Do you find online reviews of a business as amazing and frustrating as I do?
It’s amazing that you can work your butt off for decades busting your hump bending over backwards serving customers every whim, and then one customer will go online and write a terrible review about you that just guts you. It’s amazing how a satisfied customer you’ve served for years without complaint will NOT make a referral to others seeking services like yours.
It’s amazing how people will NOT spark up a conversation with a stranger in line at a grocery store, but it’s extremely frustrating that people put immense credence in the words of a complete stranger’s comments and review left about a business online.
It’s frustrating that your hundreds, if not thousands, of satisfied customers won’t do you the favor of leaving a (positive) review of your business, and it’s extremely frustrating that ONE Pain in the (_!_) customer writes a book trashing you over the most minute issue that is totally beyond your control and not even related to the transaction or your business. It’s frustrating that many review platforms do not allow you to delete bad reviews, or suppress good reviews leaving too many bad reviews published.
Yeah, it can be a real love/hate relationship with online reputation services and review platforms.
So what’s the deal with all these online reviews and testimonials anyway? Well, after Apple launched the privacy update for Apple devices, social media sites and search engines lost access to 50 percent of the global web surfing data, which impacted both the data social media platforms and search engines ability to target ads, generate income and sales (and profits) and rank web sites. Social media sites like Facebook could at least rely on their own user base usage statistics and data, but Google had a bigger problem because they were blinded to Apple users’ activities. Google made a switch in their algorithm and began to give reviews and testimonials left online as a major factor in determining your business’ rank in search results. Your ranking in search engines is vital when people are seeking a product or service because the vast majority of people will conduct an online search before asking friends or relatives. With billions of searches being conducted daily, well, I don’t need to say anymore how important it is for your business to be found online.
Google has developed a mathematical evaluation system to measure TRUST, and it is a fascinating study. As I’ve raised earlier, it’s frustrating how people will trust the words of a complete stranger before asking friends or family, but there are some interesting nuggets of truth in taking a look at how Google defines and measures a person’s trust placed in online content.
Google can measure the amount of time a person spends reading, absorbing, consuming content online. The longer you stay on a certain web page, it’s an indication of interest and forms one element of trust. Obviously, if you are on a page for a while, you must be interested or else you would ‘bounce off’ and go to another web site. And, the longer to stay, it’s also more likely you trust the information being presented.
Google also can measure the depth of scroll, meaning Google knows how far down a web page you scroll reading or consuming content. Scroll down to observe the entire content, and again, strong intent of interest and also strong signal of trust.
So, combine the score of time on web page with depth of scroll, and boom, a mathematical score that can be used to evaluate, rate and compare content relative to each other, which of course, then determines your rank and position in search results. People trust Google to present factual, accurate results when they search. Google is a very trusted brand providing a trusted service because Google has worked hard to design an accurate evaluation, rating and ranking system. Mathematical trust score…are you interested now?
Yes, people trust Google and their search results. People are usually presented with at least 3 options to choose from when searching for a product or service on a mobile device, and ten results on desktop devices. You need to be in the top 5 search results to make a customer’s options to evaluate. And, because other people’s experiences at your business now matter, your online reviews play a significant factor in forming a customer’s choice in choosing you. If you have a bad reputation, well, your business may not make the top 5 options presented because Google does not want to encourage a business known for letting people down and likely won’t even be offered in search results.
One may never know how many customers you never had because of your online reviews and reputation. I’ve seen studies that show one bad review online will result in a 4 percent drop in annual sales. Also I’ve read studies that show 50 percent of customers question the quality and service of a business if it has several or multiple negative reviews. If your reputation is not as good as your competitors, potential customers likely will choose a business with the better reputation. Your reputation and reputation score are vital!
With many people being reticent, and the bulk of folks not knowing what to say, asking for reviews can be a difficult process. That’s why one needs not just a system in place to ask for your customers for reviews, but multiple systems to ask customers for reviews.
Disclosure: I offer review generation and online reputation monitoring as a service, but there are other services serving the drycleaning industry, so I do encourage you to explore your options.
You should be deploying hang tags on outgoing orders. Include links to your review platforms on outgoing text and email messages. Have buttons on your website linking to your review platforms. Be sure to display your reviews in your store and in your marketing so encourage others to leave a review as well as to convince prospective customers to at least try your service and judge for themselves.
If you have a bad reputation, or want to improve your reputation score, there are some very advanced techniques you can deploy to improve your reputation. But I have to tell you, it all starts with providing a quality service, you can’t sell substandard service and fool people for long. A good service that people want, like, and are willing to share is much easier to promote, and that will require you to legitimately improve what you do.
Don’t worry about having a few bad reviews out there. Sure, bad reviews hurt, but they are really opportunities. Each bad review is a legitimate, honest criticism of your business through your customer’s eyes. Take it as constructive criticism and an opportunity to improve. Take the hit and use it to effect change. While it might be personally painful because your business and its reputation reflects you, it’s also your market telling you what they want, demand and expect of you. As on old mentor taught me, cater to the sweet spot of the market and give them what they want at a profitable price, and you will own it for years. So, act on complaints, resolve issues with your customers and move closer to catering to your customer’s demands. My father taught me that: “We can all better our best,” and we can. And the same applies to trust and your reputation.
