Our Blog: where do you stand?

What Were You Thinking?

By: Loren Wassell | 01/28/2009

If you're concerned about reputation management, it's a nightmare.  One of your employees seems to have been soliciting phony, favorable reviews on the Internet.  Not surprisingly, he's been caught and outed.  Your credibility is on the line.

That appears to be what happened to Belkin, according to an expose by Arlen Parsa on The Daily Background.  He said:   

I know I usually don’t write about consumer advocacy stuff, but I came across this just recently and it’s pretty beyond the pale and I couldn’t let it go without blogging about it.

I found Parsa's carefully documented story through a later reference on The Inquirer.  Why would someone do such a thing?  Anyone who'd see the request could blow the whistle, and you don't need much experience with issues management to realize that the stain of "raver-gate" will obliterate any positives from the fake reviews.  Credibility is trump. 

Belkin's president, Mark Reynoso, is doing what he can to remedy the situation.  His letter of apology went up on the company's Web site two days after Parsa's report -- dated on a Sunday -- and he pledged to try to expunge any fake reviews out there.  Here's an excerpt:

Belkin does not participate in, nor does it endorse, unethical practices like this. We know that people look to online user reviews for unbiased opinions from fellow users and instances like this challenge the implicit trust that is placed in this interaction. We regard our responsibility to our user community as sacred, and we are extremely sorry that this happened.

As the story rippled through other sites, Parsa said the attention swamped his server for a time and the original post has collected nearly 200 comments.  Meanwhile, Belkin has been in touch with Parsa directly and has posted updates on its corporate site to say the company is still investigating. 

You wish these things wouldn't happen.  But when someone in your organization does something that makes you wonder what they were thinking -- or if they were thinking -- you need to be thinking about how to stand up, apologize and set things straight.  A forthright response can undo some of the damage, and show where you really stand. 

Posted in Brand Positioning, Digital Communications, Issues and Crisis Management, Public Relations, Reputation Management