Should you be allowed to complain about businesses online? One man doesn’t think so

IF YOU experience bad service, should you complain about it online? One man doesn’t think so. He’s on a mission to make the internet a nicer place.

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IF YOU experience bad service, should you be allowed to complain about it online? Or is it like your mother always told you — if you can’t say anything nice ...

In a time when anonymous reviews from disgruntled customers can make or break small businesses, one man is on a personal mission to bring some positivity back to the internet.

Paul Ryan, head of marketing company Intouch group and co-founder of the company formerly known as Wizard Home Loans, is the behind a new venture called Kudos2.

It’s an online testimonial service in the vein of UrbanSpoon or Yelp, but with a fairly significant catch — you’re only allowed to post positive feedback.

“Service is subjective,” Mr Ryan explains. “One man’s drink is another man’s poison. What could be good service for you might not be good service for others.”

According to Mr Ryan, sometimes “people have bad days” and while your grievance may be legitimate, it’s unfair to publicly sledge a business without first giving them the opportunity to rectify the issue.

“Today we’re very quick to jump on negativity, but I think we should be rewarding effort. If you post a negative review online, it just breeds more negativity.”

Mr Ryan hopes people will use Kudos2 to share positive service experiences, and others will make their judgement based on the number of recommendations a particular business has.

“Say you wanted to move to Port Macquarie — you’ll need to find a real estate agent, an insurance broker, a dentist, a nice coffee shop,” he says. “We want people to be able to jump on Kudos, type in ‘Port Macquarie’, and see all the businesses that have happy customers.”

Kudos2 wants to make the internet a nicer place.

It all sounds lovely, but it begs a fairly obvious question — what if a business just isn’t up to scratch? Don’t customers have a right to warn off others if they believe they’ll have a bad experience?

“When a customer has a bad experience, they want one of two things — they either want to vent, or they actually want something done about it. If it’s the second one, the best people to speak to are the businesses themselves.”

And if it’s the first one, Mr Ryan would prefer it was done the old-fashioned way — having a whinge to your mates at the BBQ, rather than putting it up on Facebook where thousands of people can potentially see.

“Seventy per cent of people are now researching online and trusting recommendations they find — there’s still Facebook, Yelp and the rest. They can see all the negative reviews there as well, and they’ll make their own decision.”

Kudos2 is only three months old and Mr Ryan isn’t sure when it will turn a profit. Around three hundred businesses have been given ‘Kudos’, and the site has around 200 registered users.

“There are 1.4 million businesses out there with fewer than four employees. These are businesses that don’t have huge marketing budgets, so the question is how do they get themselves known in the wider community?”

Should people keep their negativity to themselves, or does poor service need to be called out? Leave your comments below or email the writer at [e-mail]

Originally published as Should you be allowed to complain about businesses online? One man doesn’t think so