Article was submitted by Peter Z. from Fix Bad Reputation.
I have learned that it is best to never argue with your clients, because your reputation is not worth messing with. Any upset client can go to Yelp or a complaint site like Ripoffreport and leave negative reviews about you that would cost you thousands of dollars in lost business, even if there is no truth to what they say. Some of these sites would never remove these posts even with a court order.
Negative reviews posted on complaint sites can be disastrous. Therefore, the way you should handle customer complaints is to either offer them free service or a partial refund.
On the other hand a happy customer may refer more business to you or leave positive reviews online that would have the opposite effect. In this day and age it is just not worth arguing with clients, specially if it is over a few dollars. Yes sometimes the business owner may be right and sometime the customer may be trying to extort you into a refund, but really it comes down to what you have to lose down the line and if you feel negative reviews would cost you more down the line then try your best to work out issues with your customers before it is too late.