rebuttal. If appropriate, I would encourage you to even contact the client – if they have given enough information for you to identify them and see if you can fix the problem. A customer who has had a problem resolved can be your biggest advocate. Don’t forget to ask them to update their review after you have fixed the problem. If the review is not on a high profile site, know that even then, it may still be visible to others and may still need your attention.
Move forward and learn from any errors
If you did get a bad review that is warranted, use the opportunity as a chance to retrain staff or challenge your current processes. You can really learn a lot about how customers perceive you from reviews even bad ones.
Move forward after a bad review, remember you’ve pleased plenty of other customers and stay focused on what you do right and work to improve areas where you may be weak.
Need help solving a problem like a bad review? Visit our website at www.McCordWeb.com to find out how we can help today.
Nancy McCord – has had her family’s Christmas stolen by Astria Fireplaces
In my ongoing review of Astria Fireplaces made by Innovative Hearth Products this week, I wanted to post an update.
Here is the note I sent yesterday to staff at Astria Fireplaces:
“The bank has just informed us they will not move our construction loan to a regular loan until the house is 100% complete. This is now a very big issue for us. My husband and I have still not heard anything from the district manager. We must move forward with something. We are living in a temporary apartment and want to be moved in to our new home! I am going to the Fireplace store today (Glover – who bought these two items from Astria) to start looking for alternatives, all of which now really puts us in a bind to find an alternative and get shipping at the last minute.”
“Needless to say, I am very unhappy. Communication is key to resolving problems and all it would have taken would be to say “yes these are really and truly going into production and you will have them on xx date” or “no, we are going to have a delay again and we expect them really to be out of production in xx date in 2016″. How hard can that be to be truthful?”
“To not be able to close on our new custom home over two fireplaces that have been on order since 8/26/15 is just unthinkable. I know that our 2 fireplace order may be small based on your overall business – but clearly this is a case in point of vey poor customer service that should be reviewed by management. How can dealers sell your products and how can consumers buy them when they are hostages to a lack of information and truthfulness?”
“I would very much appreciate your regional sales manager’s or US sales manager’s email so that I can plead my case for information.”
Shortly after sending that note I finally got a phone call from the Astria Fireplace District Manager and it was a good thing as it appears that Astria had pulled the product we have ordered to retool it. But they had not communicated this to customers or dealers. We are getting one of the first fireplaces put into production after product changes to improve the natural beauty of the flames, installation improvements, and improved serviceability.
The lesson learned is that communication is key! Fires can be put out quickly and easily with just a little personal touch whether it is a phone call, email, or quick Facebook response.
Remember when it’s online, the world is watching the exchange – make it work for you!
Many businesses do not see the need to be on Twitter or Facebook, but these are the very first places that their customers will look to get help if they cannot get it from the business’ website.
More frequently consumers will start with Facebook, but many businesses have turned off the ability for a consumer to post to their Facebook page making it a one way conversation. In this case you may see private messages and even posts as comments to one of the page’s posts as customers can get desperate looking for help to solve a problem.
For Facebook pages that are set up like this, it is typical that no one is even monitoring comments or interactions. So, potentially other readers will read the public comments posted by a customer with a problem; potentially damaging sales and reputations.
For customers from their 20’s to mid thirties they will typically turn to Twitter as well as Facebook; hashtagging your reputation into the gutter if they are really mad over a situation. Bing and Google will pick up these hashtags and they may even appear in the search results.
Add to that if someone is very active on social media and has a high Klout score their comments may become even more damaging as their comments will carry more weight online and more users may retweet the tweet; exposing you to even bigger damage.
Businesses pay big money for reputation management after online damage has been done, but it seems to me that with social media moderation and review of Facebook and Twitter a firestorm can quickly and easily be put out before the problems becomes so big that the customer feels the need to post a negative review or even a ScamReport (if they lost money).
Better yet for businesses is to get a footprint on social media and have a weekly review of comments to put out a potential fire quickly and be proactive in reaching out to customers in need.
