Be aware of this little Google person

 

This innocuous little badge - showing someone wearing a Google Local T-shirt and carrying a smartphone and a camera, is 'awarded' to Google Local Guides.

So what is a Google Local Guide? (If you are a Local Guide, or you are familiar with the concept, you can skip to the next paragraph.) They are simply a more committed Google reviewer; the sort of person that actively reviews just about every business they come into contact with. They have absolutely no qualifications - anyone can volunteer to be one. There's more on them here.

Why mention them at all?

For two reasons...

1. They are far more likely to write a review - whether asked to do so or on their own initiative
2. Their reviews carry a disproportionate influence with consumers - for no rational reason

Look at these two reviews...

Which do you think is the most credible? Their content is similar and their score for the business is identical. The only thing that separates the two reviewers is that one is a Local Guide and the other is not. With what you know now you may justifiably be cynical about the Local Guide's review, but we can assure you that Joe Public gives their reviews more credence.

So: if someone mentions that they are a Google Local Guide you can be pretty sure they will review your business. That's all. We don't recommend you quiz your customers to establish if they are a Local Guide or not, but just be aware that such people - millions of them - do exist.

The reach of a single negative review...

As many will know, Google reports to its Local Guides - telling them just how many views their reviews are getting. Here's just one example...

What can we learn from this email?

First, the reach of this review - of a SME business in London - has been pretty astounding, at over 1,000 views.

Second: it has made that kind of impact over such a short space of time - the review was written on 22 May, under three months ago.

In other words: (negative) reviews get seen!


What action should a business in this position take?

This business is committing two cardinal errors (both easily rectified) - and missing one massive opportunity. First the errors...

• it is not responding to its Google reviews - positive or negative, leaving criticisms unanswered and losing the opportunity to impress readers that it cares about its customers' opinions

• it would appear to be ignoring Google reviews altogether - in the space of four years it has received just twenty-eight reviews, nine of which rate it just one or two stars - resulting in a Google score that fails the Google reviews filter by quite a considerable margin

Now the opportunity...

Assuming this business, like most businesses, is good at what it does (but occasionally makes mistakes - enough to provoke a customer into posting a negative review about once every six months): It should be proactively engaging its customers by inviting them to post reviews.

Playing the numbers game...

Suppose a business has a footfall of a hundred customers a day, if only one per cent - just one customer - writes a review, then that's thirty reviews a month (three a day? That's still three reviews a month - 36 a year).

How to get the customers to write a review?

Simple - and good businesses have been doing it for so long we know it works...

• email - a simple email inviting them to write a review
• card - a card with the business's website and a request to post a review, handed to the customer in a face-to-face situation

The result?

The first objective should be to have at least 95% of the business's reviews scoring it positively. That, in turn, will result in...

• passing the Google filter - now set at 4.5 (up from 4.0 last year)
• creating a generally positive impression of the business in all Google searches - desktop and mobile - specific (on the business's name) and local (on the kind of business in its area -  e.g. 'plumber' in 'Reading')

When this business joined HelpHound it had less than a handful of reviews. This is the impression it now creates every time someone looks it up on the web (the 'Reviews from the web' at top left - all 511 of them - are the reviews it has on its own website, invited through HelpHound)...

Which will then show in increased business!

Further Reading...

Don't be afraid to engage - HelpHound is here to help

Many businesses don't engage with Google reviews because they are concerned - quite understandably - that they will attract unfair or inaccurate reviews, and that those reviews will have the exact opposite of the desired effect (which is, of course, to attract more customers). Greene & Co - the business in the screenshot with 286 Google reviews - were no exception.

HelpHound exists, at least in part, to ensure that its clients' reviews accurately reflect their businesses. We cannot guarantee that a HelpHound client will not get any negative reviews - no business is perfect, after all - but we can reassure you that having your business's reviews moderated by HelpHound pre-publication will reduce the chances of an unfair or misleading review appearing in print to as near to nil as will make for confidence in embarking on this important journey.

Here's an article that goes into this important part of our service in greater detail.

And here's one that shows you that professional review management drives more business (the numbers are from Google itself).

Oh - and please bear in mind that if a business invites reviews it is subject to the CMA regulations, and they have the force of law (they say a business must allow all its customers to write a review at a time of their - the customer's - own choosing). Here is an article that explains these rules.

Google Local Guides - there are downsides

We introduced you to Google Local Guides here. It's a great system - especially for consumers, especially because they know for sure that they are reading a review by a 'real' person, but there are some downsides.

How so?

People, being people, have differing character traits, some are motivated by greed, some by altruism, and Google Local Guides are no exception. Google rewards guides for writing more reviews, correcting maps and much more...

...and, for the overwhelming majority, that's just what they do. But a minority can get carried away. Just like the boy collecting stamps, they can be in a hurry to 'fill that page'. In Google terms: 'in a hurry to reach the next level' (or even to get an invitation to the holy grail of Local Guides - the annual summit in San Francisco).

That, of itself, is not a problem - what could go wrong? Well, as Yelp - who invented the concept with their 'Yelp Elite' - know only too well, some people get carried away. We have just seen evidence of this, where a client of ours was reviewed by a Local Guide.

The review - a 1* negative - was posted last week.

...as were thirty-eight further reviews; all one-liners (nothing wrong with that, no contravention of Google T&Cs)...

...taking the reviewer to level 5 from level 2...

Where do we take issue?

Google reviews are powerful - people do take notice of them, whether consciously or unconsciously, of that there is not a smidgin of lingering doubt. They create an instant first impression - through both the score and the content of the reviews.

We are suggesting that Google modify their T&Cs, which currently look like this:

There are two important issues here: the first is contained in the grey highlighted box: 'the review breaks the law'; in a nutshell this means it is libelous (accusing the business or a staff member of acting illegally) and the second is the four categories under 'Violation type' - which, significantly, excludes 'This post is untrue'. 

The reason for that exclusion is that Google do not want to get involved in arbitrating between two parties in a commercial disagreement, and that is fair enough, as far as it goes. But we would contend that Google reviews carry so much power and influence that there should be some burden on the reviewer to verify their comments if the business flags the review as 'untrue' (as it is in this case), especially in the case of high value businesses - it is time to stop treating pizza parlours and the professions the same way with reviews.

Google would respond by saying that the business has the right-of-reply (and our client has replied to the review above) but there is no right-of-reply to the damage the 1* score has done to the business's overall score (they are recent clients and are just starting out on their journey with reviews).

Solutions?

We would strongly suggest that aggregate scores should be irrelevant for certain types of service business - it's OK to choose a pizza because the parlour scores 4.4 out of 5, but a lawyer or a wealth manager? People should be reading the content of the reviews.

Two very similar businesses in the same location - very different profiles on Google. If they both received a 1* review tomorrow the one on the right's score would remain at 4.9 and the one on the left's would fall to 3.0 - failing the Google filter. Another? (it's not beyond the realms of possibility - their first review was written by a Local Guide, and we've already established how some of them behave): the score for our cleint remains the same, the other business falls to 2.3. 

But before that particular pig flies (it is a conundrum that Google - and other reviews solutions - will have to address eventually, but we don't advise holding your breath) - our advice to our clients is to build critical mass with their reviews. Your Google score is a pure mathematical average, so the impact of a single 1* review is far less if you have lots of four and five star reviews, but don't forget that those considering high-value businesses will read the actual content of your reviews - always the negatives first, so meanwhile do everything you can to minimise the chances of someone being given cause to write such a review.

Google Local Guides - how might they influence your customers?

Google makes changes every day - some small, some large, some large that may at first glance appear small. This is one such.

Google Local Guides are now badged in reviews:

And they are prompted - like this:

And incentivised - like this:
 

So what is a Google Local Guide?

A Google Guide is a regular reviewer - that's all. But they are a reviewer who has proactively volunteered their services as a Guide. Once a Guide reaches level 4 (it's a points system) they begin to have more influence than a 'normal' everyday Google reviewer.

How so? Well, first they get a badge to identify them (as well as the words 'Local Guide' next to every review they write - even if that business is a thousand miles from their physical home); next: we have begun to notice a pattern of Guide's reviews appearing when the search - automatically - defaults to 'Helpful', we have also noticed that Guides are being 'thanked' (the blue thumbs-up) more often than the average reviewer. 

  We reckon these Local Guides are helping the Scarsdale Tavern, put it this way: they cannot be hurting it!

But try and think of it from a consumer's point-of-view: don't Guides strike you - more than most - as 'real' people. From our own experience Guides tend to take more care over their reviews - more words, more photographs, less expletives, less ratings (scores with no written review attached). It's early days, but their reviews may even end up being preferred for the influential rich snippets that Google show in every business's Knowledge Panel.

 The opposite of the reviews for the Scarsdale above, unhelpful for the business, even without the 'Local Guide' status. With it? We will let you decide.

And what does that mean for your business? We think it means, all other things being equal, that a review from a Google Local Guide is more influential - in both directions.

Recommended action

We are not suggesting you rush out a marketing campaign to attract Local Guides just yet, but just be aware that they exist; if you have a customer you know to be a Guide you might want to go that extra mile to encourage them to post a review.

And if you have any experience of dealing with a Guide - positive or negative - we'd love to hear from you. We will doubtless be updating this article in the not-too-distant future.