The fact that the Web is full of wackos is well known; all sorts of people like to rant about all sorts of pointless little things.  A new study shows that a lot of folks research customer care online, though, so reputation management continues to be an important matter.

The Society for New Communications Research found that “72.2% of respondents research companies’ customer care online prior to purchasing products and services at least sometimes,” according to Nathania Johnson.

Also - although this might be a more obvious conclusion - the respondents aren’t just looking these things up for their own amusement.  “84% of respondents consider the quality of customer care at least sometimes in their decision to do business with a company,” Johnson wrote.

You’re bound to run into the problem people have noticed for centuries, of course -satisfied customers walk quietly out the door, while angry ones will shout and fill out every form in sight.  But stats like these might give good reason to nudge the quiet types towards review sites and online forums.

Don’t forget to respond to online complaints, too; even if things are written in poor English and all caps, readers are likely to wonder whether the person on the other end had a genuinely bad experience.

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