Do You Have a Boo-hoo Buffer Between Your Business and Internet Review Sites? (You Should!)

Everyone falls down sometimes. So make sure there's a buffer between you and those loud Yelpers.

What’s a “Boo-hoo Buffer”? Well, it’s a nonsense word, but it’s as real as your reputation, and it can literally make or break your business ratings online.

Online reputation management is serious stuff these days, with more review sites coming online monthly, and more customers growing Yelp and HealthGrades savvy by the day.

Not to mention the damage that negative Tweets and Facebook posts can do to your business reputation.

Everyone messes up. Every business messes up. The question is, will you get a chance to make things right before your latest screw-up goes viral?

A client or customer may be angry for an hour, but that steam they let off on the Internet lasts forever. Solution?

Add a Book-hoo Buffer–preferably several.

Here’s how this scenario plays out if you do NOT have a Boo-hoo Buffer:

Angry Client to Yelp: Boo hoo! XYZ Business never answers my calls. And they over billed me. They get 0 stars from me.

You:  Dear Yelp, We changed our number five years ago, and we would have explained the bill and even reduced it, if this client had only called us before posting this invalid complaint. Now this Yelp complaint is online forever! Boo hoo!

And here’s how that customer complaint goes down if you DO have a Boo-hoo Buffer:

Angry Client to You: I’m glad you have an online feedback form/called to ask how my service was/etc.  I haven’t been able to reach you all week by phone about this incorrect invoice, and I’m angry!

You: I’m so sorry to hear that. Maybe you were calling our old phone number. Here is our new number. Now let’s review that invoice…

OR…

Client via your website contact form: You dummies don’t answer your phone, and you’re overcharging me!

You (preferably within two hours of receiving the complaint): I’m sorry for your inconvenience. You may be calling our old number. We’ll certainly look into that. And how may we help you with your invoice?

Ahhh…the sweet sound of a negative public review averted.

And maybe you did over-bill a client, and maybe your cat knocked the office phone off the hook. Maybe you screwed up royally. Everyone has those days.

Do you want a chance to make amends behind closed doors? Or do you want your gaffe to be front page news for the next five years whenever a prospective client looks you up online?

Here are two real-world scenarios from my own life:

Scenario #1: The San Francisco Chronicle couldn’t seem to deliver a paper to my door no matter how many calls I made.  And when I made those calls, Peggy from USA Prime Credit answered the phone. I never did find a number to call that would be answered by someone who actually cared if I got my paper on a Sunday.

No satisfaction, no email response, so guess what?

I Yelped.

And that got their attention. I get my Sunday paper right on time every week now. And if the Chronicle had created a Boo-hoo Buffer between me and Yelp to begin with, that minor piece of news would have never hit the Internet.

Scenario #2: Stanford Hospital has some of the most advanced medical care in the world, with world-class, caring docs and staff. But even Stanford gets it wrong every once in awhile.

I’m talking about that rare, lame-ass front desk person who think it’s perfectly okay to turn a sick child away from a scheduled doctor’s appointment because THEY sent the parent to the wrong location for the appointment and caused the parent to be late to the second, correct location.

But you know what else Stanford has?

Stanford also has the most awesome Boo-hoo Buffer in the world. It’s called a Patient Representative. That person is extremely easy to find on the Stanford website, and that person will take your complaint very seriously and will investigate it all the way to the White House if they have to.

And if they find that lame-ass front desk person really did what the parent says they did (and you can bet on it, honey) they will take steps to try to ensure that no other sick kid will ever have to sprint across the hospital to make an appointment, dry-heave into a bucket, and watch their mom cry because somebody failed to understand that if you work at Stanford, you’d better act like it.

Because Stanford makes SURE that their Patient Reps are second to none. Patients (and their parents) know they can trust that buffer. We’re left feeling like we don’t need to post our sentiments on Yelp or HealthGrades, because Stanford reps will address our issues quickly and effectively.

And that’s all anyone really wants.

You may not be Stanford Hospital. You may not have people whose lives depend on your buffer. But your financial life may depend on it. Your reputation certainly does.

Do you think you don’t need a buffer?

What happens if someone sees an image or article on your little blog that they believe you stole? Do you want to risk a DMCA takedown notice and lose your site for up to two weeks? No? Then at the very least, have a contact form on your site that is highly visible from every page so that people will email you first instead of going directly to Google and your ISP host.

So what does a Boo-hoo Buffer look like?

Here are some easy examples that you can put into place within 30 minutes. (Not counting the time to train any employees that they must inform clients that complaint procedures are in place and will be responded to quickly.)

Ideally, the more you stand to lose, the more of these you will develop and place conspicuously where customers, clients, and website visitors can easily find them.

• Add a feedback form to your website. See that little “Contact Us” tab at the top left-hand side of this page? That was created with a cool little widget called, “Slick Contact Forms.” It adds an extra layer of assurance that if someone wants to reach me through my site, they can.
• If you sell products or services from your website, be sure to add contact information with every email, and on every order and invoice. ENCOURAGE customers to contact you with comments.
• ASK “How are we doing?” Better they tell you than tell a review site, and if the news is good, ASK FOR A REVIEW. Sometimes review sites are too much for people to handle, so ask for a testimonial, and place it on your site.
• Make sure your comments are working, (Yikes…mine weren’t, until someone recently pointed it out). Encourage feedback, and post comments that disagree with you to let others know it’s okay, if nothing else. It’s more authentic and ethical to post comments that diverge from your POV anyway.
• If you find a negative review about your business online, respond to it promptly and positively, no exceptions.
• Your bricks-and-mortar business should have a stack of “how are we doing?” cards, pre-addressed, postage paid, for anonymous mailing. Or a box where they can be folded and placed inside.
• Your dental or medical website should list a patient advocate or patient assistance number for confidential complaints, and then that person had better do their job. Because you don’t want to read THAT HealthGrades review if they don’t.

A buffer FAIL is worse than no buffer at all.

So just be sure that your clients, customers, and/or patients are confident that they can speak to you, and that you will resolve their problems.

Because if you don’t, the Internet will.

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