How To Protect Your Online Reputation From A Disgruntled Employee
April 22nd, 2009 • Posted by Ana Loiselle-Donahue • Permalink
These days you can bet your bottom dollar that most business transactions are preceded by some sort of a search on one of the major search engines for your company name. If those results don't show your company in a positive light, then you are likely losing business.
In the past, unhappy former employees might have sent a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, or complained loudly to their neighbors. With the widespread availability and expansive reach of the Internet, however, they have a much more effective and invasive method for ruining your business’ reputation.
So, it is definitely a no-brainer that you should do your best not to ruin your reputation across the virtual world. But how do you prevent a disgruntled employee from going out and writing/posting negative comments about you or your salon/spa on the Internet? – by instituting a Non-disparagement Clause into your employee contract.
Simply put, a Non-disparagement Clause prevents present or past employees from criticizing an employing organization in public. Non-disparagement clauses are a relatively new type of agreement and have arisen primarily to prevent employees putting comments about their employing organization onto the Internet. Non-disparagement clauses can be a tool to "manage" information flow from employees who may be upset that they were terminated. Further, the non-disparagement clause should clearly extend to all forms of communication, including e-mails, chat rooms, instant messaging and all other forms of electronic communication.
Finally, employers should remember the importance of disciplining and terminating employees with fairness and honesty. An employee who is given opportunities to improve her performance, a thoughtful and honest explanation of why she was not a good fit for the company, and assistance in transitioning is much less likely to resort to such extreme and destructive behavior.
As always, seeking some type of legal guidance is recommended before implementing changes to any agreements that your company may use.
With almost 10 years experience in new business start-ups and transformations, Ana Loiselle-Donahue is a specialist in finding new sources of revenue and growth for companies of all sizes. She founded theSECRET in 2004 to help businesses flourish through creative — and powerful — new solutions; including brand development, strategic financial planning and employee training. Mrs. Loiselle-Donahue can be reached at 866.288.7353 or Ana@TheSecretConsultant.com Check out her Blog!
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nice. thanks for the great tip. we're opening up a new location and we'll have new staff contracts to think about. this will certainly go into it. cheers!
Great suggestion. Do you have some sample language? Thanks!
This is great information. Thank you. It has been an interesting 18 years of being in business. Today is a different time and the internet is quite a dangerous place whether it is a disgruntled employee or a client that has had a bad day and you become the outlet for them. We had a staff member that went online and her and a friend placed false accusations and horrific comments to damage my business. When you spend so much time in dedicating yourself to your business it is shameful that more online companies like Citysearch and Yelp do not assist you, the small business. I predict that these disgruntled clients and staff will be the demise of small business. Soon you will see small service oriented businesses closing and it will be a self fulfilling proficy that thse same people will not have a job nor will they have quality businesses to patronize. You see it happening already today. I think consumers forget that small business brings taxes to the town, donations to their schools and support financially to their community. These online companies that post remarks will say to you that people going online will know whether or not the comments are true and that is a bunch of you know what! When a new client seeks out a business they have never been to they don't know the integrity of your business and one remark can sway anyone; we are all human and we always wonder why or we may have doubt. It is hard to read in between the lines. We have such a remarkable reputation that it is not uncommon a client reads something online and will then write a comment to support us, but you cannot rely on that. As a business that has lived this situation, I thank you for sharing this information and it concerns me my lawyer has not brought this to my attention.
Thank you very much, I think very highly of SpaBoom for your software and your education and that you do not charge for your webinars!
OMG! I could kiss the April 27th reply! That is so true, I thought I was the only one really dealing with this situation. Problem is we do have a disclaimer in our contract. However like yelp and citysearch they can not prove who it is because they can come up with a new email just by typing in a random .com, We had to go so far as write an apology letter to a past employee even though she stole thousands from us. She did not stop blogging us for 2 years, and we could not prove it was her. So we wrote the apology letter to her with the hopes she would stop. Well it did not work! So great idea however… can you prove it? Places like Citysearch need to make it harder to write reviews at the very least make them have to verify the email address before they can write anything.
I agree with Kim. I do not feel that the contract will work. A disgruntled employee will not use there real name, they will use a fake name. Yelp.com is not supportive at all with the removal of untrue negative reviews.
The law in this area is still evolving, and employers are still trying to ascertain what rights they have to protect themselves and their current employees.
If you want to give such an agreement a try, Wayne A. Hersh, labor attorney for Berger Kahn in Irvine, Calif., suggests that you make the agreement mutual. Your company won't give out anything but confirmation that the employee once worked there; in return, the employee agrees to be equally discreet.
Hersh also advises that if you're paying out last paychecks, do so in periodic payments. Should the employee breach the agreement, he says, stop payment. That puts the burden on the employee to prove that he didn't break the contract.
Your Salon/Spa should also carefully monitor any actions taken or emails sent by the ex-employee to see if the person makes any false statements, either in an email or elsewhere on the Internet, that could be the basis for a defamation claim.
REMEMBER: The information contained in my article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember your state laws may differ from the federal law.
If you need legal advice you can contact my office at 866.288.7353
Kim, it is always nice to know we are not alone but I will share with you that as a business owner for 20 years in this industry and coming out of a very strong business field previous to my endeavor in spa, it is our own fault for what has transpired with employees (contractors or renters). The lack of structure that exists in our industry and the professionalism of managing our staff is truly where the blame needs to be placed. When I opened my business I introduced myself to the surrounding spa owners and asked to meet and form an alliance. They could not have been colder. If we all strengthened our relationships as salon owners and raised the bar we would limit some of these issues with staff.
You are absolutely correct with Citysearch and Yelp. They need to step up their process of confirming e-mails and making certain the reviews are not grossly damaging to businesses. In the day and age of security and identity being breached as well as false profiles being established it is hard to put controls in place. What is amazing is that we pay these services and they do not work with us when there is an blatant review that we can show is done with malice. I have started a blog with the intention to have a voice online! Don't forget that you also have a voice by giving a reply to the comments and always be kind & considerate even when the comment is over the top.
Kim, I wish you success and that this situation never repeats itself. Ana, thank you kindly for your post, most informative. I realize laws are different from state to state and I never take information to heart without double checking with my lawyer.
Kind Regards,
Dawn
With CitySearch and Yelp (and many other review sites that can show up in the search results for your business name) they don't really seem to care if the reviews are defamatory or libelous. They want to get people onto their sites who will see their ads. We had a problem with absurd, horrific reviews about fictional events posted to our Yelp profile. We wrote several emails to Yelp and they basically said if you can't prove it they can't do anything about it. Well you usually can't prove the negative. To their credit the negative reviews (eventually) disappeared — along with our positive reviews.
The ONLY thing you can do is drown out the false reviews with positive, real reviews. When happy clients are leaving your store encourage them to write reviews about you. Print up cards asking that they review you on Yelp, CitySearch, etc. with instructions on how to do it and hand the cards out as they leave.