Doing business online and remaining honest

In a recent blog post at Ars Technica, they detailed how a cosmetic surgery company got slapped with a fine for paying their employees to post glowing reviews of the company's services. The reviews, of course, were online and anonymous. The company, Lifestyle Lift, also went as far as to pay employees to attack legitimate negative reviews, believing that those negative reviews hurt the company's reputation.

Apparently, Lifestyle Lift's president felt that negative reviews had "significantly hurt the company’s reputation and thought the success of the company hinged on controlling messages posted online." Not only did he order employees to "put on your wig and skirt and tell them about the great experience you had," he also set up entirely new websites—which posed as independent review sites—that hosted numerous rave reviews about Lifestyle Lift based on materials that were crafted internally.

This is called astroturfing and, while technically not illegal, companies that engage in activities can come under scrutiny of the government and action can be taken because it is seen as a deceptive practice. In the case of Lifestyle Lift, they were slapped a $300,000 fine and that was about it - a mere slap on the wrist by the Attorney General of New York.

The lesson here: If your company is going to have any kind of online presence that allows for the public to comment about your product/service, don't start astroturfing in an attempt to control what others say. Word will eventually get out about your practices and your reputation might never recover.

Accept the good comments and reviews and the bad ones. Take the bad ones with a grain of salt (some people will never be pleased), and learn from them. For example, let's say your company ABC Corporation introduces a cool new software program and allows for consumers to write reviews of your program on your website. Now let's pretend there are a few bugs in the program, nothing major but enough of a problem to result in negative reviews, your best course of action would be to address those bugs in your software and even release an updated version where those bugs are fixed.

It's also important to acknowledge the problem with your customers. Responding to negative feedback like this will show consumers that you care about them enough to take their feedback seriously. Your customers will be much more likely to forgive you if they know you are open and honest with them.

Taking your business online can be a great way to reach out to a new customer base. But being online doesn't mean you have to throw your ethics into the trash by hiding behind fake reviews. Stay honest and your customers will thank you by staying loyal to your company.