Google reviews

[mdownes]

I've absolutely neglected google reviews over the years, and so have my customers. I've just discovered I have only 5 reviews (negligence on my part,I know) and 2 of them are negative. I remember the individuals concerned as they were recent. To cut a long story short, they both received good service, but were incredibly demanding, unreasonable and/or rude, to the point that in one case, after ordering and paying for parts, I just had to cut him loose and send him packing at no charge.

So here's my question. I have hundreds of repeat customers, most (if not all) of whom would agree to leave a review (of course they wouldn't all actually end up doing it). If the number of reviews suddenly spikes from single digits, up to 40 or 50 and they're all (presumably!) positive - would that set off automated alarm bells at google and might I be penalised for that? I've already decided to email all future customers immediately after the transaction, thanking them for the business and suggesting they leave a review, so I guess that will look organic enough to them. But might it be more prudent to approach the established customers, gradually, in batches?

 

[dgoglio]

You are not penalized as long as the reviews are coming from different IP addresses. I am sure it would set something off if you had hundreds coming from your external IP address. you should also post a reply to the negative reviews in a professional manner to show potential clients you addressed the concerns.

 

[kwest]

We email clients two weeks and three months after their repair. Give them a little time to make sure everything was done perfectly. To answer your question google doesn’t block reviews like Yelp does.

 

[britechguy]

There are very mixed opinions about reviews and responding to same, and I'm not saying that either "side" is right. That being said, I have come down, for myself, on the "don't respond to reviews, positive or negative" side.

I have tried, over the years, to encourage people to offer reviews, with very limited success. I'm lucky in that the reviews I have received are all positive, but it's not anywhere close to every one of my customers who've been thrilled with my service writing a review. What's even funnier, to me, is that I've gotten several glowing reviews from people I never actually saw in person, but helped over the phone because their issue was so simple to diagnose and fix. I'm not one of those people who can show up, knowing that what I need to do will take 30 seconds, at most, and then say: That'll be $75 please. I have done that when this could not be foreseen, but when presented with a problem that I know the potential client can fix themselves, and that doesn't involve any real skill (other than recognizing "that issue" again) to solve, I just tell them how to do it and ask them to give me a call when they need tech assistance again. That's paid off in repeat business from them and in word of mouth, too.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

I'd go for the gradually, in batches approach. Just to be on the safe side.

 

[Markverhyden]

One technique that I've seen some companies use for onsites is to open the review page on the computer and point that out to the customer as you are leaving.

 

[gadgetfixup]

techreputation.com

 

[britechguy]

techreputation.com

Ah, paid shills and/or arm-twisters. Just what I don't want anything to do with!

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yep, this game turns into an extortion racket really quickly... take a solid look at what Yelp does... It's a straight up extortion racket!

 

[britechguy]

Anything in the "optimization" line, when it comes to the internet, is a racket.

It either happens naturally, as a result of whatever complex algorithm a given search engine uses, or it's fake.

And paid reviews are simply loathsome and the worst form of fakery.

 

[gadgetfixup]

Ah, paid shills and/or arm-twisters. Just what I don't want anything to do with!

I'm not sure how incorporating an automated system that asks our customers to rate their experience after they leave our shop is a "paid shills and/or arm-twisters" service but I don't offer advice here to argue.

Practically every well-run business asks their customers to rate their experience so the business knows where they need to improve. Business owners that value their user experience welcome that feedback regardless of whether it's negative or positive. Techreputation is fully automated with RepairShopr and several other ticket systems that contacts the user after the ticket is closed asking them to rate the service/product they received. No payment, no incentive involved.

If you're not constantly building good reviews with good service and asking customers their experience your business is vulnerable to the knee-jerk reactors that will cost you money and destroy your reputation. That's what happens "naturally". Consumers are lazy and few will leave a positive review when you provide good service unless you ask. That's my 30+ year experience, yours might be different.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@inbargains That's not what Britechguy and I are talking about.

You absolutely should have something on your website and integrated with your customer communications to do what you're describing. It's the act of using a 3rd party service to collect that data, because then the data isn't yours. In the case of Yelp, once you stop paying they swing to an active enemy trying to tear up your reputation in an effort to force you to pay again.

How you do this, is almost more important than actually doing it.

In this case, investing in ourselves is the only sane thing to do. Investing in others will detonate in our collective faces.

 

[gadgetfixup]

@inbargains That's not what Britechguy and I are talking about.

You absolutely should have something on your website and integrated with your customer communications to do what you're describing. It's the act of using a 3rd party service to collect that data, because then the data isn't yours. In the case of Yelp, once you stop paying they swing to an active enemy trying to tear up your reputation in an effort to force you to pay again.

How you do this, is almost more important than actually doing it.

In this case, investing in ourselves is the only sane thing to do. Investing in others will detonate in our collective faces.

I read your response twice and have no idea what you're talking about. Public reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, or any other platform aren't your property. I use techreputation to automate communication with my customer using data they willingly gave to me to communicate with them. That software acts as a customer rep on our behalf. We tried to manually do this but it got too messy. This software is very good and provides a feedback funnel we set up. $70 a month is cheaper than I can hire anyone to follow up and glean feedback from our customers.

I did extensive research on this before signing up. I wondered how Nationwide competitor franchises were gathering glowing feedback rapidly after moving into our area. It took me 19 years to get 175 Google reviews and they were getting 2-5 good reviews every week. Big companies use a service called Birdeye which works much the same way. We've been using TR for just over a year and instead of getting our usual 8-10 feedbacks in a year, we get about 100. One negative 1-star review takes 81 5 star reviews to negate. Get 2 or 3 negative reviews and you've got your work cut out for you. Like it or not, higher feedback, is a Google search consideration and customers often choose the higher feedback service (more than 70% of the time). I just explain how to win the game and not be a victim. It might not be for everyone. I get a negative review, give it a polite response and forget about it. I've already built my 81 positives to negate the occasional person we can't please.

 

[Big Jim]

i used to have a £5 off your next bill for a google/facebook incentive on the bottom of the customer copy of the invoice, and pointed this out to pretty much all of them, with almost no success

recently started sending follow up emails after 1 week checking if everything is ok, and providing a link directly to leave us a google review, 8 years worth of reviews in a bout 4 months doing this.
Really should have done it sooner.

When it comes to reviewing places most people are lazy, but put the direct link in front of them and suddenly its a lot less effort.

 

[ziph]

Sending a follow up email is a must IMO. It has also led to lots of other work being picked up because you're actively checking that theyre satisfied with your work and it shows you care.

 

[thatdude]

We've found the best thing for our business which is B2B is to have users write well thought out Google Reviews. We really don't want the types of reviews that say "5 stars! They're great!" We want them to be more thorough.

Funny story, my business partner went into a potential client meeting to let the owner know what we could do. He said, "Don't bother. I've already read your reviews and I want to contract with your company. Can you tell me about your rates and plans?" My partner called me after the meeting and said, "You're not gonna believe this....easiest meeting ever!" They've been a great client.

We typically reach out to a one of our clients every couple of weeks and ask if they can write a nice review. We don't ask them to write a long review. We believe that when they see what others have written, they step up their game and get a review like this:

"Our organization has used Mayfield IT Consulting for many years. I cannot think of a better IT organization with which I have been involved over my 30+ years in business. When I have IT issues, I need a quick response and a quick solution to be able to continue to operate my business. Mayfield IT Consulting is excellent in all regards. I cannot recall a time when I have not been able to reach one of the technicians for assistance with an IT issue, regardless of the time or day. I would highly recommend Mayfield IT Consulting."

Keep in mind, your mileage may vary.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Here's my funniest rave review, from no less than "The Fonz"...

Unbelievably amazing work from the man, the myth, the legend, Larry Sabo! Not sure how, but he nearly did the impossible, managed to recover pretty much all of my data that I lost and needed back. I had received a quote for $700 just to TRY to recover the data from another company, while Larry successfully did it for an amazing price! Thank you Larry for saving me !

I love happy customers!

 

[taysr]

I'd definitely push for google reviews from your customers, maybe stagger it out and ask a handful of customers each week. After I complete each job I ask the customer if they could leave my business a review on google, I've only decided to go back into business and been pushing the reviews for the last few months and have 22 so far. It's quite a small number but in my area those 22 reviews are a lot more than my competitors, and the amount of people that have said they contacted me due to the reviews has been more than half of my new customers.

It's worth putting in a little time to push your reviews up in my opinion.

 

[sapphirescales]

I do follow up calls to make sure my clients are satisfied. If they are, I ask if I can send them a link to leave a review. Most say yes. About 20% of them actually do. If they aren't satisfied then I fix their problem, then do another follow up call until they are satisfied, then ask them if I can send them a link to leave a review.

Don't be pushy. Instead make sure they're 110% satisfied and a lot of them will be happy to leave you a review.