What a difference a year makes!

We keep close tabs on our clients and that includes records of how they look on their own websites and how they appear in search. This is one search (on the company name 'Greene & Co') exactly a year ago...

And here we are today (firstly, on the company's own website)...

Maida Vale has 117 reviews like this:

Belsize Park has 63 like this:

and West Hampstead has 144 like this:

Now on Google:

 Good...

 Better...

 Better...

Even Better Still...

Best!

Well done Greene & Co. If you would like to know more go here.

Review Management: How does you business score?

Take this test -  those businesses that fail it risk failing in a much wider examination: under the critical gaze of their potential customers.

By the way - the test assumes your business has reviews - if it does not, you fail before even embarking; don't for a minute start congratulating yourself (as so many do): without reviews your business has no presence in the online court of consumer opinion.

Which business looks a) 'engaged' b) 'professional' and, most important of all: c) 'great in the eyes of its clients'?

So - ten questions for you:

1. Has your business has been reviewed (anywhere) online?
2. Has your business been reviewed on Google?
3. Do you respond to all your reviews on a specialist site (e.g TripAdvisor, AllAgents)?
4. Do you respond to all your reviews on Google?
5. Do you host independently verified reviews on your own website?
6. Do you have a formal mechanism for getting customers to post reviews to a specialist site?
7. Do you have a formal mechanism for getting customers to post reviews to Google?
8. Do you have a mechanism that enables you to manage negatives before customers post to an external site?
9. Do you show your reviews to potential customers at point-of-sale?
10. Do you use your reviews in your marketing (newsletters etc.)?

So - to follow the 'Cosmo' format...

Yes to:

• Q. 1: You've been reviewed: you get a big pat on the back
• Q. 2: You've been reviewed on Google: Another - bigger - pat on the back
• Q. 3: You respond to reviews (on e.g TripAdvisor): 10 points
• Q. 4: You respond to reviews (on Google): 10 points
• Q. 5: You host verified reviews on your site: 10 points*
• Q. 6: You have a formal mechanism to get your customers to post to a specialist site: 10 points*
• Q. 7: You have a formal mechanism to get your customers to post to Google: 10 points*
• Q. 8: You have a mechanism to manage negative comments: 10 points*
• Q. 9: You show reviews at point-of-sale: 10 points
• Q.10: You use reviews in your marketing: 10 points

Your score:

20-30: It's definitely a start, but there's still a long way to go
30-50: You are doing all you can without HelpHound
50+ You are definitely a client of ours!*

HelpHound Dialogue is currently the only integrated review management system that will enable you and your business to answer 'Yes' to all the questions above (and score a maximum 80 in this quiz). 

After reading reviews like this, do you think potential clients are a) 'more likely' or b) 'less likely' to use this business?

Simple to implement and to operate, Dialogue ensures our clients know with absolute certainty that they have a review management strategy in place that is comprehensive in its coverage as well as being as future-proof as possible.

*Points marked with an asterisk are (with very few exceptions) exclusive to HelpHound and our clients

One bad review. Harmful? You bet!

A negative review is never a good thing; a negative review combined with social media (Twitter in this case) can cause massive damage.

Here's the post on TripAdvisor. It currently has more than 1100 'helpful' votes.

The solution: respond to the reviewer explaining the circumstances - do not start a fight with them.

Denial

We occasionally meet a business that does not fully understand the implications of a single negative review. So here's a real life example:

This is the full text of the review, but someone - a potential client - would need to click through to read it. So no major harm done then? Wrong! Below are the rich snippets that are fully visible for every search on the business's name.

These rich snippets - all three of them - are from one single review, the only Google review that business has, and they are being displayed in every single search. 

So, some rules:

1. Even a single negative review can (and will) do damage to your business
2. You cannot know how much damage (people are most unlikely to ring you and say 'I was going to use your business, but I have been put off by what I read on Google')
3. If at all possible you need to engage with review management before you begin to get reviews on Google
4. If you already have a negative review on Google, you need to engage now; every day that goes past means more lost business

Restaurants - there's more than one way to benefit from looking good on TripAdvisor

Some restaurants say 'we don't do PR', and we know what they mean. But we think they do - every time they serve a customer. And that's when they ought to be thinking 'scores and rankings' on Google, on TripAdvisor, Zagat, Yelp, TopTable, Urbanspoon...

Any PR professional will tell you what this kind of publicity is worth, especially for a local restaurant in local media. All done for you by TripAdvisor; all you need to do is take reviews seriously, seriously enough to look great to a journalist looking to fill that crucial space.

With Dialogue working for you you will look great across the web, and then the review sites will pump out great publicity for you. You win both ways - great reviews on the web, great PR prompted by those great reviews.

Dialogue for Estate Agents - getting reviews: advice for managers

We've learned a lot about review management over the last eight years, and one of the most important things we have learned is just how to get reviews - both to your own websites and to Google.

So here we go - without pulling any punches:

1. If you just send emails you will get some response, but it won't be earth-shattering
2. If you follow-up the emails with a phone call, response will increase massively
3. If you target your staff to produce a specific number of reviews a month, you will do even better
4. If you incentivise your staff to ask for (and get) reviews, you will do even better still

 Do YOU want to look like this? Then do 2, 3 and 4!

If you are new to HelpHound you will soon know just how valuable each review is to you (see this article: 'Just How Much is a Single Review Worth'), and we can, of course, only advise. The final strategy you adopt is up to you.

Estate Agents - Don't risk asking your clients to post direct to Google

Focusing on the Web, for now, there are two arenas where you are able to influence a potential client: on your own website and on Google.

On your own website: 

You have invested time, money and resources in making this attractive (to potential fee earners). You know it is visited by hundreds (in some cases thousands) of people a month and, let's face it, most of those are actively looking to do business in one way or another (very few people visit an estate agent's website out of idle curiosity these days - they visit portals for that). 

So you need to show verified (and therefore credible) reviews there.

Independently verified reviews drive enquiries through your website

The benefits of hosting reviews on your own site will be hugely rewarding - read what happened to this client just days after joining.

On Google:

Let us tell you a story. Last month a new client joined. A great agency, with good management and hard-working and diligent staff. The MD decided they would contact their 'top 20' clients first (using Dialogue - thankfully), the clients who they knew, for certain, would write five star reviews.

He was right about the clients writing reviews; but, to his surprise, three of the clients' responses were less than glowing. Two were the result of misunderstandings caused by factors outside the agent's control; one was a client who had been 'got at' by friends and relations and decided that they had been advised ('forced' was the actual word used in the review) to sell 'at the wrong time.'

These potentially damaging reviews were able to be managed by the agent because they went through Dialogue first. The issues they had raised were dealt with calmly and effectively in private. Had they been posted direct to Google the effect would have been disastrous. None resulted in a published review - on Google or anywhere else.

You need to score as near to 5 out of 5 as possible:

Potential clients will contact agents that look great on Google

And that means no negative reviews. You need to reduce the chances of a review like this showing on Google to as close to nil as possible:

Like it or not - potential clients are influenced by negative reviews

The Dialogue™ effect

Dialogue allows you to...

• Confidently invite reviews to your own website knowing that you will be able to address any issues raised in private
• Go on to invite those who have reviews published on your website to post their reviews to Google

All safe in the knowledge that you are showing just how great your business is on your own site and on Google, without running the risk that one misunderstanding with one client becomes the negative review that harms your business for years to come.

Don't be tempted to take a short-cut

With Dialogue you will soon look great - on your site and on Google, and with the passing months and years you will look better still. Don't knee-jerk into inviting your clients to post direct to Google just because a competitor suddenly looks great there. You are in business for the long haul, you owe it to your business not to risk its reputation with a 'quick fix' solution.

Use Dialogue and you can rest easy that you have a review management solution that will serve your business well in the years to come. With HelpHound right behind you for help and advice on all matters review-related, all the time.

Agent sells in 'eye popping deal' - did Dialogue help?

Read on and make your own judgement...

Greene & Co became clients almost exactly two years ago, in April 2013. Their objectives, in common with most of our clients, were twofold...

To gather independently verified reviews to display on their website, like this:

And like this: 

 And be able to invite those reviewers to copy their reviews to Google, like this:

So they look like this when a prospective client searches for them on Google:

And, perhaps most important of all, this is what they look like against their competitors in any local search for 'estate agent' in their locality:

So - do we think we know the answer to the question posed in the title at the top of the page? We do - but more importantly, do you? If you do, and you would like to hear the full story, drop Karen Hutchings a line at karen.hutchings@helphound.com or pop a message in the box at the top of this page.