Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

How does poor customer service affect a company's bottom line?  Do companies really care that customers are dissatisfied when they are dominant in a market?  Take by analogy a restaurant in China.  It seems that some restaurants in Shanghai do not bring the proper dishes ordered, and then expect the patrons to eat and pay for them.  For instance, someone may order fried rice, and out comes fried noodles.  The restaurant does not care if people are unhappy because they are mostly tourists who are unlikely to return in any case, plus there are tons of other people coming in the doors the next day.  In the end, does good customer relations really matter to some businesses?

How can companies respond to negative customer feedback through blogs and other social media tools?  Are there any legal ramifications that a company has when people do not write positively on them?  Sometimes they may tell the service provider of the blog to take down the post, but this might be an infringement on free speech.  Sometimes they may argue defamation or imposition of confidential information, but then they may need to sign a statement under penalty of perjury to the points in order for posts to be removed.  Do blog posts make a difference in terms of future business to a company?  There has been feedback of restaurants giving free meals in order to get people to give them good reviews.  Is getting good blog posts just the future of marketing?