Beware Asking for online reviews

[Jtuseo]

Good online reviews are a very important part of my business. The trick to this is knowing who to ask for online reviews. If someone finds you from Angies list or Yelp this is a major RED flag when asking them to review your service. Chances are they have written bad reviews in the past , along with some good ones of course. We as small carpet cleaning companies can not afford to get one or two bad reviews. Some tips for getting reviews are , only ask people who have referred you to write a review for you, make it simple for them, get their email address and copy and paste the link to the review sites listing of your company. Next if you have commercial accounts that have been loyal to you get their email and send them the link. In short only ask for reviews from people who you have been servicing for more than 2 years. I have seen to many people on yelp etc etc who will frequent a business many times and if they are unhappy once slander you with a bad review. Always remember these people on review based sites are not your friend and you must be very very careful with them.

 

[mirf]

Even whem I first started in business this was true. You can not control free advertising. Be carful of newspapers doing a story because the do not always think it through from your side even when they love your service. Sometimes even a paid ad can be placed next to something that may be a problem. Good advice on limiting your requests

 

[idreadnought]

I have to disagree. I think that if you show that care about the customer and do a good job that most will give you good reviews. The trick isn't being the best cleaner in the world (although that helps) but to actually be a sincerely good person and show the customer you care. Make it a point to give the bakers dozen to every customer and you will be surprised the number that will leave you a review without asking.

As far as bad reviews. They are actually very important. If you have nothing but good reviews it will make customers suspicious. I have bad reviews although I work very hard to make customers happy. When this happens it is not the review that can hurt you but the response to the review. Take the time to thank the person for the constructive feedback, apologize for not providing the level of service they were expecting and encourage them to call your office so you can have a second shot to make it right. Customers will see this and most likely discredit the bad review because you make it apparent that you really care. Of course if you have a mostly bad reviews then you need to work on customer service and relationships.

 

[mcatt]

I personally always ask if they found us on a reviews site. I explain that this is how we acquire wonderful clients like them self and we really appreciate their time doing it.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Chances are they have written bad reviews in the past...

I think the problem, John, is too many people have gotten "trigger happy". Instead of simply calling or emailing you with a minor concern it is easier to run to a keyboard and vent their (wildly exaggerated) displeasure. (Of course, this would NEVER happen on an industry bulletin board.)

The best way to head this impulsive response off at the pass is to have a "neutral third party" (can be an office employee, your wife and/or girlfriend, mom, etc) call within five minutes after you leave. (And before Mrs. Yelp Wacko can get to her keyboard.)

"Hi Mrs Jones, This is Shirley calling from Preferred Carpet Cleaning making our standard "after cleaning" Quality Check phone call. I wanted to make sure that you are delighted with John and the quality of his work? (Wait for response.) Now if there is anything at all you notice that needs a little touch up we'll be more than happy to take care of it. I'm going to email you right now so you'll have my personal contact information. Would that be OK? (You should already have her email from the original call.)

Great, Mrs. Jones. We really appreciate your business and IF you are happy I'll send a few online links where if you wish you can review our company. And now you have my contact information to let me know if we missed anything. Thanks again, Mrs. Jones and lets stay in touch."

We actually posted how to do this in a recent QuickTIP. It really does work. (We used to say make the Quality Check call the next day. But the "next day" is an eternity in today's "shoot from the hip online world.)

Steve Toburen
www.SFS.JonDon.com

PS Of course, all of the above won't work (especially with employees) unless you have a scripted out Moment of Truth sequence to control the in-the-home interactions.

 

[encapman]

Steve makes some nice points in that script above. I think his approach to encouraging a review is a great idea. You've already established that they're happy, and then you're offering a way for them to provide a review of your company.

Another way to ensure that customers will be favorable to writing a positive review is by providing a "Baker's Dozen" experience. I wrote an article for MikeysBoard on this topic yesterday...
http://mikeysboard.com/2012/12/18/the-secret-of-the-bakers-dozen/

As I outlined in the article, if you give a little extra to each customer, you'll build a database of loyal customers. Loyal customers will be willing to write nice reviews, sometimes without even being asked to do so. Even if you used Steve's approach above, as loyal customers, they'll be happy to comply. At any rate you'd have no reason to be concerned about encouraging a review, since they love your company's service.

 

[Mikey P]

John your advice of having first timers give you reviews on yelp won't work..only active participant's comment's stick with their system.

 

[Newman]

John your advice of having first timers give you reviews on yelp won't work..only active participant's comment's stick with their system.

*&##@! filters!

 

[Jtuseo]

If a first time yelper writes a bad review they always stick

 

[tmdry]

I'm down to 1 non filtered review on my yelp profile which is a negative one by a repeat client of mine, the other 16 plus FILTERED reviews were from clients who used to use yelp on a regular basis but now don't as much. I think Yelp doesn't realize that people actually have a life and don't spend their entire lifetime writing books on other companies profiles. I've found a lot of yelpers on the east coast are using angie's list now.