Brian and Kerry Labrie started Drop One Portables in Merrimack, New Hampshire, in June 2020. They used the usual marketing tools to promote the portable sanitation business — website, flyers, trade magazine ads. But the Facebook page and other social media they thought they had to have in the beginning are now mostly dormant.
“I am not a believer in that,” Brian Labrie says. “I know that’s very shocking to hear, but I think it does more harm than good. It’s not that we don’t need it. It’s just that it’s an uncontrollable marketing platform and I don’t like it.”
These days it’s very easy for anyone to post a comment, and when it’s easy people don’t think twice. There are no filters, no regulations, anybody can say anything. Comments may or may not be legitimate. And if the company settles an issue with an unhappy customer who posted a negative review, it’s unlikely that person will delete the review or do a followup post with a positive one. Reputable companies want to do right by the customer, but problems happen. Those companies also like to hear about the problem directly and privately so they have a chance to respond and make corrections.
“You could have the best reputation in the world, but you get one person out of a million who has an issue and they can go on there and destroy your name inside 30 seconds,” Labrie says.
Although they have dropped out of social media, the Labries can’t stop someone from leaving a review on Google, but that process is more complicated, Labrie says. “The person actually has to log in, make an appearance, do it by the book. There are guidelines they have to follow. Whereas, with Facebook or (other) social media, it’s very easy, it’s off the cuff.”
Another difficult aspect of social media is that it requires constant updating and is very time-consuming to keep up with and it’s not always clear that it pays off.
“It works for some groups,” Labrie says. “But I think if you look around the industry as a whole, especially some of the bigger players, if you check out their Facebook pages it’s a slaughterhouse. There’s no substitute for old-school, word-of-mouth marketing.”
Read more about Drop One Portables in this month’s issue of Portable Restroom Operator magazine.
