Social blackmailing: how protecting becomes damaging

Written by Jelmer van der Linden on February 16, 2017

We have written a blog in the past aboutsocial media blackmailing. Then we discussed the phenomenon itself and how it is applied by consumers. But it is clear that social (media) blackmailing is not only something for consumers. We see the principle itself regularly applied by merchants. Too bad, because it will damage your reputation rather than protect it. Hence, in this blog we indicate how we will deal with it when we discover it at an affiliated member.

The importance of independent reviews that are tested for validity

Reviews are important to many consumers. Based on the reviews that consumers find, they will make a decision whether or not to go through with an order with an online store. Therefore, there is a role for the party where these reviews are collected to independently test the reviews posted. The merchant has the possibility to offer a solution to the customer or when fraud is committed tocontactus. But as well as ensuring the validity of negative reviews, the validity of positive reviews must be ensured. It may happen that a merchant writes several positive reviews about his own online store. In addition to our system checking for this, we will also take harsh action if it is discovered. Often such a situation leads to a warning and possibly even a revocation of the quality mark. And not only we see a customer review tool as more than a collection of reviews, also the ACM has indicated to want to investigatethe reliability of reviews. The importance of well-tested reviews is obvious. However, many merchants see a negative review as a blemish on their member page. Of course this is understandable, but it is good to realize that the negative review is a symptom of something rather than a problem in itself. What we regularly see is that a merchant sees a negative review as so damaging that (sometimes in anger) they tell the customer that they will 'only help if the review is changed by them (afterwards)'. We see this as a form of social blackmailing applied by the merchant. With such an operation you actually indicate to the customer 'I will help you, but only because you wrote a negative review and only when you change or remove this negative review'. That, of course, is not how it works. By acting this way, you ensure that by protecting your reputation, you actually damage it.

How to deal with negative reviews

99% of the time, a negative review is a result of something. For example, because the order was delivered late to the consumer by the mailman. It also happens regularly that a consumer writes a negative review, even before this consumer has sent an e-mail to the customer service of the web store to make his problem known. In short, there is still plenty of room to do something about it. Don't stress when a negative review is posted by a consumer, with the proper handling of a negative review you can often ensure that the customer is still satisfied and asks 'how he or she could change the review'. Try to rise above the negative review and find out what the actual problem is and how you, as a merchant, can solve it.

In addition, as a merchant a ten on the webwinkelkeur member page may seem like the ultimate goal, butin practice a 9.3 for example scores better than a ten. Customers distrust a ten because it tends to perfection, something that does not exist. Consumers then often think "there must be a catch here, can these reviews be trusted?". When you have received a justified negative review share your story by responding to the review. Show that you too are bummed that things went the way they did and demonstrate that you are doing everything you can to resolve the issue. By doing this publicly (through a published response to the review on your member page) you ensure that other consumers would only trust you more. Therefore, do not go on the attack, even though the saying is "attack is the best defense. That is a soccer saying that does not translate to the customer service of an online store.

WebshopKeur does more than a paper audit

Where many quality mark only tests on paper (the so-called 'paper inspection') WebwinkelKeur goes further. A paper inspection is nice, but unfortunately does not say anything about how the store operates in practice. That is why customer reviews are an important part of the webwinkelkeur certificate. This can work to your advantage if you have your customer service in order, because then you have a member page with reviews you can be proud of. Occasionally we get questions from consumers about the reviews of Ecolabel. In general, the stores that use our system all score a good average. But that is not surprising when you consider that the reviews are part of the certification. If a store does not have its customer service in order, this can lead to many problems. And these problems can then lead to the withdrawal of the store's certification. This will not only guarantee the quality of the certification itself, but also the merchants who are allowed to carry the certificate know that they are doing a good job. That is why we will also operate strictly when a store uses the aforementioned way of working with the reviews. This is because it does not match the quality we expect from our members. When we discover that a member of ours is forcing the customer to revise his review because 'otherwise the online store won't help his customer anymore' we will give a warning first. Should the warning not result in sufficient change (read; we keep receiving complaints about this) then we will make the decision to revoke the certificate. But we will also be available at all times to help the shop improve its customer service. We do this through the blogs we regularly publish, but also by taking the customer questions sent by our members seriously. Just to mention a few examples.

Conclusion

We have writtenblogs beforeabout how to deal withnegative reviews. But in this blog we want to let both merchants and consumers know how we deal with merchants who try to force customers to change their ratings, with the underlying theme "that the customer will not be helped". We would like to hear your reaction to this. Do you even see an improvement in our way of working? Of course we would like to hear that as well.