Remove Ripoff Report

Now that the majority of consumer research begins online, corporations must be ever mindful of the information likely to appear at the top of the search results for their brands. One bad result can spoil all of the results when it gets to the top of the rankings and becomes the first thing searchers see about a company or brand.

Consumers are busy. They have more choices than ever before and, in most cases, more information to guide those choices than any one person could ever process. These consumers are only too willing to latch onto a piece of negative publicity to help narrow their choices and make a final decision easier.

Rip-off Report
Rip-off Report is a website that encourages unsatisfied customers to file reports of scams and fraudulent behavior. These reports require no proof or substantiation and become permanent records on the Internet. On the site, Rip-off Report states that no reports are ever removed. The best result they offer is to redact any false information for a fee.

Sites like Rip-off Report have created a platform where unhappy consumers or unscrupulous competitors can say whatever they want and ruin a company’s good name with bad publicity. These sites often employ skillful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that help ensure that many of their pages rank very high for company searches.

Companies that do not have a corporate strategy for addressing negative reviews may find themselves dealing with the repercussions for years following a scathing review. Those that simply ignore or deny a complaint without an effective strategy for combating the information at its source and in the search engine rankings may exacerbate the problem and fail to redeem themselves with customers and prospects alike.

Initial Corporate Response
When faced with a negative claim online, a company must act quickly to control the damage. First, an attempt should be made to reconcile with the unhappy party. If a company knows who this person is, then a representative should contact this person directly and attempt to make peace over the phone.

In addition, Rip-off Report allows a company to post a rebuttal beneath the harmful accusation and demonstrate to the public that it is committed to resolving customer service complaints. A company’s rebuttal should seek to soothe rather than inflame the situation and should encourage the unhappy person to contact the company by phone to discuss a successful outcome for all involved.

This posting should avoid using any brand-specific language that will make it even easier for the search engines to associate the posting with company searches. For example, rather than using a company name, the rebuttal might state “the above-mentioned company.”

The following responses will only make a problem worse:

* Ignoring the problem;
* Denying the claim without hearing out the claimant;
* Arguing your case in writing on the Internet or in email;
* Drawing attention to the negative publicity with links and public protests off-site.

Rip-off Report Responses

Rip-off Report promises never to remove a report from its website. They maintain that it is every person’s first amendment right to state a public opinion, and that they perform an important service helping protect consumers’ rights.

However, Rip-off Report does offer three options for a company’s defense once a report has been posted. The first is free, but the other two require a payment to the Rip-off Report website.

1. Place a rebuttal beneath the initial report.

This will show those readers who bother to read all the way to the bottom of the page how the company responds to customer complaints. A company can defend itself against false claims and let other customers know how to contact the company for resolution of their issues. The original complaint will still appear at the top of the page and in the description of the page on the search engines.

2. Hire Rip-off Report for VIP Arbitration.

When you purchase VIP Arbitration, Rip-off Report will have an impartial arbitrator review the original posting, determine which statements were opinions that cannot be proven false, and then evaluate the truth of any statements that were presented as “facts.” Any “fact” statements determined to be false will then be redacted from the report, and the arbitration findings will be placed at the top of the page, above the original report, so the arbitration appears in the description of the web page on the search engines.

3. Enroll in Rip-off Report’s Corporate Advocacy Program.

Whether the information presented in negative reports is true or not, a company can pay to join Rip-off Report’s Corporate Advocacy Program. With payment and a promise to commit to customer satisfaction and swift resolution of future complaints, Rip-off Report will place a positive message at the top of the page of any negative reports about the company. This positive statement will then be what is seen in the description for these pages on the search engines.

SEO Response to a Rip-off Report

Once a company has performed damage control to keep the problem from getting worse, it should launch an SEO campaign to bury the bad information in the search engines. This usually entails creating new content that targets keywords related to the original report and highlighting this content so that it achieves higher rankings in the search engines.

Getting False Rip-off Reports Removed from the Search Engines

Although Rip-off Report will not remove any reports from its website, a company may be able to sue the original poster for defamation and false statements. Armed with a court order that states that the original report was false, a company can then ask Google and the other search engines to stop indexing the offending report.

The report would still remain on the Rip-off Report website, but it would no longer show up on the search results of those search engines that opt to honor the court order. While not a perfect solution, this can contain the damage and reduce the possibility that future searchers will ever find the page containing the false report.

Protecting a Company from a Rip-off Report

All of the above tactics are aimed at responding to a damaging report, but there are many things a company can do in advance to prevent a future customer service disaster.

1. Commit to customer service.

Every company should have a clear policy for responding to complaints. If a refund or future discount can appease an unhappy customer, that is often a better response than trying to defend the firm in the court of public appeal.

In addition, every customer service representative should understand where to direct complaints the representative is unable to resolve.

2. Investigate customer claims.

Companies cannot afford to ignore complaints anymore. In the past, individuals had a hard time getting their complaints heard, but today’s web tools and social media promotion platforms have made it very easy for individuals to get their message to the masses.

If a company is receiving complaints consistently, the best response will address those complaints and find solutions to avoid future inflammatory reviews.

3. Build a solid foundation in the search engines.

Companies can no longer control all the conversation around their brands, but they can publish quality content that ranks well for their keywords and brand names. An SEO professional can help a company create the content and link relationships that will allow the company to rank high in the search engines for their targeted terms. With strong, company-generated content already ranking well at the top of the search engine results, new reviews and Rip-off Reports will be challenged to outrank the original materials.

4. Strengthen customer relationships.

The best support a company can receive comes from those who love the brand and will defend it despite the fact that they have no material association with the company. An Internet marketing strategy focused on building relationships with customers on blogs and in social media will ensure that a company has defenders ready to take up the cause when negative publicity begins to circulate.

5. Encourage customer reviews.

Companies can encourage customer reviews on third party review sites in order to show a more balanced view of its policies and commitment to customer service. Most people understand that no company has a perfect track record. In fact, they will tend to doubt the impartiality of a review site that has no negative information about a company. Several positive reviews will often overshadow the occasional report of dissatisfaction.

Professional Reputation Management

Due to the high risk of bad publicity online, companies are turning to professional reputation maintenance to help keep public complaints from getting out of hand. These services may include the following:

* An alert system that detects online conversation about a company and its brands,
* Regular publicity updates via press releases and syndicated articles,
* Social media profiles providing a steady stream of engaging communication.

With this structure in place, a company can monitor what is being said about its brands in order to mount a response as quickly as possible following a public complaint. The minute negative information appears, a company can begin creating and publishing content targeting similar keywords to those used in the complaint, in order to suppress the negative result in the search engines.

The rise of global communications networks has made it very easy for one person to be heard by millions. Protecting a company from negative publicity requires diligence and a commitment to resolving conflicts as quickly and quietly as possible. With an SEO strategy and reputation monitoring system in place, your company can position itself for its best defense in the face of a Rip-off Report. Optimum7 can help you manage your online reputation.  Contact us today.

February 21, 2012