Many e-commerce retailers get this very wrong. Make up seller Lime Crime / Doe Deere gained notoriety for re-selling TBK mineral makeup at a 300% mark up – up to her, except her customer base are mostly young teens, so she was accused of exploitation. Some bloggers highlighted Lime Crime’s repackaging, and one or two gave her negative reviews. She contacted them and demanded the posts were replaced with a pre-written statement. While one blogger did, under threat of legal action, it has generated mass bad publicity for her online business, resulting in three negative google suggestions if you type in her brand name.
Regretsy features some great examples of poor reputation management, and how small businesses, and individual entrepreneurs, can take things more personally or over-react to a negative review. Being featured on the Regretsy website is a mixed bag – an Etsy seller will get more traffic and online sales, but will be made fun of. Sellers typically react in one of two ways; laugh at themselves, generating good will and customers, or have a tantrum.
This happens so frequently that Helen Killer has a section marked ‘Butthurt’ and a whole file of people who have sent her legally dubious Cease and Desist letters from their ‘lawyer’. Some, like Funny Junk, try to demand money from the writer. More vulnerable bloggers might well be coerced into taking the review down. But it will severely tarnish your reputation, far, far more than a bad review would, because the blogger’s social network will rally and – like Funny Junk – you may find yourself being pushed down the SERPs for your own name, or, like Lime Crime being permanently associated with this one negative experience.
And legally savvy, confident people like Helen Killer will laugh at you, cite laws that protect their free speech and turn the situation on it’s head. Featured etsy sellers try to question the writer’s morals – but she has raised money to combat AIDs, cancer and poverty. The writer of The Oatmeal, upon featuring his own dubious Cease and Desist letter, decided to raise the $20,000 demanded and give it to charity. At time of writing Matt Inman has raised $92,614.
