Dialogue™ - the best thing to happen to businesses since Google?

We appreciate that this is a bold claim, but it is a considered one. Let us explain.

Consumers are influenced by reviews; great reviews drive business and negative reviews deflect business. Academic and commercial research confirms this beyond any reasonable doubt. Feedback from our clients adds further weight: from customers walking into their offices clutching print-outs of their positive reviews to reports - from agitated prospective clients - of telephones ceasing to ring when a negative review has been posted.

Businesses know this. But they continue to struggle with reviews. Why? Because of a - well founded - fear of the damage a negative review can wreak on their business's reputation. All because of human nature: consumers are, on average, up to fifteen times more likely to write a negative review than a positive one. 

Look at the figures for a world-renowned hotel: the Ritz in London. They have received 2600 reviews on TripAdvisor since May 2003, 2400 are positive, the balance, 200, are negative. That's nearly 10% of their guests who have bothered to write a review (out of roughly half a million guests over that period). Management at the Ritz will tell you that the 'real' figure for guests expressing any dissatisfaction is far less than 1%, it's just that an unhappy guest has so much more motivation to write a review. 

This was all fine-and-dandy when confined to the world of hospitality - consumers quickly accustomed themselves to expecting to read negative reviews about hotels and restaurants. But when it comes to high value transactional businesses that's a whole new ball game. A single well-written negative review has the power to deflect business (we have considerable first-hand knowledge of this - mostly from prospective clients whose first contact with us has been prompted by sudden reductions in enquiries and business as a direct result of a single negative review).

Google enters the fray

Then along came Google. Relatively late to the table, they tiptoed into reviews via Google Places and then Google Maps. Then: understanding consumer demand for reviews in search, they took the plunge and brought reviews - their own reviews - right forward:

And here's a great example: it shows two businesses that have yet to engage with online reviews (either that or they really are as bad as the reviews say they are - which we seriously doubt) and one business that has yet to engage and has - so far - flown under the reviews radar.

Why is Google - and why are Google reviews - so important for businesses? 

Google is the gatekeeper of the web for the overwhelming majority of consumers. There are other review websites, some huge like TripAdvisor and Yelp, some niche (there's one for almost every type of business on the planet) but we all have to negotiate Google to find them. 

That's why shares in quoted review sites have plummeted recently (TripAdvisor from $110 to $63, Yelp from $98 to $19); those falls are simply a reflection of the market waking up to the realisation that Google will dominate the reviews market for the foreseeable future.

To get people to choose to visit your website, you need to look great - and better than your competitors - in search. Coming top - or near the top - is just not enough if a competitor has great reviews.

So why do so many businesses look insignificant (no - or few - reviews) or awful (negative reviews - like the ones below) in search?

The fear of looking like this has prompted most businesses to stay well away from reviews of any kind. Below is an all-too-common example of a Google 3-pack - this time the search is 'insurance brokers' in 'Reading':

The Google 3-pack highlights just three local businesses. Two of these have no reviews at all, but we're sure that they would love to have lots, they are just frightened that if they ask their clients to review them they may get one like the third has:

Enter HelpHound - and Dialogue™

Another Google search: This time for an 'estate agent' in 'Maida Vale':

The top business in this search looks, we're sure you will agree, much better. How? They are HelpHound clients. To understand how HelpHound makes such a difference we need to look at Dialogue in more detail.

Dialogue™

The process you see illustrated above, which we call Dialogue, effectively rebalances the world of reviews on the web, to everyone's advantage. It makes reviews fair and representative.

Fair?

In order for reviews to be useful - to anyone and everyone - they need to be:

• Genuine: fake reviews - endemic on open review sites like TripAdvisor (by their own admission) help no-one. Positive fakes - often written by the business - mislead consumers. Negative fakes - perhaps written by a competitor or a disgruntled ex-employee - unfairly harm the business
• Factually correct: a review may be written with the best of intentions, but if it contains factual inaccuracies (incorrect pricing - blame wrongly attributed) it helps no-one, business or consumer
• Unfiltered: It is only fair to offer businesses a chance to correct errors of fact before the review is published - as HelpHound does, for the reasons stated above - it is quite another to offer the business the ability to choose which reviews are shown

Dialogue complies with all three of these important conditions: and, in addition, our clients must allow their customers to write a review to their 'module' at any time. There are far too many reviews currently showing that such-and-such a pair of shoes rates five stars when the review was written by invitation only at the point-of-purchase. How much more valuable if the reviewer could return and review the product again after a year's wear-and tear?

So:

For the consumer: Dialogue means that they can rely on our clients' reviews. They know they will be genuine, factually correct and unfiltered - and they know that they are not just reading the opinions of 'invitation only' consumers in the first flush of their relationship with the business under review.
For the business: Dialogue removes the 'fear factor'. Now no well-managed business need fear unfair or factually incorrect reviews. They can approach their customers secure in the knowledge that their business will be accurately reflected in the reviews that their customers will write. 

Reviews on the business's own website

Below you will see one of our client's home page:

There are several points to make here. The first is the prominence they have given to their HelpHound module (the blue box and the review snippet just under 'Office Information'); this positioning reflects the value the business places on their reviews - and rightly so: day-in day-out we receive calls from clients that reinforce the contention that it is reviews on their own websites that drive business:

"Looking great - by having great reviews on Google - drives visits to our website. But it's having more great reviews there - on our website - that drive the inbound enquiry or sale."

This is just one of the reasons we don't advise our clients to ask their customers to post direct to Google (another important reason: they will be bypassing the opportunity to correct misapprehensions in the review that Dialogue offers both business and customer - already mentioned above).

Just a click away from their HelpHound module - all our clients' reviews for all the world to see:

With the all-important reassurance beside our logo at the top of every module:

And - equally important - evidence that anyone can write a review at any time: the 'Write your review' button at bottom right of this screenshot.

Don't forget the future

 Will your business be filtered? Remember the filter takes businesses with none or fewer than 5 reviews out of search altogether

In future Google can only become more and more important for businesses, we predict that it will:

• introduce ranking: consumers want to see the best businesses in search, not just a random list - and certainly not the ones with the biggest SEO spend. Logic dictates that ranking will be directly related to Google scores (businesses acquire a Google score when they have five reviews)
• expand its review filter: at present the filter has only been applied to businesses in hospitality (hotels, B&Bs and restaurants). Logic again dictates rolling this out to every kind of business and service as and when the reviews upon which the filter depends reach critical mass
• refine and roll out its review matrix: at the moment hotel reviews are subdivided into 'Rooms', 'Location' and 'Service & Facilities'. We see no reason why sub-categories (and their resulting scores) should not apply to every kind of business and service

In summary:

So: if our clients look great, it is because they are great. Dialogue gives them the confidence to invite and display reviews on their own sites and on Google (or any other site they choose) and they are able to relax in the certain knowledge that if they have any questions or concerns whatsoever HelpHound and our great client support team are here to back them up. Engage with reviews today - with confidence - with HelpHound.

Another review spat - this time it's Purplebricks

Businesses and review websites keep on missing the point:

    

Read the full EYE article here

 
What point?

That all the time you insist on using a mechanism that is 'invitation only' your reviews are going to lack credibility. 

In this case: of course the reviews on Facebook are going to carry (some) more weight - Facebook is an open platform, whereas we have yet to see an agent embedding a link to a site like Trustpilot on their own site (and very few clients are going to find it of their own accord).

For your reviews be credible:

You must give up control over:

• Who is allowed - invited - to write a review
• When they are allowed to write a review
• Whether their review is published on your website or not

The main reason our clients love their HelpHound modules is that they give their reviews total credibility (as if there is anything in consumers' eye but total credibility!). 

• Anyone can go to our client's module and write a review, at any time, day or night, weekends, when they first become a client or months or even years later

 Here's a standard HelpHound module. The second link - 'write a review' is critical to the credibility of your reviews - and it tells your prospective client that you welcome (and publish) reviews from anyone at any time

Which means our clients can tell their prospective clients:

• That anyone can write a review
• Whenever they choose
• And it will be published

How powerful a message does that convey to your potential client? How much would you like to do business with someone who promised to publish your opinion, whenever you chose to give it?

Those of you who are new to HelpHound will be asking - quite rightly - what about misleading, inaccurate or fraudulent reviews? They are managed through Resolution (click and read) so that concern evaporates.

Resolution™ in action - and some case histories

 Customers - including those who post negative reviews to Google - are not always right

In January 2015 we received a call from a firm of London estate agents. They were concerned that they had received a flurry of negative Google reviews (having had no reviews at all three months previously). Could we help? We visited the business and carried out our usual audit: we interviewed the directors and came to the conclusion that they were a well-managed and professional business (contrary to the impression given by the reviews), so we set to work. 

Dialogue was embedded into their website – including an invitation to their clients to copy their reviews to Google. At the same time we advised them to respond to their existing Google reviews and to appeal those that we felt were contravening Google T&Cs.  

This resulted them embarking on a quest to rebalance their reputation on Google from a very low base of nine negative reviews and a Google score of 1.2. To date they have received over 200 reviews to their HelpHound module, of which over fifty have been copied to Google. Their Google score now stands at 4.1.

This does not mean that the agents in question no longer have any dissatisfied clients (show us the business that can make that claim). They have had nearly thirty 3, 2 or 1 star reviews of one kind or another posted through Dialogue, six of which are now displayed on their module and one of which has been copied to Google. 

So what happened to the negative reviews that did not make it to their module? In every instance their reviewer was able to engage with the business and the business was able to reply to the reviewer, before the reviewer was invited – by HelpHound – to post a final review. We have analysed each and every review; the results of this analysis are illuminating:

All the negative reviews were posted by tenants and they broke down as follows:

·       62% referred to deposits that had not been returned in full

·       the remainder referred to maintenance issues

Here are examples of reviews in each category:

1.  Non-return of deposit

The reviewer: complained that, having spent the entire weekend cleaning the property, with his girlfriend, the agents had instructed professional cleaners and deducted the cost from the tenant’s deposit.

The business: responded by pointing out that the tenant’s contract stipulated professional cleaning and that this had been reinforced to the tenant by email two weeks before they were dues to vacate.

Result: both parties satisfied, no review posted – to HelpHound or to Google

2.  The reviewer: complained that their washing machine had broken down and that the agent had been slow to arrange maintenance (the review mentioned ‘several weeks’). They also complained that they had been asked to bear part of the cost of the replacement.

The business: the agent’s log and contractor’s invoices showed that the fault had been reported on a Friday and the engineer had attended on the following Monday to find that the tenant had accidentally washed an item of clothing containing a steel chain which had damaged the machine beyond repair.

Result: both parties satisfied, no review posted – to HelpHound or to Google

The key is: both the business's Dialogue module and Google now present a full and fair picture of this business to its prospective clients. Reviews stating errors of fact or unsubstantiated assertions help no-one.  The business’s clients are universally happy with the service provided by the business and by HelpHound. Everyone – the business, their customers (existing and prospective) and Google - wins.

A note on Google reviews:

The business has a right-of-reply (and we always recommend that our clients do so). Unfortunately Google have no way of arbitrating between reviewer and reviewed business, so the score attached to a negative review - inevitably one or two stars - stands, irrespective of the business's response.

An extreme example of this was a Google review of a London pub which asserted that the pub 'charged £6 for a pint of beer' and gave the pub one star. The pub responded to the review with the correct price, but the score stood - negatively impacting the pub's overall score.

Again: the point we are making is that Dialogue is fair to all concerned. It cannot make a business look better than it is. The reviewer is always invited to post a review - to Dialogue and to Google, whatever the outcome of Resolution. What Dialogue does do is prevent false or misleading reviews from making it into the public domain.

Me, me, me - and how to get reviews

'Me, me, me'? 

It's 'Me' time now!

That is how one of our most successful estate agent client's subject line reads in the email they send out asking for reviews.

The inference is plain: that they have worked hard to sell/find/let the client's property and now it's 'Me' time. Time for the client to help the agent by writing a review to Dialogue and then copying it to Google.

Will this approach work for you?

Yes. But only if you have prepared the ground and warned your client to expect to write both reviews. It is absolutely no good sending any kind of email inviting reviews out-of-the-blue. Your client needs to know - in advance:

• Writing those reviews - both of them - is part-and-parcel of the way you do business
• Which should be explained when you first meet - as part of your pitch: "We ask all our clients to write a review on our website and to copy that review to Google"
• And reinforced at every touch-point by every member of your staff when they or your business are paid a compliment: "Please remember to mention that when you write your review"

N.B. This approach will only work with 'current and ongoing' clients. It relies on the client expecting the email. And it still requires a follow-up phone call to be really effective. If you are a new HelpHound client and you are approaching recent clients who will know nothing of your new review management policy you will need to phone each and every one of them to explain why you need the reviews. 

Foxtons switch from AllAgents to Google

 If you are a HelpHound client you are doing everything right already. If you are not yet a client - and you want to look like Foxtons on Google, but with major added benefits (read on) - speak to us now.

The recent switch that Foxtons have made: from inviting their clients to post reviews to AllAgents to asking them to write them to Google is so topical (and high profile - see PIE) that we felt we should comment. 

First: we agree that Google is the only external site that matters since the independent review sites dropped out of search. We have been saying this for over two years now: This article was written in December 2013 - and the advice contained in it - focus on Google - was right then and remains correct - and current - now.

Foxtons already - within two weeks as PIE says - look great on Google (they will almost certainly have gone back to the clients who wrote reviews on AllAgents and asked those who posted 5* reviews there to copy them to Google). They have certainly put the final nail in the coffin of the argument that 'Clients won't write two reviews' and the old 'We find it difficult to get our clients to copy their review to Google' once and for all.

But - and there is a big BUT...

The first issue we do have with this strategy is that it bypasses a major opportunity: to get credible and verified reviews to - and displayed on - their own branch websites (these currently host testimonials).

Let us explain further:  because it's very important in the context of the potential client's journey from initial search to ultimately picking up the phone and becoming an inbound enquiry. 

Here is a line from a recent email to HelpHound from a client of ours:

"These reviews have been added to our Google page this week, Please can you add them to our HelpHound module?"

The answer, of course, was 'No' - Google rightly don't like their content being copied (and it's against their T&Cs). But there was a wider - and much more important point underlying the request: that it's the reviews on our client's modules that are driving business.

  Clients will recognise this as the header which every visitor to their website sees above their reviews: it contains a considerable amount of information but the most powerful message is that the reviews are independently verified and that we promise to publish all final reviews. Potential clients can also see the 'write your review' button which carries another important message: any client can write a review whenever they want. This takes reviews well away from the 'invitation only' concept of testimonials which so dilutes their power.

Read this recent article for the whole story, but the message from our clients in estate agency is the same which ever way you look at it:

'Looking great on Google - in concert with all our other marketing - drives people to our website. It's the independently verified reviews we show them there - combined with our ability to reassure potential clients that they are not filtered - that are driving the enquiries.'

Credibility - such an important concept

So: Foxton's have done the very best they can. They have - as far as we can see - asked anyone who has written a positive review - to AllAgents or directly - to write a review on Google. But without an external independent mechanism like Dialogue, that solution lacks two key elements that become crucial when facing a potential client (in person or on your website) and at their core is the ability to say 'Yes' to these two questions:

1. Are all your clients able to write a review to your website, whenever they choose?
2. Are you displaying all their opinions there?

And it's the ability to answer 'Yes' to both these that drives new business - both through our clients' websites and when they are face-to-face with a potential client.

If you would like to read even more on this topic read: HelpHound's Dialogue™ v. D.I.Y.

Trustpilot takes down online agent's reviews

This story on PIE prompts the question: just whose reviews can you - and your customers - trust?

We are not going to pick on any particular review site here, but we will point out some general shortcomings across the reviews world:

1. Algorithm based moderation: We tried that - effectively it involves writing a computer programme to spot fake or fraudulent reviews - back in 2008, but it did not work then, for the same reasons it does not work now: human nature combined with the wonderful English language. Human nature means that if there is a flaw in a system someone will try to exploit it: the business, disgruntled clients, 'helpful' friends of the business or its employees, ex-members of staff. How do you programme a computer to identify all of these? You cannot. And we don't. Our solution: human moderators and a two-strikes rule. Our experienced moderators read every review. And their experience means that they can recognise a fake positive on sight, at least nine times out of ten (all negatives, of course, are automatically subject to scrutiny through Resolution™ - pre-publication). This means that a HelpHound client's chances of being able to post multiple fake positives, however sophisticated their attempt(s) are so slim as to be negligible. This is backed up by our 'two strikes' rule: any client posting a fake review gets a final warning, another fake and they are no longer a HelpHound client.
2. Flagging: having an internal flagging system is not enough. Our solution: any reader of any review is able to flag that review, immediately and on-screen. If they do so the review becomes subject to intensive scrutiny, which may include suspension of the review in question until we can be assured of its veracity.
3. Publishing negatives before contacting the business: this is tantamount to an invitation to game any review site. It is not sufficient to say that the business has a right-of-reply, the damage is already done. It is vital, for business and consumer, that any criticism of the business is valid, fair and balanced. Our solution: Again: Resolution™: every negative is first served to the business. All reviewers retain the right to publish, but the business is allowed to respond to correct errors of fact.
4. Share price = volume of reviews: This is the cynic in us coming to the fore: if the review site is a quoted entity (or has ambitions in that direction) the stockmarket has an unfortunate habit of imputing value in relation to the quantity of reviews the site hosts. There is a therefore a massive incentive for the review business to host the maximum number of reviews. Our solution: have a business model where the business's value is not related to the number of reviews it hosts.

To summarise

If you are going to engage with reviews you must make sure that whatever mechanism you employ has credibility: we are all familiar with the headlines about sites like TripAdvisor (remember when the ASA stopped them using the word 'trusted'?) so we need to be able to answer the basic and central question from consumers - our and your customers - "Why should I trust your reviews?"

 Your customers can rely on the promise at the bottom left-hand corner of this screenshot - from one of our client's websites - and anywhere else it's displayed: 'Verified by HelpHound' means just that

From the above you will see that HelpHound takes this aspect of our service - credibility - very seriously indeed. Whilst there is no system on the planet that can - or ever will - provide a guarantee that every review written is cast-iron certain to be 100% genuine (is the writer related to any member of staff at the business in question, and, if so, are they mother, father, brother, sister or second cousin three times removed?!) we have done, and continue to do, everything in our power to ensure that a review written through Dialogue is the genuine article, to be relied on when booking a hotel room, choosing a financial advisor or estate agent, in fact using any business or service whatsoever.

OTA Commissions: Hilton fights back

Here's Hilton Honors' campaign designed to encourage their guests to book direct:

It addresses half the problem: the perception that guests will get a better deal by booking through an OTA.

The other half? Your potential guests' insatiable thirst for reviews - and by reviews we mean words and pictures. To satisfy this demand the hotel needs independently verified reviews hosted on their own site - preferably right next to their booking engine. Then - at last - perhaps they may have a solution. We'll - at least half a solution, which has to be better than none at all.

  Here's the Venetian in Macao's 'Best Rate Guarantee'

Our suggestion for the 'price' half? Well, it's really none of our business as professional review managers, but how about a banner with "Guaranteed best rate available" on your site, accompanied by a John Lewis type 'refund the difference' policy?