Word of mouth affecting business

[Mach1]

I wonder how much bad press it takes for it to put someone out of business. Someone recently told me they were taking their car to gearheads, I told them about my bad experience with Travis and they said that he was cool when they worked with him. It got me thinking about how much word of mouth affects business, you are always going to have people hating on you for bullshit reasons. I wonder how the dowel pin stuff worked out for Truestreet in the long run.

[black2002ls]

I think it depends on the scope of the business.

I thought this was going to end with a Robby Hale comment!

[AnthonyS]

Word of mouth can make or break a small business in a big way. My wife is a member of a local mom's neighborhood group on facebook. They have meetings, a board, get together's etc. They share info on small businesses like you wouldn't believe. If you are in good with the mom's you have tons of business. You get on the wrong side of the mom's you may as well close shop and leave Dallas.

[Mach1]

Word of mouth can make or break a small business in a big way. My wife is a member of a local mom's neighborhood group on facebook. They have meetings, a board, get together's etc. They share info on small businesses like you wouldn't believe. If you are in good with the mom's you have tons of business. You get on the wrong side of the mom's you may as well close shop and leave Dallas.

damn, that's crazy

[Baron Von Crowder]

man, that's kinda a tough one, especially using a performance shop as your barometer.

Until there are fewer good stories than bad, I think they will keep on trucking.

[Rreemo]

I never did any business with Travis, but I sold him a bunch of parts a long time ago...like before he opened GH. What happened with you?

I had a terrible experience years ago with Newstalgia Wheel, and I posted about it on the pro-touring forum. One of their guys tried to post a rebuttal which contained some outright lies on their end, and they were caught in those lies as well. Most everyone sided with me on the situation, including the forum moderators, and they eventually locked the thread...but they let it stand for others to see. I later received an email from a moderator letting me know that Newstalgia was asking them to delete the thread, and apparently even tried to force their hand a bit, unsuccessfully. David Coker called me personally about a year later, with some BS about trying to let bygones be bygones, and he too was asking me to delete that thread, b/c it was said to be hurting their business. I straight told him that they had their chance to make it right, and instead chose to fuck me....so basically fuck you!

Funny thing, I eventually got a call from some douchebag claiming to be an attorney representing them...telling me that they were getting a cease and desist order, would sue me for slander, etc, etc. Was apparently some sort of scare tactic I suppose, and I told the guy to go eat a bag of dicks (literally).

In the end, it didn't put them out of business, but it apparently damned sure hurt their business. I heard from numerous guys that were looking at their wheels, but had seen my thread, and wanted to get more info from me. I even heard from Wheel Vintiques as one of their vendors.

[mstng86]

It makes or breaks small business in Forney. Most of the neighborhoods have Facebook pages and talk about the new businesses opening. They can be brutally announced but can be also very supportive.

It seems like one bad day for a new restaurant can really meltdown a business.

[Scott Mc]

It will destroy as stated. I know of a Diesel shop that is imploding because of word of mouth.

[Baron Von Crowder]

I never did any business with Travis, but I sold him a bunch of parts a long time ago...like before he opened GH. What happened with you?

I had a terrible experience years ago with Newstalgia Wheel, and I posted about it on the pro-touring forum. One of their guys tried to post a rebuttal which contained some outright lies on their end, and they were caught in those lies as well. Most everyone sided with me on the situation, including the forum moderators, and they eventually locked the thread...but they let it stand for others to see. I later received an email from a moderator letting me know that Newstalgia was asking them to delete the thread, and apparently even tried to force their hand a bit, unsuccessfully. David Coker called me personally about a year later, with some BS about trying to let bygones be bygones, and he too was asking me to delete that thread, b/c it was said to be hurting their business. I straight told him that they had their chance to make it right, and instead chose to fuck me....so basically fuck you!

Funny thing, I eventually got a call from some douchebag claiming to be an attorney representing them...telling me that they were getting a cease and desist order, would sue me for slander, etc, etc. Was apparently some sort of scare tactic I suppose, and I told the guy to go eat a bag of dicks (literally).

In the end, it didn't put them out of business, but it apparently damned sure hurt their business. I heard from numerous guys that were looking at their wheels, but had seen my thread, and wanted to get more info from me. I even heard from Wheel Vintiques as one of their vendors.

according to my attorney™ it would be libel, slander is spoken...

[Big A]

I think it also depends on the nature of the business, talk all the shit you want about Walmart, they aren't going anywhere.

[mardyn]

one person bad mouthing a business does more harm than ten people giving positive responses/reviews.

Your reputation is everything in a (small) service based business.

Protect it as if your livelihood depends on it... because it does.

mardyn

[BLAKE]

Performance shops are tough because there's a giant grey area where a customer can blame a shop for parts failure that isn't the shop's fault. All I know is that I dropped off a car that was running crappy and a couple days later I got it back with a killer tune, running great and Travis was cool about the whole process.

[fordracing19]

That's the thing about Facebook. We have a very active page but every once in a while someone didn't get the service they thought they should get and start ranting like crazy.

[jammeejamm]

hennessey is still in business. all i ever heard is bad about them.

the place called bonefish grille in allen has nothing but bad reviews, but every time my wife and i are there it is full of people. the food is really good so far, and have yet to be let down. but all they have is negative stuff on the interwebs.

[Baron Von Crowder]

It seems like the only people that "take to the streets" to give reviews are bad ones.

To add to that, I placed a to-go order at hooters a few months back, and the guy that both took my order and helped me when I picked it up had a great attitude, and really went over and above on what I was expecting. This dude was on it, and it left an impression on me. I went to facebook, thier website, etc to give him the attaboy, and never saw any reply at all. Hopefully he got notified at the store level.