I run a small business and there's one primary competitor.
I'm very much of the mindset just to completely focus on my own business, create the best product and service that I can and do everything to ensure my customers go away happy.
I try hard not to concern myself with this other competitor. Many of my customers use both of us and while I may hear stories in passing, I always try very hard to resist the urge to comment on these stories or bad mouth the competition. When a customer recalls a bad experience with the other company I even sometimes try to explain how difficult the business can be at times and provide a reason to explain why things may have gone bad, essentially sticking up for this company.
I know they've badmouthed me in person to other customers. Whatever, I just keep moving forward. However now I've noticed he's given us a mediocre rating on facebook through a proxy.
Some guy I've never met and has never been a customer. I know as I deal with every customer personally and have their full names.
Looking at this guys Facebook review history, he's rated my main competitor 5 star and four other companies (including mine) in the same field between 1-3 star.
The thing is do I call this person out on it or just leave it be?
Do I call him out in a private message and ask him to remove it?
Do I call him out in public and risk alienating customers if I do it wrong, or perhaps it will result in a wave of support from existing happy customers.
I use social media sparingly with this company and tend to stay quite private, I'd rather not have one of the few posts airing out dirty laundry. I also don't really want to provoke my competition to bad mouth us any more than he already is and I'd like to interact with this person as little as possible or not at all. I believe he does this as he feels threatened by us. I'm pretty sure we've taken away a considerable amount of his business.
Perhaps I should just leave it be and focus on drowning out his review with good reviews from existing clients.
It still bothers me that they would do this, I don't want to stoop to their level, I'd love to call them out it, but I don't want it to backfire. Perhaps I should just keep on moving forward like always and ignore them...
I'm very much of the mindset just to completely focus on my own business, create the best product and service that I can and do everything to ensure my customers go away happy.
I try hard not to concern myself with this other competitor. Many of my customers use both of us and while I may hear stories in passing, I always try very hard to resist the urge to comment on these stories or bad mouth the competition. When a customer recalls a bad experience with the other company I even sometimes try to explain how difficult the business can be at times and provide a reason to explain why things may have gone bad, essentially sticking up for this company.
I know they've badmouthed me in person to other customers. Whatever, I just keep moving forward. However now I've noticed he's given us a mediocre rating on facebook through a proxy.
Some guy I've never met and has never been a customer. I know as I deal with every customer personally and have their full names.
Looking at this guys Facebook review history, he's rated my main competitor 5 star and four other companies (including mine) in the same field between 1-3 star.
The thing is do I call this person out on it or just leave it be?
Do I call him out in a private message and ask him to remove it?
Do I call him out in public and risk alienating customers if I do it wrong, or perhaps it will result in a wave of support from existing happy customers.
I use social media sparingly with this company and tend to stay quite private, I'd rather not have one of the few posts airing out dirty laundry. I also don't really want to provoke my competition to bad mouth us any more than he already is and I'd like to interact with this person as little as possible or not at all. I believe he does this as he feels threatened by us. I'm pretty sure we've taken away a considerable amount of his business.
Perhaps I should just leave it be and focus on drowning out his review with good reviews from existing clients.
It still bothers me that they would do this, I don't want to stoop to their level, I'd love to call them out it, but I don't want it to backfire. Perhaps I should just keep on moving forward like always and ignore them...
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