It can get a bit overwhelming (and time consuming) to read opinions and reviews posted on social media sites. And where do you stop between Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Google, Leafly, and YP, just to name a few? It seems that so many people want to share their opinion about everything!
There is a good side to it. As consumers, we can read what other people took the time to write about a business. Not all businesses however, have a lot of reviews and what ones that are there are spread out over a long period of time so it's hard to be sure. Add to that the knowledge that many businesses offer incentives to their customers to post (positive) remarks. Still others may engage an outside service to do that or get friends and family to say how great the place is. So the downside is that we should only take the comments at face value.
From a business perspective, the good side is that there is a lot of free feedback out there just waiting to be read and there are so many 4 and 5 star ratings out there just waiting to be had. It's certainly nice to see good things written. But what about the bad reviews? Once they're posted, they're there for all the world to see. What can make them worse is that some businesses take it to the next level and respond in a negative way which tends to compound the problem and makes the business look even worse.
My question is this - besides an owner retiring or a partnership breaking up, why do businesses with a majority of 4 and 5 stars still go out of business? It happens all the time.
Guess the lesson here is not to exclusively rely on social media sites to effectively manage your staff and your business.
There is a good side to it. As consumers, we can read what other people took the time to write about a business. Not all businesses however, have a lot of reviews and what ones that are there are spread out over a long period of time so it's hard to be sure. Add to that the knowledge that many businesses offer incentives to their customers to post (positive) remarks. Still others may engage an outside service to do that or get friends and family to say how great the place is. So the downside is that we should only take the comments at face value.
From a business perspective, the good side is that there is a lot of free feedback out there just waiting to be read and there are so many 4 and 5 star ratings out there just waiting to be had. It's certainly nice to see good things written. But what about the bad reviews? Once they're posted, they're there for all the world to see. What can make them worse is that some businesses take it to the next level and respond in a negative way which tends to compound the problem and makes the business look even worse.
My question is this - besides an owner retiring or a partnership breaking up, why do businesses with a majority of 4 and 5 stars still go out of business? It happens all the time.
Guess the lesson here is not to exclusively rely on social media sites to effectively manage your staff and your business.
