When it comes to doing business online and networking a business online, REPUTATION is everything.
Why is it that some people don't grasp this?
How you conduct yourself online can indeed come back to bite you in the ass. You can not take people's money and run and then expect others to keep doing business with you. People like to post about their business experiences on online message boards and all it takes it one unsatisfied customer and the entire work at home business community will know about your bad professional business act.
If you are offering a business service to someone such as web site updating, web site hosting, banner and button making and so forth... Your customers expect you to follow through.
Example: Let's say that you are paying someone to host a web site for you. It is that providers job to make sure their hosting account is paid on time and that there is no service stopage that will affect the customers account. By letting your hosting account lapse, it then makes all of your customers accounts lapse and then everyone is hurting (not just you and your business) but everyone who is getting their hosting from you! You might not take your business seriously, but your customers do.
Anything and Everything that a business owner does online can affect their business reputation. People need to realize that they need to conduct themselves in a professional manner, especially when it comes to dealing with and satisfying your customers. All it takes is one unsatisfied customer to go posting on various work at home forum boards about their bad business eperience with you and the entire work at home community will know about it and then NO ONE will want to do business with you again.
Just because your business is being done online, doesn't mean that you don't have to worry about your business reputation.
My Vent Today: I am so sick and tired of people running around online committing bad business acts. I am tired of having my ad copy content stolen, my article content (spinned, reworded, reposted and stolen by others), tired of paying for business services from so-called business professionals who don't live up to their end of the bargain.
If you want to be a business professional and play in the business world, then its time to start acting like a professional.
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4 comments:
I don't have any answers as to why people who call themselves business people, but don't treat their business or take their business seriously.
I think it's a lot more damaging to your reputation when you have an online business because of how quickly word travels on the Internet. It's very viral.
If this person is hosting a slew of other websites, it's no longer just one person being unsatisfied. It's how many clients she has on her hosting account all being pissed off now.
Negativity breeds quickly. It's going to take a while to get back a damaged reputation.
*shaking my head*
Sorry you had to deal with this very unfortunate situation.
I've written many times about the lack of pride people have with their jobs or businesses anymore.
Many years ago when I worked at a hospital we had a class that taught that everyone is your customer. A patient was my customer, a doctor and a nurse was my customer because without them I wouldn't have a job. They also emphasized how someone can have 1 bad experience and they'll tell 10 people. Those 10 will each tell 5 people and before you know it 100 people have heard about it. Today with the internet 1 person can tell thousands about 1 bad experience.
They say word of mouth is the best advertising you can get but it can also be the most damaging.
Just to let you know, thank you for the award, I'm in the process of picking my 10 to pass it on to.
Thanks for your comments ladies. I just think its inexcusable what this web master has done! As just one of her customers, it really irks me that I worked hard to build a good quality forum board with nice quality traffic that she was hosting for me and she left her hosting account LAPSE which means I lost everything!
That is one reason why I do my own hosting. I trust no one with web hosting because anything such as lack of payment, a server move, a software upgrade, etc can cause a downward spiral of downtime.
People think they can earn a lot of money hosting other websites but they don't realize there is A LOT of technical expertise needed to keep the servers running and safe. It's more than just slapping on a pretty domain and designing pages which is why paying more usually gives you more--the ones who charge more know what it takes to maintain a server. That doesn't mean don't do your homework though. Make sure they know what they're doing.
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