E0107 Customer Reviews

Reviews, no matter the business you are in, are important currency when building your brand and reinforcing a purchasing decision. Reviews, and their management, affects all sorts of companies and industries.

On this episode of OneLeg Up, the team discusses the increasingly important customer reviews, how to get positive, five-star reviews, and how to manage customer experiences to mitigate the potential of a poor review.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Welcome to one leg up where we discuss how you can deliver the very best customer experience and how you can achieve zero marketing waste. I'm Ed Davis, the chief operations and here at one leg. And today, I'm joined once again by our chief mastermind, Vixen Vick.

How are you doing?

Good. It's really good today. Enjoying the weather. Really love the topic today. Really super excited.

Good, good. No, no, no, you've already jumped right to the topic. The Segway to the topic, we need we need to get a better intro for you, I think, so that we can facilitate a little bit of back and forth, a little bit of banter, but we'll work on that.

We're still young in our podcast careers. So, look, you already alluded to it about you're excited about this topic. I'm excited about this topic because it affects all of our clients, all of our prospective clients. It affects how it affects all sorts of companies and industries and increasingly so.

And today's topic is going to be reviews. They are and can be either a lifeblood or a detriment to to any company. And increasingly, what we're seeing is that reviews are going across. They've historically been in the B2C space or the D2C space where we're starting to see more and more business-to-business types of reviews.

And we're not going to go into that just yet. We want to stay on the B2C side, especially as a number of our clients are focused on home improvement. But let's kick it off just a little bit, Vic..

What do we typically see with clients when it comes to managing their online customer reviews?

Well, we do a lot of we do a lot of home home improvement remodeling. And typically what we see is that, you know, a lot of the reviews that they get are all over the place. Right. It's not necessarily a particular strength that people are talking about.

And it's in different channels. And what I see that they aren't doing is really highlighting the ones that are really relevant and then making sure that these ones are on their main site, Raita, to really reinforce that call to action that they want, you know, the user to have.

But that would be one of the main things that I think, you know, most of them do and don't do.

Yeah. No, no, no. I, I completely agree with that.

Yeah, and so my question really is, is, you know, why or why do you think they're so important? You know, I mean, why are reviews really important? I mean, that's a question. A question.

And it's something that I think some of them accept, some of a lot of our clients and some of our the people might be interested in knowing.

Yeah, I think there's four or five really key points about reviews that that clients need to get in their head. And they're great ultimately. But really, the reason why they're important is, you know, let's just sort of walk down the list.

Number one, it's social proof about your business. It's as we know, people are increasingly doing a lot of spending a lot of time in the digital space. And those people, even before they will listen to what their family members, their friends, their neighbors might say about a business, don't look to total strangers to see what

they're saying about that lawn mowing company or what they're saying about that that restaurant down the street. So it really starts to reinforce for the consumer, hey, this is a company that I think I want to work with.

Now, what helps that obviously is having, you know, better than four star reviews. We typically like to see clients have somewhere above a four point three. And the reason for that is, is because that just reinforces for those strangers and the people who are reading it that, you know, this is a really good company.

This is a really good service. This is a really good product. Now, a lot of companies we run into, as you know, you know, the CEO or the marketing people will say, I only want five star reviews and that would be great.

But in actuality, as as we found out and I think there's actually a couple of different studies from like Harvard Business Review or something along those lines there. Talk about having if you have a pure five star rating and you've got more than I think the threshold was like 25 or 30 reviews and you still maintain a

five star rating that could potentially be detrimental to your company and service, because then people start to go, are these folks trying to manipulate the system, therefore making manipulating me? So. And that gets us to our second point, which is reviews make you look trustworthy.

Right. It's sort of a neon sign of the digital age that, hey, this company is in business. They actually do what it is that they say that they're going to do in their products and services are what they're meant to be.

And I think, you know, we'll write a little bit more in our blog about this. But I think the third point that is really, really important, whether it is from a B2B standpoint or B2C standpoint, increasingly it's becoming part of the decision making process.

Right. So when you think about am I going to make a big purchase, am I going to go on that trip, am I going to am I going to put new windows into my home? People want to see reviews.

They want to see people like themselves who have been through that same process. And what was that process? How did you interact with this company? How did that make you feel? You know, did you get a good service?

You feel like you got good value. So that's really important. I think the very last one that people really don't think about is it actually gives you an open line to your customers. And you can get feedback.

You can you know, you can sort of right the wrong, so to speak. And it's a really invaluable tool to product development and marketing development and brand development so that you can understand sort of how people actually perceive you and your company and your products and services and get that firsthand feedback when usually, historically, the only way

you would really get that is through, you know, maybe you could do a survey, maybe you could do a brand survey or something along those lines. But those were fairly cost prohibitive nowadays. You know, hey, we set up shop six months ago and we already have two or three reviews on our Google business page

So it's an invaluable tool.

Yeah. And I think part of the concern that I have when I see in in in spaces like home improvement and remodeling and construction is what you had, what you had mentioned, where they're only putting the five star reviews.

And it's an opportunity when when you get a two star review or a one star review juicers, actually, Queyras. Mostly, once you get there, if somebody is not really happy with your service, but it's an opportunity for you to respond.

And, you know, a lot of companies have discounted, you know, sites like Yelp, for example, because they think, well, it's for restaurants, but a lot of people use that because it's if it's close by. Right. And they don't realize that, you know, they may have lost one or two customers a week and that on its

own, if you're averaging ten thousand dollars, I mean, you lose one or two in a week. It adds up to a couple of hundred to maybe even a million by the end of the year, you know, depending on your productivity.

And then you have a lot of people who get this, you know, dissuaded by the fact that they see those and there's no responses. And to be honest with you, I think it's really because either two things. One, you've got their digital marketing agency who's lazy, who doesn't really push them to go, hey, look, we've got to

address these things. And I know, you know, it's tough to kind of go through all of those things one by one, but you have to do it. I mean, this is your business. You have to do it. And the other thing I think is that,

well, I always say think about it this way. If if you had five customers walk into your business. Right. And the first one said to you, oh, I love the product. I love the service. Really great job, guys.

And the second one said the same thing. Third one said the same thing in the fourth one said, you all are crap. You don't know what you're doing. I hate this. I don't like that you didn't treat me right.

You wouldn't just ignore them. You just wouldn't.

OK. So what do you think are the you know, these things that companies do typically get wrong when it comes to reviews?

I think the biggest thing is ignoring them or hiding reviews or trying to to delete them. You just shouldn't do that now. I think there are some instances where, you know, it is right to hide a comment and let's broaden that out just a little bit.

Right. It's not just reviews, because now people are doing so much more on Facebook and LinkedIn and things like that that people leave comments. And so, you know, comments in their in their own way are a review. And so we do see companies and clients who like to hide those things or try to delete them and whatnot

. And so some of that is fair. As you know, we have a client who, you know, it's unfortunate, but but they do get some. Some comments through Facebook that that are that are confrontational for some reason, that are that are not grounded in reality.

And so I do think it's right to hide those. But, you know, we also just had another client who, you know, they got a comment to one of their Facebook ads where somebody said, oh, this company is horrible and beware and this and that and the other.

And, you know, the owner wanted us to take it down. But I said, well, what was that person's experience? And when he explained it to me, you know, we very politely, you know, put up on to Facebook, hey, really sorry that you had that experience.

Here's our perspective. If you'd like to talk about it further, please shoot. It's a private message. We'd be happy to talk to you. Right. And I think that's what actually consumers want to see. They don't mind if you get a bad review.

They don't mind if people make bad comments about you. What they want to see is what did you do about it? Right. I say all the time, you know, when I when I think about traveling and I look at a hotel or something like that, they don't have to have a four point eight rating or a nine

point eight rating or whatever it is from a from a from a consumer standpoint. And they certainly don't have to have the greatest reviews on the planet. In fact, I actually go and look at the bad reviews. And I think you do the same thing because.

Right. We're actually looking for the one and two star reviews, because I want to see, OK, what what part of their experience didn't they enjoy? And then what did that the that business person do to to try to fix that?

What was their response? And if if I see a bad review and a one star rating or something like that, but you see immediately see a comment from like a manager, somebody who can actually make a difference, make a decision.

Hey, that's horrible. That's not what we meant to do. I want to work with you. You know, give me a call, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's exactly what I want to see, because at least these people are conscious and they're making an effort.

So, you know, I think that's the biggest thing that people get wrong. I think the other thing that people don't always pay attention to, and we see it a lot because a lot of our clients do boost their ads on like Facebook and Instagram and do advertising on Facebook is you get a lot of

comments on there and people just think, oh, well, they must like us. And they're just posting nice things about our ad. Now, you've got to look at all of those things.

Yeah, I agree, and I think part of the use of the these negative reviews is really how you utilize them, I think you may want to even highlight some of them, because if it's the worst thing, that was all they took one additional day to go and complete this, then, you know, that's not so bad.

You know, people will actually meet, oh, that person was not as easy to satisfy everyone.

Well, and it's perception, right. So somebody might have said, oh, well, you told me it was going to be Friday, that you were going to install my new air conditioner and there was a delay and you didn't get to it to Saturday.

So therefore, I'm giving you three stars. But the service is great. The air conditioner. I'm cold as heck. OK, so in your mind, a day late means two stars. Fair enough. Fair enough. That's your perception. But I think that's where the business owner has to come in and say, yep, really sorry about that.

Really feel bad that that that that had that impact on you. We'll try to do better next time. It's all I'm looking for.

Yeah, and to me, the only thing I would add is that now you have apps, Apsley, next door neighbors and some of these social sites where, you know, it's really based on zip codes and in these neighborhoods.

And the one thing that I think home improvement companies don't do, you know, is that they don't take advantage of that rate and they don't make the neighbors and their customers their ambassadors. And I think that's just missed opportunity for them to to reinforce their marketing.

You know what I mean?

Well, and you bring you sort of get me into the final point that that I think we can talk about. So increasingly, it's not just Google, it's not just the Better Business Bureau, it's not just Angie's List, right.

We're seeing Naber, we're seeing Yelp. We're seeing you know, there's a there's a growing list of places where people can leave a review about a business, in particular home improvement businesses. And so is there. And I honestly, maybe I should know this, but I'll ask the tech guy, is there technology that is that can monitor for a

businesses reviews across a number of platforms? Does that exist yet?

Yes, there are. But a lot of the times it's not just monitoring it. It's really. What do you do once you get, you know, the information? Right. And for the most part, a lot of people, they go and say, OK, well, I just want to get there's several apps out there and services that actually do that

for you. And they even, you know, do things like, hey, car man, you know, you can give them instructions and you can outsource that sort of thing. But I think that if you get to a level where it's really a lot, then you know that those services might work out for you or those particular apps.

But I think it's you really listening to what people are saying. You know, we have a little piece of technology in ghostwriter A.I., which is an app that actually provides you with intent and semantics. Right. But I think what business owners need to realize is, is that, you know, don't focus too much on the

five star versus the one star. It's what's being said. Right. And you need to quantify that. And there's enough A.I. technology out there, NLP. And again, some reviews where you could, you know, put this into text, get all of that information, you know, verified it based on your persona, your company or user personas, and then find out

all this. These are the things that people are actually saying about, you know, the company, about our services, about our products, because people, you know, businesses tend to get hung up on. Well, I've got three and five star reviews and I've got, you know, sixty five of these, you know, ones that are less than five and really

. Sure. You know, in the in the bigger scheme of things, that does matter because you know of your rating for things like, OK, you should probably want to get or aspired to get a four star rating or above.

But the reality is, if you really do want to provide five star service, remarkable service, then you've got to listen to what people are telling you. And then you can provide that remarkable service people that the service and the product that people can.

Remarkable.

Yeah. No, and there's a lot to dove into here, right. Obviously, we're going to have to do a second follow up podcast on this topic. And I think we could you know, I think what would be really interesting is to bring some people on and talk about technologically how you can automate some of this stuff, because for

some of these businesses, you know, these bigger dealers and manufacturers, you're potentially taking on hundreds of reviews in any given week, if you think about it from a national standpoint. So it'd be really good to have a chat about that.

Right. That's it for us today. We hope you've enjoyed our chat and learned a couple of things. As always, we hear one leg believe poor marketing pollutes the planet and that business is full of tired, outdated, indistinct, unremarkable and underperforming marketing.

That sucks, but what sucks even more? Is that many companies have forgotten the most important thing of all the customer, and we're on a mission on behalf of our clients customers to change that. To learn more. Go to zero marketing waste dot com, where you can subscribe to our blog in this very podcast.

You can also find us and follow us by looking for the Flamingo and the one they can handle wherever you socialize online. Thanks, Vic.. Talk to you next week.