The “Damaging” Power Of Social Media

Wow.  Just wow.

On Tuesday, I saw a post on Facebook about an employee at a local bakery who denied service to a blind woman with a service dog.  If you’re a business owner, you know you can’t deny someone who has a service dog.  Where ever the human goes the dog is allowed to go.

Within 24 hours, the bakery had over 600 negative reviews on Facebook all saying not to shop there and telling of the story of what happened (most from people who have never-EVER been to this bakery).

Many mean posts saying they hope the business gets shut down, fined, employee fired, blah blah blah.

As it turns out, the employee who denied the service dog was an elderly woman who just didn’t know.  Sounds like an honest mistake… a BIG honest mistake.

Which, in turn, has made her lose her job and lost customers to the bakery.  Ouch.

Luckily, for the bakery, a lot of customers came to their defense and said how great the bakery is and how great the employees are and not to banish them because of one simple mistake.  Also, many customers asking to re-hire the employee.

Unluckily… some current customers said they’ll never be back because they pulled the trigger too fast with firing the employee, which they believe to be an honest mistake and the employee gave a public apology.

It’s just amazing how much power social media has.  There’s a lot of good, but I just thought I’d share the “damaging” power of social media.

One wrong turn and all hell could break loose.

Like they say… every time someone has a good experience at a business they may tell a friend or two.  But someone who has a bad experience will tell the whole world.

Can’t please everybody.

And, there is an old saying, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

I’m going to continue to watch this bakery and see how they do.  So, maybe I’ll come on here with a follow up someday!

Oh, and one final thought.  Don’t be so quick to pass judgment.  Wait until all the facts come in before you decide to judge.