31/07/2024
Hellooooo! šš»
I just wanted to come on and apologise for my quietness on here lately and to address a bit of drama thatās went on these past few days in the background
Iām not really someone who likes to give too much of my headspace to negativity or nonsense but when it comes to your livelihood and your little business itās very hard to not take things personally and let them bother you, and I didnāt think Iād want to talk about this on here but after speaking to a few fellow self employed friends I think itās important to talk about this particular topic
A lot of you will know I use Facebook as my primary business platform and put a lot of effort into making it a nice little page to follow and I really do try to keep it light and jokey, itās a reflection of me, my professionalism and my personality at the end of the day. Itās a safe space and once someone threatens that safe space theyāre swiftly removed and blocked
Which is exactly what happened on Monday
After posting a picture of my pack of dogs after their walk with my work van on Sunday to my own personal Facebook stories I received the message below from a longtime customer late Sunday evening
Even after replying promptly to this customer that these are my own dogs, I havenāt walked anyone elseās dogs from 2021 and that this is my last working week and physically cannot groom any more dogs in my condition in this heat and that I was very sorry but I couldnāt fit their dog in, this person did indeed replace their positive review of my business on here with a scathingly negative one, and then proceeded to get 3 other family members to also post negative and completely made up reviews with the contents spanning from me abusing their dog, to my salon being filthy, to me being a rude lazy bitch and apparently ghosting this customer, all of which are completely untrue
(Maybe bar the lazy bitch comment, but everyone has their off days lads š
āØ)
Thankfully when I contacted Facebook to report these 4 false reviews they were taken down, but in doing so Iāve lost around 10 positive reviews on here and Iām not sure why. So Iāve went from 60 positive 5 star reviews to 50 overnight purely because someone took 2 minutes out of their day to viciously slate a business they have never had any dealings with
As a business person on Facebook your reviews are so important in generating new business, itās the first thing people look for when they come onto your page. Itās a snapshot of your business and how much other customers value your business. It lets people see how hard you work and what sort of person you are to trust their dogs with you
For random people to have the power to ruin something thatās taken years to build up is an absolute sin, and itās completely unfair to be able to threaten someoneās livelihood in this way
This person knew the damage theyād be doing by leaving their negativity on my page, and attempted to hold me to ransom over it in the hopes to knowingly bully a very pregnant and shattered woman to come into work to groom her dog that I identified as a risk to groom in my condition due to aggression. This was fully explained to her at the time when I did say no to grooming her dog- bearing in mind this is a dog who I was able to rehab out of sedation grooms at the vets with time, care and lots of work on my part
It sort of goes without saying, but caring for my own pack of dogs and my own health is my priority at this point
But unfortunately when do you run a business people sometimes forget that there is a very real and very human person behind the scenes running that business. Weāre not machines. Itās really horrible to say but one of the biggest reasons people are quitting the pet services industry isnāt because of the dogs, itās because of people and situations like this and itās so sad when there are passionate dog loving people out there not working with them because of the stress of dealing with stuff like this
āØWITH THAT BEING SAIDāØš
if you have been to Orchard Grooming recently and feel like making a very fat and shattered womanās day better, I would love to get my reviews back up to their pre drama level if at all possible. If you have a genuine positive experience to share I would be very appreciative!
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(If you go to the reviews tab you should be able to post a review from there, or copy and paste into your browser: https://m.facebook.com/jo.orchardgrooming/reviews )
I know a lot of you will already know but if the next few months work out I am hoping to expand the business in the new year with exciting new services, and having my ducks in a row with reviews will really help me out with that before I take off for a bit! š¤š»
To end off this post Iād like to acknowledge that the majority of my customers genuinely are the best and I honestly do appreciate everyone who has been so good and so understanding of my taking off and getting your dogs sorted elsewhere without drama. Itās made a very stressful time a little bit less stressful for me and I do really appreciate it šš»āØ
