Very often, when you respond to a complaint on a Complaints Site, you end up with a bigger defamation problem than you ever imagined. You get a reply to your reply and other people that you never heard of before are now making further accusations against you and generally speaking inviting themselves to a conversation that they know nothing about.
If your business is facing online defamation on a Complaints Site, consider whether you wish to respond to the allegations and if whether the Complaints Site is the most appropriate forum for a response.
Often, when faced with defamatory reviews and unfounded complaints, the real issue for the business is not the defamation but rather the loss of customers' trust that follows.
When it comes to your relationship with new customers, the usual course of events is that a customer shows an interest in your service so he or she carries out a simple Google search to find your website. When they read the defamatory posts about your company they develop a natural 'buying objection', which you now have to overcome.
This is your dilemma: if you address an issue on the Complains Site, you must be prepared to take the risk that the conversation will escalate with you having little or no control over it. If you do not respond at all - you will be most likely to lose many customers.
Many organisations now prefer to take a different approach altogether. They respond to allegations that appear on Complaints Sites on their own social media forums, or even on their websites. They present their side of the story, on their own territory and in a manner which is aimed to pre-empt sales objections.
The decision whether to respond to a complaint on a Complains Site is always a tricky one and you should always consider obtaining professional advice before taking any irreversible action.
Learn more about defamation of business and the internet at the Internet Law Centre
By: Yair Cohen