The Dump and Social Media

Today I visited a new, super large furniture store that opened in the Buckhead area of Atlanta: The Dump. The idea behind the store is to be like a TJ Maxx or Marshalls where unsold merchandise from manufacturers is sold at a discount. Here are a few interesting aspects of the business model:

• Physical square footage is 30% larger than a Home Depot (huge!)
• Store is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to save money on labor
• Furniture can be purchased and taken at the same time (most furniture stores require customers to order and waiting for delivery)

Now, on to the point of this post: the social media reviews of The Dump are horrendous. Wow, I don’t know if I ever seen reviews so bad. Searching for “the dump store reviews” on Google has a good deal of negative results:

• Consistent one and two star ratings on sites like Yelp.com
• Negative blog posts completely dedicated to how bad the service and business practices are
• Formal complaints on sites just dedicated to complaints and rip-offs

My recommendation is to build good quality customer service into your business from day one and know that social media is a negative force multiplier for companies that do it poorly.