Do You Follow Yourself On The Wedding Boards?
Business By Tellis12 Updated 2 Jun 2010 , 6:27pm by costumeczar
I was just wondering if any of you follow business on the wedding board conversations, like theknot.com. I check every now and then to see what people have said. It made me realize I lost one wedding that had booked because I forgot to email her back (she was super anal retentive about everything so I'm not really sorry about that one). But it's just interesting to see what people are saying. Does anyone else do this and what do you get from it?
I usually don't because it causes too much grief. A lot of the brides on The Knot seem to bash businesses and want something for nothing. However, I had a gut instict this past weekend and went onto The Knot's board for my area. A bride I did a consult with was badmouthing my business. The original poster was going to contact us didn't because of this other bride.
The poster asked if anyone had done business with me because she had heard good things. The bride I did a consult with said that a friend of hers also had a consult with us and had a "bad experience". So bad that the bride ended up going with Publix and her wedding planner will no longer refer my business. WTH?!!! 
She went on to say that we indicated that we have never delivered a cake late (which we haven't) and then misquoted and misreprented my contract stating that we would not provide compensation if we were late. 
I recall the consult with this bride, and I got a bad feeling from the time she walked in the door. During the entire consult, she obsessed about the cake being late and only wanted to discuss what type of compensation she would receive if it was late. She didn't care about our track record, and I felt like she was trying to set me up. It was obvious she was looking for a baker to get a free cake by providing an erroneous start time.
As for her friend, I have no idea who or what she could be talking about. I book nearly 100% of my consultations, and go out of my way for each bride. How in the world could a bride have such a bad experience at a consultation? I would think I would remember something so bad and would do everything in my power to rectify something a bride perceived as "bad".
Sorry so long...lol. Anyway, what would you do under these types of circumstances? I regret going to the board, but at the same time I'm glad I know what this bride is up to. She isn't getting married until April of 2011. I wonder if she's going to be bashing my business every chance she gets for the next 10 months on The Knot board.
I check the boards to see what people are saying, you'd be foolish if you didn't. If you get consistently similar reviews that can be very valuable information. If something is totally off, you can usually have the board remove it. I had one girl give me a review that was obviously intended for someone else, since she'd never come to see me for a tasting, and the knot removed it when I complained.
How do you contact The Knot to have something removed? I tried sending a private message to the moderator, but it wouldn't let me.
I also like WeddingWire. Not only do you get reviews from brides, but other vendors can endorse you.
Wedding Wire has recently started advertising other bakers on your page, though, unless you pay them to have that removed.
To write to the Knot direcctly, use their contact link at the bottom of the page. Don't go through the board moderators, because they recently switched to a system of having former brides in each area moderate the boards, and they're not really Knot employees. If you write to the corporate people and tell them that their policy of leaving bad reviews up without giving the vendors recourse to reply doesn't make you want to advertise with them, they'll take the comments down pretty fast.
This may be a dumb question, but...
I recently joined The Knot, how do I search myself on the message boards?
I haven't had a lot of luck using their search function. You would probably be able to find any posts about you if you find the local board for your area, then just bookmark that. Brides go on the local boards to ask for referrals, etc. (Their questions usually start with "who's the cheapest baker in town?" 
)
It's funny that you asked this. I've been thinking about advertising at some point on some of the wedding websites, so I went poking around recently. It was interesting to see what brides say about people. I think some comments about some of the otehrs in my area were spot on, given what I know about them. It was good to hlep me think about how I want to run my business.
It's funny that you asked this. I've been thinking about advertising at some point on some of the wedding websites, so I went poking around recently. It was interesting to see what brides say about people. I think some comments about some of the otehrs in my area were spot on, given what I know about them. It was good to hlep me think about how I want to run my business.
I've seen a lot of reviews that were totally off, based on what I know, though. I had one florist I know who was being skewered by a girl who hadn't even had an appointment with her, she was jsut mad that the florist wouldn't do five different sample bouquets to her specifications, so she went online and made stuff up. That's just the one example that came to mind right away, but I know of others, too.
The problem that I have with advertising on those sites is that they rarely give the professionals a way to respond to bad reviews, even if they're like the situation above. If a pro posts on the boards the moderators will take the post down. I don't feel like giving my money to sites that are so anti-advertiser, when it comes down to it.
I did advertise on the knot when they first came to my area, but I got no business from it at all. They did give me a really hard time when I cancelled the ad, though, and told me all kinds of statistics about how many people were coming to my site from theirs, etc etc. I have my own site statistics, and I know that what they were telling me wasn't true, so I wasn't too happy about that, either. Other people have had success with them, so I think it depends on where you're located, to a certain extent.
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