Last week I was approached by a friend of the company. He’s referred several clients to us and has now found himself in the middle of a reputation crisis. His company manufactures and sells garden tubs. A disgruntled ex-employee has apparently posted a complaint on a popular consumer complaint forum.

That one complaint post ranks #1 for the specialty garden tub company’s name. The company website ranks #2. In his particular niche, search engine reputation is huge. The company depends on their website for sales and promotional information. And somehow, this one post outranked them and was hurting their search rep big time.

As I said in the title, handle public product complaints with care. It’s easy to get offended and rush into battle like a bull in a china shop. But before you try blasting your accuser out of the sky, remember that the decisions you make now will affect your reputation forever. Your words are permanent once you’ve sent them out into the ether, so choose your response with care.

Casey’s (not his real name) initial response was to jump into the fray. He asked me for help finding comparable blogs/forums where he could post his own comments to outrank the complaint. His thought was that anything ranking higher than this negative piece would be better than being beaten outright. To some extent, this is true. But a little more thought put into his response would probably work in his favor in the long-term.

My response to Casey was to forgo the blog/forum hunt for now and focus on printing a response on the same forum/blog that the complaint was posted. My reasoning was twofold: 1) anyone reading the actual complaint would find his response listed immediately after, and 2) there’s always the chance that his response would outrank the original complaint.

My strongest recommendation, however, was that Casey allow me to at least review and revise whatever statements he would write in response. This is key, especially when the accusation comes from an ex-employee or anyone you’ve had relationship with. Your personal offense should not be counted against your company. Allow a “disinterested” third party review your response and make honest comments on style, tone, and content. Not everyone can afford to keep a PR firm on retainer, so choose your third party assistant wisely.

And, as always, feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas you might have.

Best of luck to you all.