Addressing a 23 August MyTravelResearch.com webinar of travel industry leaders, many of them from small businesses, Alyssa Antcliffe, the principal of Antcliffes Legal, told tourism industry leaders and brand managers that having an online presence and being accessible through online platforms is essential in today’s digital world.
The digital economy has been built on ratings and reviews to enable people to ‘window shop’ online. However, it only takes one disgruntled former client or customer to ruin a good reputation by posting negative reviews, no matter how false or misleading that review might be, she said.
Antcliffe added that, usually, what is published online is not intended to be malicious, but is someone’s honestly held opinion.
“In these circumstances, if a comment is substantially true, or represents the honestly held opinion of the reviewer, then a business will have difficulty in bringing a successful defamation claim,” she said.
Antcliffe suggested that if you believe that you or your business is the victim of unfair, untrue and or defamatory remarks as a result of an online review you should act quickly to minimise the damage.
She suggested six strategies designed to help minimise damage and avoid costly legal proceedings:
- Contact the website which has published the review to ask that the material be removed,
- Contact the client or customer who has left the review and try to resolve the issue that has arisen,
- Request that the client or customer remove the review or write a further positive review about the way the issue has been handled and resolved,
