We have drawn the ire of a local Swissvale community organization, and one board member in particular. As community stakeholders, we disagreed with a decision they announced and provided honest feedback from our business and Sam's personal FB profile over the weekend. They handled it (and similar feedback from hundreds of other community members) poorly, so we wished them well and moved on.
We then woke up four days later to a 1☆ review on Google from the organization's board president, maligning us for “using their professional platform to criticize a small nonprofit.”
This has absolutely no bearing on our business and reflects more on them than us. As of this evening, it appears that Google has removed it for being irrelevant.
We share this at all, without naming or linking, because:
- Regular readers and followers know we don't truck with assertions that small businesses should or shouldn't do XYZ with their business platforms.
- We've worked with nonprofits of all sizes for over 2 decades. Nonprofits are not above reproach. Don't want criticism? Don't disenfranchise 90% of the community you are duty-bound to serve.
- Crisis communications is not our specialty, but we can clock it from a mile away when someone needs it. This is a teachable example of what not to do. Beloved community, know that engaging with your community openly and honestly, and hearing their feedback (distinctly different from just saying you hear them) will always be better for all involved than AI slop responses, dismissive and condescending comments, lying, crashing out, and retaliating as though honest feedback is a personal attack. Deleting dissenting comments is NEVER going to help matters improve - it's honestly a headscratcher that anyone still thinks this is a viable tactic.
We hold no ill will toward the organization - this move they've made is bad on so many levels, but we genuinely hope it's not the death knell it appears to be, and they come out on the other side.
Ill will all around that individual board member, though. Our intention with our feedback was to share concerns with an organization we've supported and cared about for years. This individual's intention, however anemic, was to harm our business, which they have zero professional experience with. It's just the latest example of them centering themselves, acting inappropriately, and perpetuating harm in community contexts. They can have the day they deserve.
