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On free speech in forums
app103:
What I was trying to say before is that negative criticism unaddressed or deleted can backfire in this way:
I am one of your customers. I have paid money for your product or service. It has some flaws, faults, or shortcomings that stand in the way of me being a happy customer. I am upset and/or disappointed. I come to your website or forum and tell you about it. It's not a positive review full of praise of your product, in fact, it's quite negative.
I would not have come to your site to tell you about this unless I wanted you to read this. I would not have come to your site and taken the time to tell you the problems your product or service has unless I also wanted to give you an opportunity to change things and make me into a happy customer.
What do you do?
A. Respond to my message on your site. Apologize. Attempt to solve the problem. Attempt to clear up misunderstandings. Tell me about your plans to fix things. Maybe offer me a refund if you can't. Give me the email address of the proper department to complain to. Tell me that you have sent me an email and are willing to discuss the matter directly with me.
B. Ignore my post completely. Let it sit there without a response.
C. Delete my post or comment to erase any evidence that your company, product, or service isn't perfect.
If you choose Option A, you have the opportunity to change me into a happy customer. When others see this, they will know you care about your customers. For a potential customer that is undecided as to whether they are going to purchase what you offer, this could very well be the deciding factor...how you handle a customer's problems. It is an indication how you will likely handle their problems if they should have one. It really doesn't matter what you say as long as you are attempting to take a negative situation and turn it into a positive one. For people that come along later and see that you have tried to resolve the issue, they will likely remember the negative a lot less than you will imagine, and remember what you did, instead.
If you choose Option B, you show me and the world that you don't care. I am likely never to purchase your product again. I will go away very dissatisfied and likely will be giving your competition my business, in the future. Potential customers will see this too, and it delivers the same message. They may not decide to become your customer if you do this too many times.
If you choose Option C, you will make me angry. I am not only likely never to buy your product again, I will make sure everyone I know knows about what happened. I will become a thorn in your side, posting about my experiences and your choice to delete rather than respond anywhere and everywhere that I can, possibly in places you can never access, offline as well as online. It will no longer be about your product or service and it's flaws. It will be all about you and your company and how you mistreat your customers. I will be loud about it. I will make sure other people read it and hear about it. When your potential customers see something like this once, it might not make much of a difference, but when they see many people complaining how you treat them when they have issues, they will likely not be your customers. They will be afraid to trust you. Your competition will get their business. People like me do pay attention to stuff like this.
Ask yourself before you delete it: If this was a direct phone call to the company, would you hang up on this person, put them on hold till they hung up, or would you address it with a response? Do the same thing for that post or comment. It really is no different, except that the world is watching how you handle this customer.
Paul Keith:
Thanks for your opinion, 40hz.
I agree with what you said except for the portion of "hardly worth the effort".
I know you were specifically referring to the quoted portion of my reply but I also get the sense that you hold the belief for any technological idea.
To that end, I would say it is worth the effort to "experiment" in order to "invent" and further human progress and that plain technology is a sustainable solution to any human dilemma. (After all, how far have we come from the wheel?)
This is because tech is not a separate entity or object but a victim of human stubborness trying to solve human dilemma.
(I know this is coming off like I'm pointing out to major tech discoveries only but look again at the wheel. How major was it at it's discovery and how minor is it today?)
40hz:
Thanks for your opinion, 40hz.
I agree with what you said except for the portion of "hardly worth the effort".
I know you were specifically referring to the quoted portion of my reply ...
-Paul Keith (October 11, 2009, 12:23 PM)
--- End quote ---
Well, I was being somewhat specific on that point because I am personally acquainted with two people who tried the "isolation ward" solution. FWIW, it's easily detected (or deduced actually), adds a lot of overhead to the site, and can easily be circumvented simply by re-registering under a new username.
...but I also get the sense that you hold the belief for any technological idea.
--- End quote ---
Um no...actually yes...well actually no. I'm probably coming across much more Luddite than I actually am. What I was trying to say (apparently not very clearly :redface:) was that technology alone is not a universal panacea to social woes.
As regards technical solutions in general, I think it's important to differentiate between things aimed at addressing human 'conditions' as opposed to those directed at human 'behaviors.'
Technology that corrects undesirable conditions or situations (e.g. vaccination programs and other preventative health measures) is generally workable, sustainable, and worth the effort.
But as far as following a pure "technical fix" approach to human behavioral issues, I find myself both skeptical and conflicted...
I'm going to have to think this part through a bit before I comment. There's about six hundred things I find myself trying to say (and all at the same time! ;D ) so I'll have to get it straightened out in my own head before I blather any further. Stay tuned... ;)
Paul Keith:
Haha, looking forward to it 40hz. Looking forward to it very much (and thank you for expanding on the flaws of the isolation ward theory)
Speaking of jumping through points,
This url doesn't really contain much substance but it is related to everyone's many post here: Bad Reviews Boost Business Sales
Back to 40hz, you might want to read some of Neil Postman's books.
I'm not saying your statement of "I think it's important to differentiate between things aimed at addressing human 'conditions' as opposed to those directed at human 'behaviors.'" is wrong but there is a massive underrated truth to the fact that when you change human conditions, you change human behaviours.
Some over-stretched examples to highlight the ramifications:
Gutenberg Press -> RTFM
Linux -> Open the Source of Software!
MultiTorg Opera -> I can't live without Firefox Extensions and Firefox is good even though it was a hail mary move applied to Netscape while other more legitimate open source browsers are "unknown" cause they don't have the extension of Firefox so they aren't saints until I am putting them all in one category of open source apps mmmkay?
Blogs as an online log for software changelogs -> OMG LYK HAVE YOU READ WHAT I WROTE IN TWITTER?! LYK OMG anything past 140 char. is tl;dr. LYK OMG It's true! Shakespeare said "Brevity is the soul of wit"
TV -> Honey, the news is here. Some girl showed a nipple. Time to get mad. wait... Oh it's alright take your time, the ad is on. THERE! It's back! Quick, let us become mad and send angry letters
until nipples don't pop out in TV shows anymore! Hurry! We can buy some porn while we drop them at the post office.
Forums -> when trolls attack...
Wheel -> Transformers = rule! Fast and the Furious = cool! Cars = Necessity!
mouser:
This url doesn't really contain much substance but it is related to everyone's many post here: [url=http://holykaw.alltop.com/bad-reviews-boost-business-sales]Bad Reviews Boost Business Sales
-Paul Keith (October 11, 2009, 03:58 PM)
--- End quote ---
I strongly suspect that this statement is very misleading. A more accurate way of phrasing it is probably that: Having a majority of good reviews and a policy that makes clear they are an honest collection of reviews that discuss pros and cons is good for sales.
Having mostly bad reviews seems almost certain to doom sales.
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