"because we want to pull back the curtain and reveal the wizard"
Online reviews are scary and unknown.
They can really hurt businesses. They can also really help your business. Think about it like this, you ask your customers to fill out comment cards or take surveys. The answers left by these customers helps you make important changes to your business. Well, as a customer, wouldn't you like to get a sneak peek at those responses before spending your hard earned money? That's exactly what online reviews are all about.
Everything today is all about transparency. Take social media for example. It has completely changed the way businesses interact with their customers. The ones that are getting it right are flourishing. The ones that have tried to avoid it are not doing so well. This is because we want to pull back the curtain and reveal the wizard. We are no longer acceptant of you telling us how the wheels are turning, we want to see it ourselves. The same applies to online reviews.
You don't have to be perfect, but there's a huge difference between making a mistake, and making a mistake, apologizing for it, and showing that you're trying to correct it. When we read your reviews, we're not expecting perfection. In fact, we don't trust perfection. But we also don't trust your business when ALL of the reviews continue to showcase the same problems. We get it, some people are out for blood, but when the majority of your reviews are positive we are much more understanding of the fact that we are all human and we all have bad days.
So how should your business be approaching this situation that is definitely not going away?
Let's think about it simply. There are generally 4 types of occurrences that warrant leaving a review on a website like TripAdvisor or Yelp.
- The 5 Star Experience (Humanus Awesomethicus): The experience was so amazing it just had to be shared! No ifs, ands, or buts, this experience was awesome and time was not of the essence.
- The 1 Star Experience (Humanus Pleasegiveusanotherchancis): The experience left a customer so frustrated others had to be warned! (They clearly were not able to text the management - bummer)
- The "I-Review-Everything" Person (Technoligicus Toomuchfreetimesist): Some people just really like to review - well, everything! So which of those reviewers is giving you the most important feedback?
- "The-Way-You-Collect-Feedback-Is-Not-Convenient-Enough-For-Me-So-I'm-Not-Going-To-Give-You-Any" Person (Mostimportantus Customertoretainicus): This person generally has the best feedback for you, because it's the small things you need to know about - both positive and constructive. Well, when you give this person an easy, convenient way to send you feedback (like a text message), they start sending you all kinds of little feedback. And guess what?
Over 75% of customer feedback is positive!
Texting isn't some new fad, nor do you need some special phone to download apps or surf the web. Text messaging has been around for over 20 years now, and it's quickly becoming the primary form of communication. Whether it's your preferred method or not, it's definitely what your customers are doing. So think about them and making it easier for them to give you feedback. Don't make them track you down, find some corporate email, or fill out some annoying survey. Just let them send their feedback directly to you with a technology they're already using.
Given a convenient (and anonymous) way to tell you, your customers will let you know the things you're doing in your business that are working and what aren't. From the vital to the trivial. Every bit of feedback counts, because each helps you make decisions that will make your business better not only tomorrow, but right now, so that customer doesn't go away dissatisfied.
And when they leave you positive messages, ASK them to give you 3 minutes more of their lives and leave you a positive rating on your most popular review site. Whether that's Yelp, UrbanSpoon, TripAdvisor, Angie's List, or any number of the hundreds of different review sites out there. Find the one that's best fitted for your industry, and when you get great feedback from your customers, ask them to share it publicly, because if you don't ask you never know what will happen.