Review Sites

Like everything else since the time of Adam, customer reviews are an innocent idea that quickly becomes subject to corruption from all sides. I have had clients who want me to find a way to magically generate ‘positive reviews’. And I have had clients who grouse about troll reviewers and disreputable review sites who are ruining their business and want me to try to ‘expunge their record’. Both strategies are (usually) not worth trying.

Here is my advice:

You cannot avoid your on-line reputation. And beyond a minimal level you cannot manipulate your on-line reputation over night. If a company approaches you offering to do either of these for a fee they should be regarded similarly to ‘credit fix services’.

Many people who start small businesses do so to become ‘independent’. The review process can be particularly uncomfortable because it can feel like you have no control over the situation. If you find yourself resenting review sites right out of the gate, for -whatever- reason, I would caution you to check your feelings at the door. Reviews are the life blood of many businesses these days and you’re far better off working with them than trying to fight the tide.

Your best strategy in almost all cases is simple: always make your customers happy. And when you do, make as big a deal about it as your reviewers do. If you get a negative review go —way— out of your way to reach out to the customer and do it in on the forum so that everyone else sees how hard you’re working. Forget ‘fair’. Even if the customer is a jerk, kill them with kindness. Consider this as just a necessary cost of doing business in the age of the internet.

If you look at Amazon, most sellers there are terrified of bad reviews. In order to build trust, Amazon has skewed the whole system towards customer satisfaction. Smart sellers accept this and simply add the cost of some sketchy ‘refunds’ and unreasonable complaints into their margin. That mindset has carried over into the ‘bricks and mortar world’ and become an expectation for most consumers, who now expect a much higher level of customer service than even a few years ago. That’s the reality.

Instead of fearing on-line reviews my suggestion is to embrace them. Aggressively encourage your customers to post reviews and even help them to do it. Tell them what a favour they are doing you (which they are.) And then monitor those reviews like a hawk. Follow up on every review, good or bad. Build your reputation as the business owner the world sees as caring. Remember that every time you appear on any review site you are controlling your destiny. Be as relentless as a P.R. flak. Because that’s what you are.

Yes, this is all work. But it’s also some of the best ‘free’ advertising imaginable… especially for certain service and impulse purchase industries. Are there aspects of the process that will feel unfair or even annoying? For sure. But depending on your business, one great review might mean literally thousands of dollars in new business.

One last thing: When people read this, they think I cut n’ pasted it from some sales seminar… and then they want to know the ‘real answer’. This is the real answer. There is no ‘magic’ strategy to SEO/SEM or on-line reviews. But people have gotten so used to thinking there -must- be some hidden knowledge that I’m not sharing (or don’t have access to.) If there is, it’s stored in Area 51 next to the file on ‘Who Shot Kennedy?’