Deciphering Online Reviews

{People don't hate us on yelp. I just want to clarify!}

Looking to third party sites for reviews about vendors is smart. You can see the unfiltered true feedback from past clients. But, what if you see a bunch of positive remarks and there are a few irritated clients in the mix? Who do you believe?

Keep in mind that businesses, especially service related businesses, are run by humans. Imperfect humans. We've even had the few and far between unhappy client. Sometimes it's an off day, sometimes factors out of a company's control effect its performance, and sometimes you just can't please a person.

So, how do you use these reviews to your benefit?

My recommendation is, when calling up your chosen company or venue, refer to the positive reviews, but also some of the negative comments you saw and ask what the company learned from that situation and how they've improved since then.

Pay attention to how a company responds.

Endless excuses are a red flag.

If it was only the client's fault and never the company's, this is not a good sign. A good service based company should always recognize where it could improve. In one of our "negative review" scenarios, the client's friend was Day of Coordinating. Her inexperience was a large source of the conflict, but we performed the job to the best of our ability. How we could have improved the situation was by setting better expectations with the "coordinator" as well as communicated our staying-late policy in advance. Since this experience, we try to lay out exactly what we're expecting our job to be on site as well as explaining our operational policies to not only the client, but the acting coordinator. No surprises = happy client!

Can they guarantee this won't happen to you?

If something goes wrong, what will they do for you? A company that believes in its service should be able to guarantee its quality. Ask what would happen if your expectations aren't met.


The moral of this story is to pay attention to reviews, but don't let a few negative comments deter you without asking the company about it first. You might find what went wrong with that particular client wouldn't even apply to your event. Call with questions and you should get a good feeling either way after speaking with the company in question.