One of the few benefits of being ‘between jobs’ is that it gives you time to look around and become a voyeur of sorts. Whilst spending quite a bit of time looking at what the current job market is after and where it’s heading, as well as trying to get back in, I came across the following search results for one particular company:
Any business would like nothing but positive entries in the SERPs, because if this isn’t the case it means that they’ve possibly done something wrong (or they’re running a Beckett production). The fact that a business can manage to provoke people (look at the 3rd and 9th results) into a call to action such as this means that something has really gone wrong.
Negative feedback can create numerous problems for a business, namely harm its reputation and put off any potential customers. The question is; what can you do should a scenario like this happen?
Look at your working practices –
Just from reading the ‘titles’ of the negative results in question shows that the mass e-mailing/blunderbuss approach to marketing isn’t working. It also shows a lack of listening skills to the people who just don’t want to be contacted – alienating them further.
Contact the source –
By contacting the person(s) who have posted negative feedback, you have a chance of being able to address the issue, perhaps apologise, and potentially have the page removed. It also allows you to make contact with anyone else who is also disgruntled by your business approach. However, try and avoid making the response made in this particular case (to blame a junior employee) as you are likely to make the matter worse.
Create more page entries –
Your business stands to gain if you create more high ranking and positive pages, such as registering with local business directories and seeking positive feedback. It also means that, if you can’t get the negative pages removed, you can at least get them pushed below the fold and hopefully/eventually off the first page.
