Which, in this instance, was why the OP got booted from tripadvisor - because he wasn't a consumer who had used the business concerned (as they disclaimer and policies insist).
Well, there you go, all this for nothing. Paul could have just bided his time, never sent his email and nobody would have been the wiser.
As a business owner I prefer review sites and organizations that don't allow consumers to post reviews about a business unless they do business with the company. One of my main reasons why I think Angies List is such a piece of crap is that they allow all their whiney members to post reviews of businesses even though they haven't done business with them. I'm glad tripadvisor follows the other approach.
As I said... the issue of social media and the scuba industry is well worthy of discussion. There have been threads about tripadvisor here on the forum before...and it's an issue that every customer-serving business person needs to be aware of.
The issue with specific sites can be understood, but the wider implications - for example, the impact that has on Google search, often is not. If you look at the Google search for 'Red Sea Relax' (
https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=red+sea+relax&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) you can see that their website is ranked 1 on the page. Following that is a bunch of links to tripadvisor. At the bottom, still on the 1st page of Google, is a link to this very thread.
Exactly the reason why their manager is such a poor one, his unprofessional email landed them on the front page of google, for all to see now. If the manager or the owner haven't figured out how important it is to act professionally in all matters, as I said "in business to always be the bigger man", landing on the front porch of google might help them understand why it's so important.
Most businesses spend a fortune to get their website onto the 1st page of a Google search. A 'virtual assassin' can get a damaging complaint into the same web-space with just a click of a button.
..or a customer with a legitimate complaint.
Not only does a bad report feature on an individual social media site - but it also haunts the business via search engine results. That's pretty catastrophic for a business - especially a tourism related one that relies heavily on internet traffic to produce bookings. Especially so as the Google 'clip' only shows a summary, or the first line/title of the review/thread etc.
Good customer service is essential to minimize instances of negative reviews. Most half-way competent business people can recognize that. But what of the instances where the complainant goes directly to social media... and neglects to give a business any chance to rectify a failing? What if the complainant isn't even a customer of the business concerned?
There seems to be an increasing trend to these 'virtual assassinations'. We see it on this board at least once per week. In most instances, the complainant/assassin has never bothered to make contact with the dive operation/target in order to voice their complaint in the 'traditional' way. More often than not, such complaints would be dealt with diplomatically and effectively by the businesses... but the 'assassination' strategy prevents that response.
What you're talking about is dependent on the situation. A problem involving money, billing, etc... usually involves a customer contacting the business to resolve the issue because the solution to the customer is a refund of some sort, which is only going to happen with direct contact with the business itself to try to get it resolved. The business has the opportunity to possibly deflect, lesson or even resolve and turn the problem into a raving customer.
However, when it's a 'review' there isn't necessarily ever going to be any attempt at contacting the business first to resolve something. The consumer is simply going to 'report' on their experience.
The latter isn't evil, slanderous or an attack, it's simply the way it is and businesses need to understand it and realize how important - here it comes again --
to act professionally in every contact with anyone interacting with your company. There simply is no guarantee anymore that hostile, sarcastic, childish behavior toward anyone interacting with your businesses isn't going to have ramifications. This thread is evidence of it in spades. Hence the importance to not fan flames with moronic actions such as sending an incendiary email when he could have just done nothing. And this is irregardless of it being the dive industry... Egypt... or whatever other qualifiers anybody wants to stick on the situation. It makes no difference, business is business, the results will be the same, consumers don't give a damn about what you deal with on a daily basis to run your business.
The question I ask is whether this new 'power' is raising the expectations of consumers - who, if so inclined, know they can stab a knife in the back of any business that fails to meet their rapidly expanding demands?
Does a business need to become paranoid that any inter-action, regardless how brief or inconsequential, with a customer or potential customer can turn into a financially damaging - possibly business ruining - virtual assassination?
It certainly does raise consumer's power, there is no way to deny it. Most of it is justified. Many, many businesses are run poorly. Believe it or not some even have managers who are so bad at their jobs they think nothing of writing a childish, sarcastic, taunting email to somebody without thinking about the consequences!
Your answer was to hire consultants and lawyers for protection. That is not within the scope of many business - especially in the scuba industry...and even more especially when such issues occur across international borders. So what is left to do? Pander to each and every unreasonable demand...tread on eggshells with every customer in case they are unstable and vindictive?
The simple solution is two-fold, possible and attainable for any business.
#1 Simply do a great job. This will take care of 99.99% of the problem. Hire and train the right people. Don't send emails to people taunting them, being sarcastic and nasty.
#2 If you do a great job, your positive reviews will dilute and greatly over-power the odd negative review. If you get a negative review address it professionally, apologize and explain your position. This allows the public to see that you care and judge how you handle problems. The vast majority of consumers realize that companies that do enough business will have a problem here or there. They don't care that you had a temporary issue, they care about how you handled it. They will put themselves in the place of reviewer and wonder if that happened to me, I liked the way you handled it or I don't like the way you handled it.
Look up Nordstrom, they are the pinnacle of customer service, renowned for it. However, even the shining example of Nordstrom has some poor reviews. Consumers realize this, they judge you on a whole, not on one bad review. They look for how you are trending, and understand you can't please all the people all the time.
This is simply the way it is, every business owner has to face these facts of the new information age and either embrace the solutions or swim up stream against them. The good thing is the system does work, truly bad businesses get exposed for what they are and truly great businesses get rewarded and ever business can complete on this even playing field, in the world of customer reviews, time will always level the playing field and reveal the trend and the truth about a business, a bad review be it justified or not is just a small minor hiccup in a good companies record.
Here' raises the ugly head of the 'thin blue line' the notion of brotherhood. The same idea that there is an unspoken code in the police force that creates looking the other way, the give your brother a pass...
