Wednesday 23 May 2018

Review Management - a beginner's Guide

With over seven hundred articles on this blog we periodically publish this Guide, so anyone new to HelpHound and review management can bring themselves rapidly up to speed.

HelpHound: review managers



 Our clients look great all through the customer journey - in Google search and on their own websites

We are professional advisers. In just the same way as your accountants or lawyers, HelpHound gives both proactive and reactive advice to make sure your business looks as good as it possibly can:
  • On your own website
  • On Google 
  • On any other sites that matter 
 


  Great review management leads directly to results like these


This article - 'The 20/30 effect' (relating to the uplift in calls and visits two clients have had since joining) - shows example of results for an estate agency and a heating engineer, but it applies across the full spectrum of businesses. Adding Value shows the difference between a HelpHound client and those yet to engage.

 
Our clients invariably look great in local search too
 

Trust: for reviews to be effective they must be 100% trustworthy

Trust is everything examines why so many of the independent review sites fail this crucial test. It's one of the many reasons that Google - which is increasingly trusted by consumers - plays such a big part in our strategy on behalf of our clients.



There are so many aspects of this clients' display that we have included specifically to reinforce the trustworthiness of their reviews:
  • the wording next to our logo - the promise that 'these reviews are genuine' is supported by the word 'unfiltered'. The 'promise to publish' is critical
  • it is also supported by the 'write your review' button - showing anyone reading the reviews that anyone can write a review at any time
  • and the 'Worst' category in 'Order by' - the first thing most people do is look at the least favourable reviews
  • last, but by no means least, the words 'Our partner HelpHound is an unbiased independent reviews service' without which these reviews would revert to the much weaker status of testimonials

As Google reviews accelerate it's tempting to go it alone

Businesses that had no reviews - or few - just a year ago often first attempt to address the situation themselves. This article - Why DIY leaves half the job undone - explains how businesses lose out by going down the do-it-yourself route.

Compliance with UK government regulations

It should also be noted that it is virtually impossible to comply with the CMA regulations if you invite customers to post direct to Google - one of the first questions we ask prospective clients that have reviews on Google is 'Have you had a difficult customer lately?' and when the answer comes, as it inevitably does: 'Yes' - we ask 'And have they been invited to write a review to Google? Non-compliant (a polite expression meaning 'breaking the law') every time.

The Google filter



 Why would anyone choose any but the 4+ rating filter?

When businesses first realise that they are subject to the Google filter - because they score less than 4.0 out of 5 - it can cause understandable consternation. Read The Google Filter - Don't Panic! and relax.

Engage with reviews

Reviews can be a daunting subject. For many businesses it will be the first time they have ever asked customers to comment on the service they provide, and certainly the first time they have asked them to do it publicly (and it doesn't come much more public than on Google). Too posh to push is an article with a tongue-in-cheek title but a very important message - if you don't engage with reviews you will be missing out on a wonderful way to drive new business, besides which you will leave your business exposed when your competitors do engage.

Negative reviews - they will happen

No business is perfect. We know because we see thousands of reviews of great businesses every month! And one of the main reasons businesses don't engage with reviews is the understandable fear of inviting publicly visible negative reviews. That's one of the main reasons that we advise clients to invite reviews to their own websites before they invite their customer to copy their review to Google: so our client business can engage with inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews pre-publication - a process we call Resolution™ - and it works brilliantly for both customer and business. We will guide you through each and every case to ensure the best possible outcome for both parties. 

The benefits of professional review management

If you have followed half the links we've embedded in this article you will already know the answer, but we'll summarise anyway:
  1. Great reviews - on your own website and on Google - drive business
  2. Independent review sites are - with few exceptions - yesterday's solution
  3. Review management is about much more than simply getting great reviews - it's about managing the process professionally - and that's what HelpHound does for our clients
We will leave the final word to one of those clients:



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