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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Instapundit points to a fellow Tennessee blogger who has been threatened with a lawsuit for remarks in her comments. The company, JL Kirk Associates, is even trying to have her internet access cut off. I appreciate a company's desire to protect its image and reputation. But part of doing business in this age is having enough positive stories out there that the negative ones get written off or taken into account as cautionary, not the final word.
One thing JL Kirk Associates has not done with this situation is to get a few more positive stories out there, at least from what I can see. One of those JL Kirk Associates could, for example, have posted his or her own comment, to this effect:As a partner at JL Kirk Associates, I take pride in the work we do and an interest in our firm's reputation. I'm very sorry to hear that --- was so unhappy with our services. Rest assured, we would not stay in business if all our customers felt this way, and we would encourage readers to weigh ---'s comments against our thousands of satisfied customers in deciding whether to do business with us. Yeah, the comment would get the hell flamed out of it by those who take their grievances the furthest. But it would also establish for those interested enough to be reading comments sections that they were looking at a firm that was serious, professional and engaged. Instead, they posted a rather nasty response in the comments, which meant that 1) they went down to the same level and 2) they suggested it was a legitimate topic for discussion.
I work for a corporation whose execution is not always perfect. I understand that there are some clients who aren't very happy with us at all. On the other hand, we've had some clients who were very impressed. In the service sector, sometimes things come together perfectly and sometimes they don't come together at all. Aware that every company has its drawbacks, I would consider doing business with JL Kirk Associates, notwithstanding negative comments on a blog (do you really want to do business with someone who believes everything they read on blogs, anyway?). However, I'd be more nervous about doing business with a company that interacts with websites with angry "you're a so-and-so too" comments, followed by threats of legal action.
In the past, when I've written really nasty things about companies, I've tried to include a note that others may see things differently and that I'd be glad to post a response. If someone at JL Kirk Associates wants to respond to this, I'd be delighted to give them a couple hundred words to explain themselves. However, I don't think the tone they took in their earlier response is the way to go. Rather than wasting their money on lawyers, they should get a p.r. guy to discuss with them how they're projecting themselves.
posted by gbarto at 2:17 PM
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