Combating Negative Resume Client Reviews Online

What do you do about clients who post negative things about your service online? Today's Q&A with Bridget addresses that topic.

In July, the special report, teleseminar, and Pass-Along Materials on BeAResumeWriter.com addressed working with challenging (or pain-in-the-a$$) clients. You can check them out in this Working With Difficult Clients bundle.

I received the following question from a resume writer about clients who disparage you online:

Bridget,

Ever consider writing materials about how to handle PITA clients that give you scathing reviews because they want to showboat their frustration and anger?

The bad review I got from the one guy even went to the Better Business Bureau. As a result of his review, my last 7 thumbtack bids have been declined before they even consider me. for Yelp, I had 24 views and only 2 clicks to my website or calls.

Last night I decided to delete both profiles, which I'll do today. They weren't producing anyway, so why double the whammy with a negative reviews? Plus I had four positive reviews immediately following this bad one and Thumbtack said I could post them there. They did, but Thumbtack won't publish them because they aren't Thumbtack clients, so these four fabulous reviews are lost.  They could have bolstered Yelp, but Yelp has a bad reputation anyway.

I'm going to restart my blog and do my own marketing. I may switch gears from resume writing or expand it. Either way, how to handle a disgruntled client with a bad review is different in many ways from a PITA client. You might consider what to do about it. Especially when you send them the Client Release Form informing them you can sue for disparagement, but there's enough truth in there that you might lose the disparagement case. I'm still thinking about it. 

My response:

Great idea! I will add that to my possible topics list for a future special report.

Online reputation management for resume writers is handled in much the same way we suggest it for jobseekers! YOU control your brand identity and reputation online by creating POSITIVE content so that NEGATIVE content is pushed further down the page. 

When I Google YOU, I should see:

• A "complete" LinkedIn profile (with glowing Recommendations from happy clients)

• Testimonials and samples on your website that showcase happy clients and your best work

• Articles (or blog posts) that demonstrate your competency and expertise

Right now, Yelp and Thumbtack are showing up on the first page of your Google search results -- but unfortunately, I don't think that deleting your Yelp or Thumback profiles will eliminate them entirely (AND deleting them eliminates your opportunity to respond to clients -- both negative AND positive) ... so I would instead make a concerted effort to INCREASE your positive reviews on both sites, while simultaneously REDUCING your dependence on both of them as sources of new clients (Thumbtack in particular).

Thumbtack is the equivalent of our jobseeking clients applying for jobs online. It can work, but it's not a great strategy ... you are at the whim of the person at the other end of the keyboard.

However, for Thumbtack, go through your client database and look for clients who found you through the service -- and were HAPPY -- and ask them to write a review for you.

If you decide to continue writing resumes, the most important things for you to do are:

1. Standardize your client management process so that all clients have the same intake policy (and you don't make *exceptions* for clients -- as you found out with [client name redacted], that is a RED FLAG for a potential PITA client). They either work with you the way YOU want to, or you don't work with them. AND you need to make sure you meet 100% of client deadlines going forward, because that's critical.

2. TAKE CONTROL of your client marketing. In addition to boosting your positive responses on Yelp and Thumbtack, increase the content you have available out there that YOU control. Posting regularly on Facebook, adding at least one blog post a week, writing articles for third-party sites (these have to be UNIQUE content) like Ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, etc.

You also need to figure out who your IDEAL client is, and identify how to connect with these folks. 

I've attached the "Attract Your Ideal Resume Client" special report (that was your Bronze member special report in April 2014) and I encourage you to work through it!

Hope that helps!!

Bridget

New Twist for Job-Seeking Clients: Social Media Background Check

Every once in a while, I'd have a client who was having success getting interviews (even second interviews), but wasn't getting the job. After investigating to see if the problem was how he or she interviewed, sometimes it was clear that something was sabotaging the process between the interview and the offer ... and sometimes that was a bad reference.

Usually, the way we found out about this was to use a reference-checking service. The client would engage the firm, and the firm would call the client's references and pretend to be a prospective employer verifying information. 

The results were sometimes shocking -- the former boss who promised a great recommendation started out by praising my client, but made several backhanded comments that would put doubts in the mind of any prospective employer. Almost as bad were references who had promised to vouch for the candidate, but when asked, wouldn't give information beyond "name, rank, and serial number" (understandable if the company policy prohibited providing more than that information ... but telling the former employee one thing and then doing another isn't helpful...).

Now, our clients have to be concerned about social media background checks. Now, any resume writer worth his or her salt tells their clients "What happens on the Internet DOES NOT stay on the Internet" -- but every day on Facebook, I still see things that make me cringe. 

Even if you have your privacy settings locked down, the background checks will still find stuff... you're probably not as protected as you think you are.

For an introduction to the social media background check, read this article on Gizmodo. It's eye-opening stuff ... but with some good hints to pass along to our clients.

First of all, the author notes that these checks screen for just a handful of things: aggressive or violent acts or assertions, unlawful activity, discriminatory activity (for example, making racist statements), and sexually explicit activity.

But more importantly, he notes how candidates can minimize the digital dirt that is unearthed about them:

It only uses the data an employer gives it to run a search. This tends to be standard issue information from your resume. Your name, your university, your email address and physical location. Which means that, ultimately, you are the one supplying all the data for a background check. Because you are the one who supplies that data to your employer. And that means you should be smart about what kinds of contact information you put on your resume.

Great advice -- including the suggestion that most of us give to clients already -- to start a fresh e-mail address that they use for their job search only. Just another thing to think about when giving clients advice about online reputation management.

Online Reptutation Management

I was inspired by a post on Kirsten Dixson's Facebook profile, where she talked about "smart" businesspeople airing their political views. Having a bachelor's degree in journalism, my professors frequently reminded us of the need to keep our personal views private. But in today's online age, I find that many people aren't paying attention to that.

As I blogged about a few weeks ago, I've joined Facebook. It's addictive... that's for sure ... and part of the appeal is getting to know even more about the family, friends, and colleagues who post about their lives online.

But there is a definite negative to having an online persona. Just recently, one of my former clients lost her job because of things she had posted on her Facebook profile. A former newswoman in Omaha lost her job last year because of a photo on her Facebook page showing her with her arm around a local politician.

Caution your clients to be careful about what they post about themselves online. Spotlighting their political affiliations too publicly might get them into trouble. Posting about their weekend exploits (or, worse yet, PHOTOS! of those adventures) can get them into trouble. Remind them that information that they think is private isn't always ... especially online.

And if they're going to continue to showcase themselves online, at least make sure you tell them to keep their resume updated.