Archive for the ‘Examples’ Category

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 We do not publish your identity but must have it for our records.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

Mrs Bercow Twittered  EyeSpyMP “I am not an MP. I just live here. So stop reporting my movements.”  Mrs Bercow who is the wife of the Commons Speaker.

EyeSpyMP reply to Mrs Bercow”You Twitter your movements far more than we do. You love the limelight.”

EyeSpyMP has reported sightings of Mrs Bercow drinking coffee and playing with her daughter.

Mrs Bercow replied “I am going out now. To do school run. I am not an MP. I just live here. So stop reporting my movements. Thank you. “  This is just like pouring petrol on a fire…

Another tweet  “You are not being v. nice. You are clearly a bunch of Tories.”  Hmm not the smartest of responses…

John Bercow the elected Speaker last year, is a frequent Twitter user hopefully he is more selective about what he tweets.

If you are or have a partner are in the public eye, it’s always a good idea to have two accounts, a public profile and a private one for family and friends.  This goes for photos and any other personal matters you don’t want appearing on the net or in newspaper articles.

Also do not fire fight in public view, you can make things much worse, if you find negative things about you, try and resolve it out of the public eye and especially avoid using tools like Facebook or Twitter.  In public view no one ever wants to back down.

A good book to read is “How To Win Friends and Influence People”.

I love watching and learning from Max Clifford, for the most part Max seems very open and honest which makes a refreshing change compared to most celebs and politicians.  However I’m not sure he has got it totally right this time reference John Terry.  Terry is meant to be an example for people, especially having been a captain for England and possibly will be  again in the future.   Max said on the BBC breakfast show this morning that he did not believe fans would be that bothered by what Terry allegedly got up to, but is that true?  Football is a really matey sport and quite frankly there are some lines mates don’t cross and that’s sleeping around with friends partners.

These are allegations at the moment but regardless John Terry will find it very difficult to distance himself from it.   Fabio Capello has the fortunate position of not having to show his hand till next month when he can judge the public reaction.

So what will this do for Terry’s reputation?  Well we know he has a young wife and 2 young children, this will make  many people feel he has completely let his family down.  So husband, father and captain of England, Terry stands to loose a heck of a lot.

On the members-only England fans message board on the FA’s official website, Terry was described as having “the morals of a rat”, with many English supporters calling for him to be stripped of the position of Captain.

Tiger Woods was absolutely slammed, he kept quiet about the whole ordeal until it was to late.  What should Terry do?  Should he come clean and apologise?  Should he keep quiet and hope it goes away?  Gone are the days of newspapers being thrown away as most of the articles go online and stay there now.

I think someone on £150,000 per week, a husband, father and Captain of England football team  should learn to control their loins.  They should be honest and upfront and apologise not only to his wife but also the nation.  Is that not how Bill Clinton got away with it?

What will happen with sponsorship deals?  Will Durex be the only company left who would might want John Terry to represent them?

Already Google suggested query is giving negative results, that certainly won’t help his reputation online.

John Terry Reputation Management Report

Quite often the net like newspapers is full of negative stories with doom and gloom, as this is what sells papers and in a weird way makes people feel better because they can say, well my life might be tough but at least its not as bad as the folks in the news.

One of my New Years resolution was not only to loose a few pounds but also to talk about positive experiences, like when I receive great customer service.  UK2.Net fall into the category yesterday for pushing the extra mile with their customer service.  Ryan called from the UK2 server team yesterday saying he wanted to double check that we were not using our old servers before he turned them off.  I thought this was great not only because Ryan was incredibly friendly and helpful but because in today’s online world it’s so easy just to make everything automated and exclude staff from ever talking with their customers.

Google is learning this the hard way with the launch of their new phone G1 phone and how you need a customer service (the name kind of gives it away) team readily available if you have consumer customers.

In our travel businesses we have seen a direct correlation of improved success when we phone our customers and the sales we make.

So a big 5 star UK2.net keep up the good work!!!

Leno, reeling from the backlash in popularity after The Tonight Show fiasco has done the one thing PR Gurus all over the world order you to do if you are in a reputation soup – Go on the Oprah Show and tell your side of the sordid tale.

Leno has lots to be worried – his Jay Leno Show is officially ending on Feb 9th due to bad ratings and he is slated to get back into the Tonight Show at 11 pm.

On the other hand, Conan O’ Brien bid adieu in style and even thanked the NBC for the chance of hosting every funny guy’s dream – The Tonight Show!

This was nothing short of tragedy as far as the Leno and Coco are concerned a network goofing up on its scheduling after realising the ratings dropped had done the unthinkable – got two funny guys to probably go bitter. While the wisecracks continue everywhere and the numerous jokes with Leno at the receiving end being  portrayed a bully, continues unabated.

O’Brien has not just gained a colossal amount of money to walk away but has also managed to come out of this with a better image and popularity. People tend to take sides with the bullied and now everyone knows who Coco is all over the world.

Leno on the other hand had everything to lose – he was there, his show made millions, people enjoyed him, he was known all over the world and had even agreed to move aside for a successor. Now that the Oprah show appearance is done, let’s wait and watch what he’s going to do to build his reputation back.

In celebrity reputation management terms Leno is going through his worst time added to this he has to go back to the Tonight Show and rebuild all that he was. Good humour though is always handy and let’s hope Leno has enough of that remaining!

As for NBC – the business side of things ain’t everything guys, you need to protect the image of your stars!

Who is talking about you

Companies spend years building a name for themselves or developing a brand or product without really understanding online PR.  The brand is your product, reputation management is what and how you deliver your product.  A great example of this happened to me lately, I used to drive a Honda and used the local Honda dealer in Perth Scotland.  The garage’s customer service was fantastic and they always pushed the extra mile to help, however with our family expanding we had to get a bigger car so decided on a Discovery 3 Land Rover.  So we bought from Stratstone, I have to say because we were spending a lot more on the new car and it’s in the luxury end, I expected the customer service to be fantastic like business class over economy in Emirates.  Oh how I have been so wrong…

It was not until I was talking to someone else who also had a Land Rover that we  started to discuss Stratstone in Perth and how we both avoided using the company.   I can’t really fault the car, the Discovery 3 is an incredible drive, everything Jeremy Clarkson said about it is right, however I wont be buying another one if I have to deal with Stratstone, their staff are so miserable when you go into the showroom its unreal.  The staff are so unhelpful, where other garages will ask do you need a lift home, these guys never offer it.   You feel that they won’t bend over backward and will charge for everything.  The next Land Drover dealership is about 1 hours drive away, so for this reason I will not be buying a new Land Drover.

It goes to show how a manufacturer can have the best product in the world but if the people representing and selling your product don’t have the best customer service it can effect your product badly.  This can be very dangerous and effect the reputation of the product, look at how Tiger Woods effected the golfing world and how some people stopped buying certain brands because of the association with him.

Monitoring reputation management is a great way to gain feedback from customers and act quickly to any issues or problems that maybe arising.  Sometimes if a negative issue is handled correctly it can  turn to your favour and show that you are listening to customers and responding accordingly.

We have seen a direct correlation to how fast a company responds to a negative comment and the outcome from a negative thread becoming positive.  More often than not companies will react when a negative discussion has gained momentum and started to work its way up the search results by which time the damage is done and very difficult to win the battle.

So don’t wait till it’s to late, get on top of your reputation management, listen and learn it could save and make you a fortune.

Renaming a company and or brand has both positives and negatives associated with them.  The name can make such a massive difference on the net and doing research is critical.  Take the stag and hen industry, a bunch of friends are going away for a weekend, sounds harmless?  It probably is, but then if that group is a stag weekend or a hen night then this bunch of friends are tagged as a bunch of unruly hooligans.  Choosing a distinct name like Gobananas allows the website to be marketed not only to stag and hen groups but also other group activities unlike stagweekends.com which says what it is.  Gobananas is also a very generic word so in terms of reputation management it is difficult for negative comments to make their way up the search results because of the competition of the word.

Choosing a generic name is therefore critical if you want to protect your reputation online, but also at the same time can make it more difficult for your website to rank highly for its own name. If you choose for example GQ Marketing instead of Poland Marketing then there is less competition on the search term GQ and you run the risk of negative results ranking highly for your company name.

We have in the past advised a few companies to change their trading name if there is a lot of negative results about them on the net.  Sometimes it’s just cheaper and quicker to change a name rather than fight it head on online.  But take heed, if their is a lot of negative things being said about your company, you must first address these issues before it happens again.   We would also set up a safety net by defending your reputation before negative articles have a chance to make their way up the search results again.

It amazes me that Google still gives DMOZ so much weight, it’s free and incredibly difficult to get a website listed on it.  Of course DMOZ editor’s responses more often than not is the reason you are not listed is because it did not meet the criteria.

If DMOZ is overrun then the simple solution is to start charging for listings like many other directories.

I’m no rocket scientist, but the questions they ask are not exactly tough.  In the good old days, sure you could get sites listed on DMOZ, but either they are over whelmed, badly managed or ran by people who only have self interest.

Here are the questions DMOZ ask to get listed:

1. Site URL:
2. Title of Site:
3. Site Description:

I have tried to add loads of different sites over the years and like many other site owners have given up even trying.  I am not interested in listing in DMOZ as a site as it does not generate much traffic.  The problem is just how much weight Google gives to this directory, for this reason its the only good reason to get listed.

When I add a site I will look for where my competitor is and then request inclusion there because I know its the correct location, but still…. after 5 years still many of these sites are not included.

So Google should either offer to buy DMOZ and do a better job or drop it from its algorithm, because in my opinion if you don’t know a editor who will accept payment to get your sites listed then you’re not getting in.

Google does not need a directory because it’s search capability is so amazing why bother trying to run a primitive directory like DMOZ.  It’s like comparing an Iphone today to an old red telephone box!!!

Consumer Review websites are increasingly becoming the source of pernicious attacks on competitors as they allow effectively anonymous attacks on a competitor without any real comeback on the critic. Simply post a complaint without any facts or details and, hey presto, you have damaged their reputation at no cost to yourself. We cannot think of a better example of when a competitor tries to trash a reputation management company name.

What should we make of it?

Consumer Sites will need to sharpen up their act:

As companies pay more attention to these sites, so the role of website publisher will put consumer complaints websites in the legal frame. They will need to capture more structured and verifiable data about complaints or risk being repeatedly sued. At the moment, they publish without proof, soon the burden of proof will be on them to be more proactive in establishing the veracity of complaints.

The ReputationManagementFor Experience:

We have been the victim of a hoax complaint that we have assumed is originating from a competitor. The same complaint has been posted across a number of consumer complaint boards:

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/seo-reputation-management/reputationmanagement/reputationmanagementfor-com-r-678b4.htm
• http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/reputationmanagementforcom-rip-off-c299764.html
• http://www.scamfound.com/f13/reputationmanagementfor-com-scam-reputationmanagementfor-com-rip-off-89581.html
• http://reputation-management.pissedconsumer.com/i-have-been-duped-by-reputationmanagementfor-com-20100115167881.html

Coincidentally, other reputation management companies are being criticised in relatively similar ways at the same time:

• http://search-reputation-management.pissedconsumer.com/searchreputationmanagement-org-scam-20100114167737.html (14th January 2010)
• http://erepute.pissedconsumer.com/erepute-net-are-scammers-don-e2-t-trust-erepute-20100113167601.html (13th January 2010)
• http://tsavoagency.pissedconsumer.com/tsavoagency-com-is-a-total-ripoff-tsavo-agency-20100113167616.html (13th January 2010)
• http://repuclean.pissedconsumer.com/repuclean-just-a-nightmare-20100111167363.html (12th January 2010)
• http://ez-positioning.pissedconsumer.com/ezpositioning-it-e2-s-ezpositioning-com-complaint-20100112167458.html (12th January 2010)
• http://reputation-repair-center.pissedconsumer.com/reputationrepaircenter-com-reputation-repair-center-20091216164639.html (December 2009)

Interestingly PissedConsumer.com offers reputation management services of its own: there may or may not be a coincidence there.

Other consumer complaints sites seem to have a number of new complaints:

• http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/reputationprofessorca-scam-c300462.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/reputationmanagementfor.com-con-artist-sucks-1912.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/reputationprofessor.com-is-a-scam-sucks-1929.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/reputation-repair-center-is-a-huge-mistake-sucks.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/searchreputationmanagement.org-sucks.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/tsavoagency.com-is-a-total-ripoff.-tsavo-agency-sucks-1899.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/erepute.net-are-scammers-sucks-1898.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/ezpositioning-it%E2%80%99s-sucks-ezpositioning.com-scam-sucks-1890.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/repuclean-,-just-a-nightmare-sucks-1886.html
• http://www.companynamesucks.com/guardmyrep-sucks-1852.html
• http://www.ripoffreport.com/seo-reputation-management/reputation-repair-ce/reputation-repair-center-is-a-d6be8.htm

If you read through RipOff report (http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/reputation.aspx?p=2 ) you get a strange feeling that everybody suffering from Reputation Management issues was taught by the same English teacher.

Reputation Management is not exactly a widespread phenomenon so it is unusual to see so many complaints all at the same and all written in very similar terms and tones. Coincidence?

You are the next victim…

We monitor our clients and also our own site and brand names so we picked up on this attempted sabotage straight away.  Damage limitation and reputation management is all about stopping such negative and non-factual content effecting your business.

Reputation Management does not only protect your company from negative customers, but as this post shows it also defends your brand from competitors who have no ethics.

How you deal with such negative comments is essential to show potential customers that some comments on the net will be completely false.

In future…

Hopefully search engines like Google will devalue these sites like they did with directories and links or will develop algorithms that can measure these complaints.  These sites can be used to trash a company reputation and quite often these companies won’t know until the damage is done.