Social media often makes it easier for a problem to get solved for a customer if it's especially egregious or widespread. I think this style of communication, between the customer and the company, differs in multiple ways from those of the past. One of the biggest ways that it is different is that there is a sort of entertainment aspect to complaining to a company over social media. Often, the best thing that can happen to a dissatisfied customer is for their post to go viral. So they often make complaints or write reviews at a slanted angle. Reviews or complaints are now a community experience. No longer are you alone on the phone complaining to customer service, but you go to review sites to upvote reviews that matched your experience. Reviews are also now done by amateurs. Gone are the days where professional food critics and product reviewers had a stranglehold on public opinion. Anyone can be influential on the internet.
From the reviews that I read on Yelp and Google, a lot of them seemed very polarized. It was pretty normal to see five-star and one-star reviews side by side. Some reviews had lengthy and useful feedback, but a lot were very short and vague. If you see enough bad or good reviews on a site, they do tend to get under your skin even if they aren’t useful. I probably won’t enter a business with as much of an open mind if I’ve read reviews of the place.
I usually only write reviews if a business does not have that many reviews and I like them. I’ve never actually written a negative review online. If a company gives me a bad experience, I usually will just upvote a view similar to mine. I do try to be fair in my reviews. When I do write reviews, I usually leave concrete details that people interested in the business or product may find useful. I don’t say whether something was good or bad without giving several reasons why. I try to temper my mood for my reviews. Four stars is probably the score I have given out the most
I don’t own a business, but if I did, I would probably only respond to good reviews or the ones with useful feedback. If someone goes out of their way to thrash a business in a review, without leaving concrete details that illustrate their point, I would not want to engage with that person. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would engage someone from the company account if I thought the person was coming from a place of good faith. I would probably start writing from a place of gratitude or sympathy, depending on what the review said.
I left some short reviews on Yelp for a couple of good restaurants that I’ve eaten at over the years. I found it a little difficult because I haven’t eaten at either of them recently. One was Hunan Chinese Restaurant in Rancho Bernardo. I mentioned a positive experience with the staff and recommended eating spicy food from the menu. I gave them a rating of four stars. Another place I gave a review was a restaurant in Poway called Thai Ladle. I gave it five stars since I really liked the food and had some good memories there with friends. I recommended people get the Pad Thai if they didn't know where to start.
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