Years ago (before reviews), consumers were at the mercy of airline delays, poor safety features in automobiles, and foods that contained red dye #2. The internet and its penchant for customer reviews began to switch the power to the consumer. Why simply boycott a business, when we can shame them too. We all know the sites where you can give your honest assessment, but we can also agree people have used these sites to inflict reputational wounds. Until now…
Reviews Turned Bad
In Virginia a carpet and rug cleaning business has filed a defamation law suit against 7 negative reviews. He won. Yikes! Last year a suburban tutoring firm in LA was approached by Yelp.com. They were hoping to get advertising on their site. Because this tutoring firm was saddled with a one-star rating due to a negative review, this business owner declined to advertise with Yelp for fear of drawing attention to this rating. A few weeks later, the Yelp.com salesperson returned to sell advertising again, this time saying the negative review was dropped, and it was replaced by positive ones. What the hell just happened???
What’s the point, and how does it relate to golf? Just because you see a review, whether it be about here… or any of our competitors, you must always be wondering about its legitimacy. Because of the examples above, Golf Course Owner Guy puts little stock in reviews. Businesses are not the best places on earth, and they are not the worst either. They are merely places… that nobody can agree on.
