Social media is a fantastic tool for business owners, but it can also be a “poisoned chalice”, with nasty reviews that can have a real effect on the people on the other side of the screen.
Take Ballater ice cream parlour Shorty’s.
Shorty’s is undeniably popular among locals and tourists, with queues out the door on sunny and not-so-sunny days alike.
Its owner Cheryl Anderson uses Facebook (mainly) to provide business updates with the shop’s 4,100 followers.
She finds it to be a real benefit to the business, and she uses it to let her customers know about new flavours and opening hour updates.
But at the same time, the social media page has also been targeted by people taking to their keyboards to leave negative, and sometimes nasty, reviews — leaving Cheryl and her team feeling deflated after a hard day’s work.
‘They affected me badly’ says Ballater shop owner, but they’ve helped her grow a ‘thick skin’
“The first two affected me quite badly,” says Cheryl as I asked her to describe how she felt after spotting the reviews. “I still don’t know for definite who wrote them.
“However, I owe a kind of gratitude to the second as it finally made me grow a thick skin, which you very much need in business.
“After that I have always handled them well.
“If it is a legitimate issue, I address it and make it right. If it appears to be or turns out to be spam, I shrug it off.”
The parlour owner took to her go-to social media platform last month to call out the writer behind Shortys’ latest negative review.
The review read: “Imagine an ice cream shop running out of vanilla – that’s Shorty’s.”
Cheryl said there’s a “lot that goes on behind the scenes” to keep Shorty’s running, and sadly “sometimes things happen outwith our control that we just have to get on with”.
She said: “Myself and the staff work tirelessly most of the year, which is 99% extremely rewarding.
“However, to receive a review like this always leaves us a little deflated.
“I think people often forget there is an actual person or team of people behind a computer screen when they make a comment like this.”
While it was thought the first two were written by fake accounts, Cheryl believes this was in fact “a rival business” who left this one-star review.
“I suspect the first review was also from them,” Cheryl added.
The difficulties in tackling nasty reviews
Why do people take time to write nasty reviews?
“I have no idea,” said Cheryl.
“It is not something that I would ever consider doing. I can’t even begin to get into the mindset of someone who would spend the time and energy to attempt to tear down someone else and their livelihood.”
But surely it’s possible to remove an unfair review, or one clearly written by a spam account?
Well, apparently not.
“Review platforms will never agree to remove a review,” Cheryl went on to say. “We have tried and abysmally failed.
“The only option is to reply to put your side across and hope that viewers take the time to investigate the rating and read the replies from the business instead of taking it on face value.
“I’m not sure how this issue could be resolved, in all honesty.
“But we are extremely lucky that lots of our customers have taken to review platforms to offer praise after visiting.
“The fact that I am able to reply makes the whole process a lot fairer on businesses.”
Cheryl said that the few negative reviews don’t have a “huge impact” on Shorty’s as a business, but they can still provide significant frustration for her and her team.
Elgin restaurant says people feel ’emboldened’ with online criticism, rather than doing it face to face
While Cheryl has always had the opportunity to respond to reviews on the platforms they’re published on, Faith Houlding hasn’t been so lucky.
Faith has run Scribbles in Elgin since 2001.
The 49-year-old said: “I haven’t pinpointed a targeted, malicious review recently other than the [one on] YouTube.
“Though it was just one person’s opinion, a big social media platform was used, they filmed without my permission on private property with a clickbait title — ‘We was robbed at Scribbles’ — and at no time was I given the right of reply.
“No issues were highlighted to myself or my team for the duration of the family’s visit.”
The review was posted by Butlers Empire, a channel with 60.9k subscribers.
Nine times out of 10, guests will have been approached at Scribbles during the course of their visit to check if everything is up to par, explained Faith.
Nine times out of 10, guests will have been approached at Scribbles during the course of their visit to check if everything is up to par, explained Faith.
Upon further interaction with their server, finishing their meal and paying, many will fail to flag any faults.
Faith added: “However, they will be emboldened enough to jump online once they have left the premises and leave a critical review in the public domain.
“This loses us the opportunity to try and to resolve any issues at the time of the actual visit, and be given the chance to turn things around and salvage their visit and our reputation.
“It is not good enough to say ‘I don’t like to complain’ then put a public review up without allowing the business to respond.
“Social media is a poisoned chalice.”
‘We aren’t robots, mistakes happen’
The business owner has tried to avoid thinking about poor feedback as it “feeds anxiety and worry.”
Like Cheryl, she once took them very personally but no longer does.
Faith also responds to online the reviews, explaining the situation in the best possible manner.
She then offers an apology and points out the processes to gauge feedback at the time of the visit.
“We have often had new customers come to us who haven’t been put off by any negative reviews on the back of the response that I have given,” adds Faith.
“I know that we do get it wrong on occasion. We aren’t robots, mistakes happen.
“As a team we kick ourselves when we realise things have gone pear-shaped. It’s disappointing for us too.
“But I would thank everyone who has supported us for the last 22 years.
“We are not everyone’s cup of tea, but we are so thankful as you make our working day all the better.”
