Last week we reported how web designer and blogger Andrew Sharman managed to get an apology and an offer of a partial refund for his holiday from holiday company Thomson after he wrote about his experiences online. Andrew tried to resolve the situation through normal channels, by writing to Thomson’s complaints department, but they never responded to him.
It wasn’t until he wrote on his blog how his holiday wasn’t what he expected and how Thomson had ignored his complaint that he started to get any resolution. It was the fact that his blog ranked highly in Google for search terms relating to Thomson and their holidays to Tunisia that sparked Thomson into contacting Andrew and offering him a partial refund. The idea that other potential customers could be reading about their service and their lack of customer service is what finally forced Thomson’s hand into offering the refund and responding to the complaint at all.
This is why reputation management is so important. Companies such as Thomson holidays shouldn’t be so susceptible to bloggers writing about them and ranking in the Google SERPs for their company name. They need to be proactive in issues such as this and ensure that they’re not a soft target for bloggers and SEO professionals by securing multiple places on the front page of Google for relevant search terms.
Reacting after a negative blog post has been made is too little too late as the damage has already been done and the story of Andrew’s awful holiday experience and Thomson’s lack of interest in his complaint has been made public.
Yes they have resolved the issue now, but at what cost to Thomson’s reputation?
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