We spend countless hours lamenting over the stock we print our business cards on, what printer to buy for our office or which brand of water to stock our fridges with. And yet, many of us jump for joy the minute someone calls our office with a job. Why is it that we don’t place the same amount of scrutiny on the engine that keeps our businesses running? Our clients.
Just this week, during one of my Event Solutions Idea Factory sessions, I referred to this as being your company’s Red Velvet Rope Policy, a term first used by Michael Port in Book Yourself Solid. Today, any one of your customers can tweet, Facebook status update, blog, create a video or rate and review your company. In fact, just today I came across a blog post about how the New York Times allowed a disgruntled business owner to rant on their blog about some PR agents he recently hired for a restaurant launch. And in one vinegary post, he may have destroyed the reputation of a firm and an entire profession for some who read it.
More and more of us are turning to online reviews and recommendations to help form their decisions about who to work with and who to stay away from. Recommendations from people we know is the #1 most trusted form of advertising. Recommendations from people we’ve never met before is the #2 most trusted form of advertising. We trust what strangers say about a business far more than we trust what a business has to say about itself.
Work with enough people who don’t get you, don’t understand what you do or don’t care and you’re creating your own detraction engine.
