The damage behind bad reviews
Samir Allen, owner of Auckland restaurant Gemmayze Street, once ejected a customer from his restaurant for screaming at his staff and later found the same woman had written multiple negative reviews of his restaurant.
As a widespread worker shortage in hospitality continued to make things difficult for the industry, a negative review was like kicking a business while it was down, he said.
‘‘It does actually hurt. People think just because they are paying for something they can be rude and abusive.’’
Allen is part of a group of Auckland businesses that have launched a campaign to fight back against ‘‘spiteful’’ online negative reviews and personal attacks.
The Karangahape Rd Business Association, and advertising agency Motion Sickness, created a poster campaign that paired negative online reviews with real photos of staff and business owners to poke fun at people who used the internet to attack small businesses.
Allen said he hoped the campaign would highlight the anonymous and hurtful impact of negative online reviews.
‘‘It’s spiteful. People at their computer screens don’t see the impact their comments have on the business,’’ Allen said.
‘‘Remember every time you write a negative review you are attacking someone’s business, someone’s livelihood.’’
The fact that negative reviews could stay online forever, and be viewed by prospective customers without any context was a big issue for business owners to grapple with in the digital age, Allen said.
Fort Greene bakery co-owner Liam Fox said while it was difficult to measure the financial impact of negative reviews, it definitely took a toll on the mental health of people working in the business.
He said that he had instructed his staff not to look at reviews because they were often hurtful, pointless and personal attacks rather than criticism.
‘‘People forget that for a small business owner, the business is like an extension of yourself. It is
impossible not to take these things personally,’’ Fox said.
While almost all customers who provided feedback in person were positive, those that wrote online reviews often were ‘‘faceless, baseless, online attacks’’, he said.