What I have come to realize after years of managing customer reviews

As an employee who previously worked in customer service and continuous to interact and monitor customer behavior through social media and review avenues such as Yelp.com, I have noticed a trend in humanity that is quite disappointing.

We currently live in a world where crime, poverty and uncertainty are clearly on the rise. Whether forced by circumstance or natural behavior, more and more people are driven by greed and seem to only look out for themselves and those they hold dear. 

The trend I have spotted in recent years is that most people will take the time to sign up to 5 different review sites solely to complain about one single grievance they had with a given company. The severity threshold per instance varies greatly in these instances. Sometimes the issue they had is petty and other times the issue they had was quite severe. Whether the issue is big or small the likely hood of someone taking the time to bash a business is far greater than the contrary.


What I have come to realize is this; people are far more likely to negatively review a company than to give praise. While it does not take a genius to figure this out a big question that haunts me (and continues to haunt me to this very day) is why?


Is it because humanity is inherently negative and evil? Is it because customers expect anyone they do business with to be of the highest quality and that no mistakes should be made? It it plausible for anyone in this day and age to expect excellence from all employees they come across in business? Even when they themselves cannot be bothered to leave reviews for the same company if the service rendered was above what they expected?

It makes sense right? How can one expect a company or service to avoid all mistakes and treat them like royalty when they themselves cannot be bothered to take the time to spread something positive about the company when they are left satisfied? Again, we live in a day and age where CEO’s and upper management make hundreds of times more salary than their ground level employees. In my opinion I find it far more noteworthy if a minimum wage employee has a smile on their face and serves me with the utmost care and respect versus the employee that simply despises their job and wants you to know about it.

The point I am trying to make is that I believe people expect excellence in a society where injustice and poverty keeps human beings employed in the same dead end jobs they took years ago. I am not trying to say that some negative reviews I see are unjust. There are many valid complaints and reviews all over the internet that companies should take heed too and make right. My only hope is that people would open their eyes and their hearts so that they can truly appreciate kindness and wonderful service when it is rendered.

If you are someone who only logs into Yelp to complain about a service, try to be mindful of these words as you go about your daily life. If you go out and receive great service, find the initiative to want to log on to Yelp and write about it. Share how the employee made you feel, share how excellent your meal was, share tales of the different lands you visited while renting the car of your dreams. Not only will this help spread positivity in a world that is severely deficient in vitamin P, it will actually make you feel good.

Focusing on negatives alone will undoubtedly bring you down. While negativity is surely unavoidable in this life, make sure you combat the negativity trolls with positivity on a daily basis. Whether that means smiling at people you come across, helping someone in need, or simply writing a review only to give praise; take the plunge and make it a habit. I positively guarantee you will thank yourself sooner rather than later for the shift in consciousness.