Can a Contract Controlling What Your Customers Say Prevent a Public Relations Crisis?

I spoke with a friend the other day who mentioned she was reviewing a contract for a vacation house rental. She couldn’t help but notice a clause that prohibited renters from writing reviews on websites that didn’t provide the owner an opportunity to comment on the complaints.

Attempting to control what your customers say about you with strong legal language doesn’t promote healthy customer relations – much less prevent a public relations crisis. Regardless of contracts you may have with your customers – people will talk, type and text about the experience they had with you. Taking customers to court is expensive. A public relations crisis communications plan will cost you far less coin.


Start with the following:

• have a public relations crisis communications plan in place

• set your Google alerts to notify you when your company’s name is mentioned

• and most importantly always think before you type

Finally, do what you can to patch up a misunderstanding, and do it publicly so that people can see that you care about your customers and are willing to make changes when you can.