Should You Cave In to Customer Review Extortion?

The threat of a bad review can worry companies a great deal. Everyone is well aware of just how much one’s online reputation can cost a business.

So it’s no surprise that some customers have learned how to turn this fear to their advantage. Some merely state that they will give a bad review if the company doesn’t offer special discounts, free meals, or other concessions. Others flash a special card known as a “Reviewer Card,” backed by the Reviewer Card Company.

This card costs $100 and is only sold to people who are active on review sites. It’s a small black card that reviewers can show to business owners to intimidate them into “giving them a good experience.” The Los Angeles Times covered it in their business section earlier this year.

But should business owners play along?

Review sites and customer advocacy sites are already using the threat of bad reviews to extort advertising dollars from honest business owners. Letting customers join the party is going to create diminishing returns sooner or later. You can only give away so many free meals or discount your services so much before the practice starts to cut into your bottom line—at which point it doesn’t matter whether you’re getting good reviews or not.

Besides, offering preferential treatment is a good way to anger your customers, many of whom will also leave reviews. If you let a “Review Card” customer hop to the front of the line you’ll get one five star review…and perhaps 10 one-star reviews from those people who didn’t appreciate being slighted.

There’s a bigger issue at hand than those reviews, however. Slighted customers are unlikely to become repeat customers. And neither will the Review Card blackmailer. That person is already moving on to his next victim. Repeat customers are the backbone of any business. Repeat customers aren’t reading reviews. First time customers are.

Finally, most people get to reviews the same way they get to everything else on the Internet. They Google your establishment. That means you can make reviews irrelevant by pushing them down in the search results. You can do that by creating a lot of great content and web properties on your own, if you have the time, know-how, and inclination to do so. You can also turn to a company who will handle the creation of this “virtual firewall” for you.

Once you have taken control of your own search results you’ll put your business back into a position of power. You can stop reviewer extortion for good, and you can treat Review Card owners just like you’d treat any other customer.

Who knows? You might just get a good review anyway.