- Twitter to lose its reputation as a free speech platform?
- IIPM worried about Google Suggest, why is it so?
- Reputation Management Tip for 2012: Brands need to tap into social media search!
- Facebook Timeline and Reputation Management
- Apple Siri gender bias or glitch?
- Google+ vs Facebook – its not over yet!
- The Ethics of Self Promotion Through Charitable Causes (A Case Study)
- Google scraps sidewiki – will you miss it?
- Facebook, the trust factor
- BlackBerry Blackout- RIM’s Reputation Takes another Hit
Archive for February 2010
Appco Marketing India Pvt. Ltd
February 11, 2010 | 
Author 
Appco Marketing India Pvt. Ltd. has evolutionised the face of Direct Marketing in India. Having been a leader in financial, telecom, entertainment and NGO, Appco Marketing India has now carved out a niche for itself in the insurance sector. Besides this, Appco Marketing has made its name as the largest player in Satellite TV segment with India’s largest business houses.
While the year 2009 saw a global financial downturn, Appco Marketing India did experience a slowing down in the first half. However, the second half witnessed a solid growth spurt.
Today, the company has crossed significant milestones over a period of twelve years in the Indian market. The company has marketing offices in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Nagpur.
Appco Marketing India top officials added that ‘today we attract one of the best talented professionals in the industry. Moreover, while recruiting, the selection procedure is done in a diligent manner to ensure the right people are recruited. This results into the people being committed and involved towards the business. In addition, they keep working collectively towards improving the quality of services to our most valued customers’. The company has specially designed coaching programs that are at par to global standards. Besides the traditional classroom method, the program is interactive; it includes activities, discussions and on-the-job coaching. ‘This coaching helps equip the people to continuously deliver excellence to both, potential and loyal customers which is our key goal’, says top officials at Appco Marketing India.
Posted in Reputation Management, Reputation News | 
Tags: Appco Marketing India Pvt. Ltd | 
No Comments »
Greece debt crisis: Effects on investment and the euro
The Greeks have never been able to stick to it’s alloted 60 percent debt limit. It’s huge public deficit and debt has raised concern within the 16 nation Eurozone. The current debt crisis, EU countries are up and cautiously watching how it will affect them as a whole. For Greece this is a national reputation management crisis
Greece’s debt crisis, there is great worry if the country will be able to refund its debt. As it happened to Dubai, UAE owing to last years economic pressures, the Greek government budget has plunged into greater deficit. Investors are now feeling uncomfortable and skeptical if the government can repay the debt.
If Greece fails to repay its debts the crisis shouldn’t be much of concern for the global economy. This will only weaken the strong euro and not cause the currency to collapse completely. Situation will be different if other European members like Ireland, Italy and Spain defaults, in such case countries will start pulling out of the Euro.
On the contrary Greece’s present problems need to be addressed in the proper context, so when we say Greece’s debt is critical, it’s not as critical that we term it as sovereign debt.
Before Greece’s debts effects pulls down the value of euro and stock markets all the way to Wall Street, wealthy European countries are chalking out some assured strategy to prevent Greece from defaulting. The earlier this is done the quicker a positive message is sent out to investors, and set the ball rolling to get the economy back on track.
www.consumeraffairs.com Consumer Affairs com what a load of…
So obviously part of our reputation management is monitoring what people are saying about clients. We of course monitor what is being said about our own business, and it’s amazing what we see.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/reputationmanagementfor.html
This is a classic attack from either a competitor or from the website owners themselves trying to damage our reputation or force us to pay a premium to add comments. This happens to 1000′s of companies and many are not aware of it until customer cancels a sale after reading bogus and negative comments on such sites.
If you want to comment on their pages this is what they say:
ConsumerAffairs.com is a private, non-govermental entity that empowers consumers by providing a forum for their complaints and a means for them to be contacted by lawyers if their complaints have legal merit. Your complaints and comments may be published, shared with the news media and reviewed by attorneys at no cost to you. See the FAQ for more information.
Please be accurate and fair in your comments. Remember, you are responsible for what you write. We do not proofread your submission so please type carefully — and please, don’t use all capital letters.
Consumer Information Information about you. We do not publish your identity but must have it for our records. If your complaint is published, only your first name will be used on our Web site. See privacy policy for more information. Reports become the property of ConsumerAffairs.com Inc. and may be published, edited or discarded at our sole option.
Why don’t they publish the details of people who complain? Does this mean anyone can write anything without the worry of being sued – I think so?
Company Response Welcome If complaints about your company appear on our site, we welcome your response. Please see the Response Form for more information.
I could not see anyway to have things removed, only options available are to respond:
We offer two different ways to respond to consumer complaints and comments on our site:
1. The complaint form Click on the red “Complaint Button” and insert your business name in the appropriate spot. Your response will be posted as soon as it is reviewed by our moderators. Do not use the customer’s last name or other personal information that you may have. Doing so will result in your being banned permanently from our system.
2. Isertive Instant Response®
This is a premium service that enables businesses to respond directly to consumers, enabling them to resolve complaints and prevent similar problems in the future. Subscribers may also post their responses directly to our site. For more information and an application, visit Isertive.com
The last thing you ever want to do on such a crappy site is respond on it, this will encourage even more people to write negative responses and you can’t control it.
The best thing Google could do is BLACK LIST this site from showing in their reults.
Please let me know if you are having an issue with bogus comments on this site.
Now what are the chances that Consumer Affairs is owned by the same people who own, oh surprise surprise James Hood owns both of the sites http://isertive.com/
WHOIS Info for CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM
Some information on the domain:
Domain Name: CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Name Server: NS0.DNSMADEEASY.COM
Name Server: NS1.DNSMADEEASY.COM
Name Server: NS2.DNSMADEEASY.COM
Name Server: NS3.DNSMADEEASY.COM
IP:209.20.68.198
Look at how often they have moved servers and changed name, hmmm call me synical!!!
Email Search: is associated with about 1,024,614 domains
Registrant Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.Com, Inc.
James Hood ()
Fax:
11400 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90064
US
Administrative Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.Com, Inc.
James Hood ()
+1.2132918086
Fax:
11400 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90064
US
Technical Contact:
The Oakton Press, Inc.
James Hood ()
+1.7033596800
Fax: +1.8007790816
11350 Random Hills Drive, Suite 650
Fairfax, VA 22030
US
is associated with about 30 domains
is associated with about 182 domains
Registrar History: 2 registrars with 2 drops.
NS History: 12 changes on 8 unique name servers over 8 years.
IP History: 4 changes on 4 unique name servers over 4 years.
Whois History: 674 records have been archived since 2001-12-20 .
Dedicated Hosting: consumeraffairs.com is hosted on a dedicated server.
WHOIS Info for isertive.com
Registrant Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc.
James Hood ()
Fax:
PO Box 3233
Oakton, VA 22124
US
Administrative Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.com
James Hood ()
+1.8778548038
Fax:
PO Box 3233
Oakton, VA 22124
US
Technical Contact:
The Oakton Press, Inc.
James Hood ()
+1.7033596800
Fax: +1.8007790816
11350 Random Hills Drive, Suite 650
Fairfax, VA 22030
US
Status: Active
Name Servers:
ns1.slicehost.net
ns2.slicehost.net
ns3.slicehost.net
Creation date: 13 Aug 2000 16:38:07
Toyota Problems Deepen, Prius Recall Worldwide – A Reputation Management View
Toyota, known the world over for reliability, safety and quality is at its worst times, the problems don’t seem to die down and now the Prius Hybrid cars are being recalled for brake problems. The crisis is set to deepen further if cars are recalled in the US and Japan tomorrow.
From being the gold standard in management, the Toyota company is now facing the biggest reputation problem ever in its history. The stock values fell and soon we had the Toyota Chief and President Akio Toyoda making a statement.
“The recalls are affecting several models in several regions and have caused anxiety among customers who are wondering if their cars are OK. For that we are very sorry”, Toyoda also said the cars are safe, “We always put the customer first.”
The apology made by Toyoda hit the right chord and even the fickle stock value improved and in reputation management terms this was THE way to go ahead. However, as the worldwide recall looms large, the innuendos of mis-management in choosing their suppliers and even rumours of US politics making a play in this crisis with the current protectionist mood against foreign firms in the US, are all over the media.
Toyota insists the Prius braking problems and the recall has nothing to do with safety but for the motor giant – the largest car seller in the world these are dark times indeed!
Here at Reputation Management For.com we have these Business Reputation Management suggestions:
- Toyota needs to bring out details on why the brake problems are not safety related.
- Toyota needs to put out more information on how the recalls are being handled with step-by-step instructions to their customers.
- The company also needs to put out customer testimonials on how the recall was handled smoothly on a case by case basis and encourage their happy customers to make Tweets and posts on FaceBook and blogs.
- Toyota needs to educate customers to identify the right brake problem and assure people all queries will be handled well.
Coming clean about things will help snuff out further rumours and nothing like voice of people in social networking sites to get positive word out. If things work out, the people’s car maker may turn things around, but these are trying times at Toyota and for now its “Toyota problems” and safety rumours that’s all over the media.
Posted in Company Reputation, Damage Limitation, Reputation Management, Reputation News | Tags: business reputation, Prius, Recall, Safety, Toyota Problems | 3 Comments »
Sarah Palin – Tea Party, President ambitions and more!
The White House seems defensive and even apologetic to a growing number of people in the US and they are growing in numbers. The Tea Party Convention is the most striking example of the culmination of anti Obama views. This is a very large group of people against the healthcare plan and the large amount of taxes they are being charged by the Obama government.
Quick to ride the Tea-Party wave is Sarah Palin, who with her appearance as a speaker at the convention, made it clear she has her sights set on the presidency. Palin has been clawing her way out of bad press, planning out her candidacy after resigning as governor. She has penned a book and is now a political commentator on FoxNews and the stage was set at the Tea Party Convention when she said…
“This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any king or queen of a Tea Party. And it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter”
Palin took a dig at Obama at the tea party convention and has even gone on to say if its right for America she is ready to run for President in 2012.
“Now a year later, I got to ask the supporters of all that, how is that hope-y, change-y stuff working out for you”
Statements from Palin, quite like the ones used during election campaigns.
Bad press continues: The speaker’s fee of $100,000 paid to Sarah Palin has been in the news and Palin has claimed it does not go to her but to her party’s campaigning fund but this had been dogging her. Other news reports talk of how involved her husband Todd Palin has been in the Alaska governance.
Sarah Palin is simply great bad press material, sometimes ridicule and most importantly great NEWS! One thing’s for sure Palin is everywhere and there she will remain for a long time to come.
As for the Democrats, it will be unwise on their part to take her lightly, the US has elected movie stars like Regan to the White House and even the first mixed race President in Obama, so could a woman be far behind? ?
If Obama bungles up on the healthcare program and the national security issues and continue to remain on the defensive chances are Sarah Palin is right there to take his place.
For now even the Tea Party Convention don’t want her as their leader but in the times we are in, the Democrats better be wary even though Sarah Palin may seem like no Margaret Thatcher or Indira Gandhi!
The Sarah Palin brand chugs on and she as a politician is building up both her celebrity and her reputation.
MPs expense scandal 4 being charged
3 Labour MPs Elliott Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and a Tory peer Lord Hanningfield will face criminal charges over alleged misuse of their expenses. They will be charged under section 17 of the Theft Act relating to false accounting; if found guilty the four could land in jail for seven years.
Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer while announcing the charges said ‘that one other case was still being investigated, as there was insufficient evidence to charge the Labour peer Lord Clarke of Hampstead.
According to Sir Thomas Legg, who carried out the audit of the expenses, stated the system as “deeply flawed”. Hundreds of MPs were ordered to pay back a total of £1.12 million.
So what’s next?
Do we start thinking about reforming the British Politics and Democracy? High-time to give it a thought, the public fuming about the expenses scandal is justified, so faith needs to be restored.
Windows 7 Reviews and Feedbacks is Microsoft Reputation back on track
Having had to finally get a new PC after 4 years from Dell I opted for the 64 Bit Windows 7 hoping I had not made a mistake. After only 48 hours I have to say the is the best thing to come out of Microsoft for a while.
It maybe that my expectation dropped dramatically after Vista but this operating system so far seem very quick and intuitive.
The Windows 7 is controlled mainly from in its Taskbar – especially in the Start menu and System Tray. Vista gave the Start menu a welcome redesign; in Windows 7, the Taskbar and the System Tray get a thorough makeover.
So will the more positive than negative feedback be enough to sell more windows 7, sure some reviews have not been totally positive but the overwhelming consensus is that windows 7 is moving in the right direction. Lets see what happens with sales in 2010
Posted in Reputation Management, Reviews & Quality | Tags: feedback, Microsoft, Reviews & Quality, windows 7 | No Comments »
Reputation Management for MPs to restore public faith
Have the public lost faith in MPs? The expenses file shows MPs more than half the entire House of Commons are involved in the controversial expenses scandal. They exploited the system of parliamentary allowances to promote their lifestyles and homes. The revelation has angered many voters and the reputation of the MPs has taken a beating.
People at large knew nothing until the scandal was out in the open and how MPs claimed for items far beyond what was allowed. Change in the system was voiced, but unfortunately there weren’t many takers. The after effect of not heeding that advise is all out in black & white.
It’s not easy to get this scandal off the mind of the taxpayers. While some MPs are guilty for the wrongdoing it has tarnished everyone in the house of Commons with the same brush.
So what does this mean? Is there a need for an urgent damage control to restore public faith?
A need for a strategic reputation management to get back the lost glory. There is no quick-fix method to fix the problem, but MPs need to realize that they are the representatives of their constituency and are not traders.
Politics and politicians are definitely not immune to bad press or negative comments, the above scandal shows how a politicians online reputation can go for a ride even if you are not at fault. You need to apprise the public your accomplishments, and what you are planning to do. This will allow people to respond positively and garner faith in the system.
David Cameron, when said ‘all MPs who do not repay will be sacked and be termed not eligible for election. This is a welcome statement and will infuse confidence in public, and also minimize the resentment in public for those in the House of Commons.
Politician’s reputation holds greater significance as electorate comprising of different age and group will have a common thinking about their representative, which makes sense to them. Let your positive image be known to the public, after all that is all you need to face the polls.
TripAdvisor positive or negative comments are they real?
We have been approached by many tourism companies both agents and hotels alike requestiong help with negative comments appearing about them on the search results. More often than n0t they come from sites like tripadvisor whose business model is based on customer feedback.
There are 2 big issues with this:
- You tend to get more genuine feedback from customers who have had a negative experience rather than a positive one.
- Competitors write negative things about another company which are false.
So quite often Tripadvisor will not give a overall balanced feedback from customers because the same old saying is true “a customer who has had a bad experience will tell a 100 people where a customer who has a good experience will tell 10″. Customers will normally only give feedback to a site like Tripadvisor if they have had a negative experience rather than a positive one.
We are also now seeing what we believe to be competitors writing bogus negative feedback about competing companies in order to trash their reputation. It’s very bad practice and something we frown on and will certainly not get involved in.
What can you do about negative comments on Tripadvisor?
- Make sure there is genuinely not an issue that needs addressing if many customers are complaining about the same thing.
- Offer customers a gift if they write something positive about their stay at your hotel on Tripadvisor
- Hire a company to help protect your reputation online and bury negative results in the search results.
The outcome, although you can’t get rid of negative comments totally is you can show a much more balanced view, in many ways this is much better than just positive or negative views.
Posted in Hotel Reputation, Reputation Management, Reputation Online, Reviews & Quality | Tags: agents, Hotels, negative comments, travel, TripAdvisor | 2 Comments »
Honda Recall for faulty airbags
Close to the heels of Toyota recall, Honda Motor Co is all out to make a similar move to replace the faulty airbag deflator in their cars. The No.2 automaker of Japan is about to recall 4+ million cars.
About 12 incidents have been reported including one fatality. This is the second time Honda is recalling their cars for the same reason, previously it was in November 2008 and June 2009. The series of recalls from Honda also includes the one for faulty window switch.
The current recall applies to 2001 and 2002 year model; CL vehicles, Civic, Accord, CR-V, Pilot, Odyssey, and 2002 Acura TL. Honda is currently concentrating the recall in the United States
A Honda spokesman said “the defect was caused by insufficient stamping pressure during the production of the inflator”. On the contrary the US unit of Japan’s Takata Corporation; manufacturer of the airbag stated ‘they are not aware of any defect in airbags supplied to Honda’.
Known for their reliability and quality over the years, the recent incidence has jolted the customer’s faith in these Japanese (Honda, Toyota) vehicles. This has also effected its production and sale in many countries. Quick to grab the market share the domestic car makers; General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are looking to cash in on the woes of their unbeatable Japanese competitors.
As from the reputation management point of view, we feel if Honda is able to turn the buzz rapidly and positively, the damage will only be marginal. A positive step to regain customer confidence, Honda has already started contacting it’s customers by mail asking them to take their cars to the authorized dealers.