Wednesday 15 February 2012

Accusations, lies and subterfuge!


We received an e-mail yesterday from another company offering musical classes for the very young (like ‘Bestbeans’) who were warning of a person pretending to be from the local authority asking to visit classes who then turned out to be a competitor basically ‘spying’. This hadn’t happened to us, but one of our teachers knew the individual ‘accused’ and was absolutely certain that the allegations were false. There followed a series of e-mails to and from where we tried to broker some kind of peace and things seem to have been resolved.
This unfortunate episode brought a number of issues to mind:-

Firstly, the accusations were broadcast not only by email, but also through NetMums. Potentially this could have destroyed the accused person’s business for absolutely no reason at all, and with no possibility of comment prior to publication. At worst it was libellous, at the very least ill-advised but the Internet makes it so easy to fall foul. In the old days you’d rant to a friend over the phone – nowadays you go straight to a forum and pour out your unfiltered angst. TripAdvisor has recently been in the centre of a similar debate – what is there to stop ill-founded or totally fabricated opinions receiving tacit legitimacy through established websites? (I do like TripAdvisor though...)

Secondly, isn’t it sad that a business based on developing the very youngest children and supporting parents is dragged into the realms of industrial espionage? Is it really that difficult to find out about how to structure such classes without allegedly resorting to underhand tactics? It doesn’t speak well of our business.
Thirdly, how frail is a business delivering service to the very young. Your reputation is everything and a single false allegation can do lasting and irreparable damage. It’s enough to give you sleepless nights.

Anyway, I’m off to don a false moustache and beard and to try to get in to one of Top Hat’s classes posing as a 7 year old. What could possibly go wrong?

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I saw your blog regarding Netmums, and I just wanted comment on it as as well as being a Mum of a little girls at your classes I also work for Netmums, so I couldn't ignore your post what are the chances eh.

    I've worked for them for the last few years after having my second child my old company wanted me back all or nothing, so Netmums offered me a much needed flexible role, in the business area of the site (I don't work on the content or editorial side, nor am I a spokesperson for the company just a mum...).

    As a bit of background I used to work with the Founder of Netmums before she left our old company to have a baby and then subsequently started Netmums. She started it after getting postnatal depression and after seeing two other mums in similar situations they started Netmums as a way of networking with other mums. 10 years ago there was little or no information or networking opportunities for mums out there so they created a website to do this.

    Netmums employ health visitors, midwives charity workers and provide invaluable advice on their forums for mums (and dads) that desperately need help.

    The local information is provided by members, businesses can own their own listing but the reviews are uploaded by members. Personally I think as parents its so useful to get feedback and reviews on places, our children's happiness is in other peoples hands so its very important.

    The other forums are a way of members (real ones)…. to talk and discuss with other mums.
    They do have many rules and regulations on their site about posting and so I'm surprised something offensive got through, though it is also helpful for members and business owners to report offensive or posts that are bogus so Netmums can deal with them.

    I have looked through all the drama listings and I can't find any bad reviews (only very good ones, see your link with the most....) so I think it must be a forum you are talking about and I can't see anything bad on there either?

    http://www.netmums.com/westherts/local/view/after-school-activities/drama/best-theatre-arts

    Please can I ask you email the post you are talking about to our customer services on contactus@netmums.com (or me and I'll forward it) and please cc me and they will deal with it. They have a large number of scenarios to deal with this sort of thing and I'm sure will handle it if the post is incorrect, offensive or libelous.

    As I said I'm not a spokesperson for Netmums but I hope my comments give some sort of understanding of the website and what they do and please do email them if you feel comment on their site are incorrect.

    ps i look forward to seeing you in your beard and false moustache at class!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for that, Karen. Just for the record we are big NetMums fans!

    I was making the point (perhaps badly) that user generated content is always a minefield but at least NetMums moderates and responds - as you have just proven!

    ReplyDelete