This is a guest post by Becky Clawson.

Peter Spellman of Music Business Solutions talks about the impact of negative word of mouth in his latest newsletter:

I listened to a story on NPR this afternoon about the negative impact of bad word-of-mouth. Very scary. The basis for the article comes from research by the Wharton School of Business. They found that 1 out of 2 customers has a customer service problem when they shop. Worse is the fact that they then tell friends, family, and colleagues about it and embellish the story in the retelling. The overall result is that 1/2 of those that hear the bad news story won’t shop at those places they heard about. Ouch! Those that improve on the situation certainly create a business advantage.

This is so true–at least as far as I can relate. Last summer, my hard drive crashed, and after searching the Web for a nearby certified store, I found a shop and took it in for repair. They were friendly, informative, and timely in their turnaround. Great. But a few months ago, my hard drive crashed again, and this time, I asked my peers where they recommend. I told them about my prior visit to the local repair shop–no complaints to speak of–but everyone I talked to insisted that I definitely should not bring it back to Shop A. “They’re terrible. They’re always messing things up. Everyone knows that. Go to Shop B.” And so even though I had no bad experiences with the Shop A, I went to Shop B because I trusted that their bad reports were legitimate, and I just didn’t want to take a chance that I might suffer the same. Am I any better off? Who knows. Shop B did an adequate job, so I’m no worse off.

It’s totally possible Shop A is not at all a poor repair store. Maybe these bad reviews came from people who blatently mishandled their computers and refused to carry the blame. But if I had to choose again, I’d go back to Shop B. Why? Because they followed up with me after my repairs to ask me how satisfied I was. They wanted my feedback, good or bad, so they could improve their customer experience. And that meant a lot to me.

But this model doesn’t apply only to retail. It digs much deeper, into many parts of our lives. You can see the effect negative reporting has on our current political campaign. Media’s excessive negative scrutiny is creating extreme skepticism of the presidential candidates and creating an environment more focused on petty criticisms than real solutions. And as is usually the case, these negative claims are blown far out of proportion and are often taken for truth without question and without reflection on their sources–the media outlets themselves. In a struggle for viewers and ratings, negativity has become a tool that hurts everyone by breaking down trust and unity. And it still spreads from there. I know people who support a certain candidate not because they are well-informed and support that candidate’s message but because their friends or parents support that candidate. It’s scary to think that even the future of our country lies not in facts but in word-of-mouth–negative and positive.

And what about music? How often have you not bothered to even give a first listen to a particular band because someone you know hates them and so you assume they must be terrible? I have dozens–if not hundreds–of times. Did you stop to remind yourself that what’s good for one isn’t necessarily for another? “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure?”

Not all products meet everyone’s needs. In fact, that’s the first thing you learn in a marketing class: find your audience because when you try to appeal to everyone, you please no one. But sometimes, it’s hard not to get sucked into popular opinion. Negative reviews spread like wildfire, especially with so many Internet outlets to voice one’s complaints. So rarely do people critically analyze negative feedback for truth; they often take it at face value, assuming it to be true. And that harms both the consumer and the distributor.

So what can we do to prevent the spread of unnecessarily negative word-of-mouth? Well, distributors can “nip this in the bud”, so to speak. Training their staff to collect feedback to make positive changes, offering corrective services at no cost, and even something as small as an apology can make a huge difference in a consumer’s experience. A complaint like “they totally messed up my order by charging me for something I didn’t buy–and then they refunded the money, the store manager apologized, and they gave me store credit” doesn’t get very far.

And consumers can stop this epidemic by questioning the source of the complaint; finding out all the circumstances; asking what was done to correct the problem. We may be surprised to find we’re not always getting the full story, and it doesn’t hurt to let the complainer know you feel this way. This also applies to media consumers. Let media outlets know you don’t care who accidentally said what, who smoked pot once in high school, or how a candidate’s old acquaintance thinks we should handle our problems. Question the source, and if you don’t approve of the negativity, let them know.

When producers/distributors and consumers can both focus on the root of the problem at hand, we regain trust and work toward real solutions. Everyone wins.

In what instances have you heard negative remarks on a store, news medium, band, technology company, music venue, etc. and decided not to buy their “product” based on word of mouth alone? Is peer review important in your consumption habits? Leave me your feedback.