Handle comments about your business

Consumers prefer doing business with companies they trust – and they use the Internet to find them.

What does this mean for you? It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and hop online to monitor the conversation and engage with customers.

Pete Blackshaw, president of the board of directors of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and a consumer-generated-media guru, knows first-hand the power of consumer messages. In his book “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends. Angry Customers Tell 3,000,” Blackshaw writes of three truths:

1. Businesses no longer hold absolute sway over the decisions and behaviors of consumers.
2. The longer companies refuse…