On my travel blog, I wrote a blog post about a company, and mentioned that I wasn’t happy with the service that they have provided. I emailed the company concerned and asked them to comment about the issue, at the time of writing this; they haven’t taken me up on my offer.
If you complain about a company on your blog do you give them the opportunity to put their point of view across? If you don’t, personally, I think you should, because there could have been a misunderstanding, or they might appreciate the chance to comment and improve their service.
What would you do?
On the odd occasion I write ill of a company I always offer a chance for them to purvey their side of the story. It just feels like stabbing someone in the back if you don’t.
I think that asking for a company’s input is a great idea and it makes for a very civilised world. Unfortunately I think that most companies are stuck in the middle-ages and still believe that no contact with their clients is the only way to go.
If you venture over to Sutori which is a site that offers an avenue for consumers to discuss their customer experience, you will notice that no one from the company has ever posted a response. Maybe these companies don’t know that people are blogging?
Great replies.
Christine, I think your right, for some reason companies don’t seem to care what people say about them, and I can partly understand it for larger companies.
Can you imagine how many people have slagged off large travel companies like Expedia. They would spend all of their time replying to complaints on forums and blogs.
For small companies though, word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool for them, and if people are writing bad things about them, then they should act accordingly.
Companies often don’t know that a comment has been made about them. Even though we regularly search for comments about us, I’m quite sure that there are more out there than we have found.
I’m not sure that e-mailing a company saying that you’ve posted something on your blog is likely to mean much to most companies. Let’s face it, everyone and their dog has a blog these days ie having written something in a blog gives no level of credibility in the way that being a press journalist does.
Yes, if you say you’re a journalist working for the Sunday Times, it’ll have an effect but not as a blogger. Hence, when I wanted to talk to our mayor’s office, I said that I was writing an article for France24. Net effect: instant credibility.