Review sites - the unintended consequences

No business engages in any form of marketing in order to actively harm its own reputation, but without the right professional advice that is exactly what can happen.

As most readers will know, we have been steering our clients away from review sites for some time now. Mostly because they have significant disadvantages when compared with professional review management. 

Your business wants (and needs)...

• great reviews on its own website 
• great reviews on other sites that matter - Google first-and-foremost, then Facebook, 
• star ratings in natural/organic search - with a direct link to your website
• star ratings in local search
• review links in the Google knowledge panel

..and HelpHound clients have them all (see the example of Winkworth Kennington below or any other HelpHound client)

But professional review managers like HelpHound have another role to play as well - we are here to prevent our clients from unwittingly doing themselves harm. 

Look at this example:

 

  Unmoderated comments like these are the last thing a business needs to be hosting on its own website. Everything we do here at HelpHound revolves around honesty and transparency, but this type of system does not lend itself to complex technical and high value/high stress transactions such as property sales.

This is a screenshot taken from the business's own home page.

We have said it before - and we do not apologise for saying it again - high value businesses (like estate agency, wealth management, legal and accountancy services, to mention just a few) need moderated review management. 

Independent reviews sites were a solution for online retailers - before Google introduced their free offering - when they were returned prominently in search, but that is no longer the case:

  No star rating in organic search, no link to their reviews there or in the Knowledge Panel, and no reviews at all in mobile search (ironically, probably a good thing in this case). Note: update July 2018 - this business now has nearly three times as many Google reviews, which suggest that they have realised the error of their ways.

Another example...

This business - Karl Tatler estate agents - has nine Google reviews across four locations, less then two per office; here is the all important local search.

Unfortunately they bought (or rather - were sold) an independent reviews solution (we have reason to believe that they were told 'Oh! Google reviews are so hard to get') and they now have over 150 reviews on a site that shows on their website and in desktop search, but not in mobile, where Google completely dominates (and over 70% of their prospective customers are looking). Try the search for yourself.

If they had taken professional advice on review management we have no doubt whatsoever that both the locations shown here would have upwards of forty Google reviews each - and how impressive would that be looking against the local competition?

This is what businesses do need...

Everything reviews related that you see here is down to their HelpHound membership - the 41 Google reviews, the star rating and HelpHound score and reviews in organic search (top left) and the link to their HelpHound reviews in the knowledge panel (bottom right) and the rich snippets at the bottom of the knowledge panel as well. Read the full story, including what the management have to say, here

 ...combined with a system of moderation that allows the business and their customers to ensure, in away that is fair to business and consumer alike, that misleading and inaccurate reviews are not posted publicly on the web.

And their own reviews - not a review site's - on their website...

  

And this can only be had through professional review management; that way the business ensures its reputation is protected from unfair, inaccurate and misleading comments that benefit no-one, neither the business nor its prospective customers - anywhere: on its own website, on Google and right across the web.

Another example:

Chipsaway are a national franchise of 200 operators who will repair parking damage to your car's paintwork and wheels. 

  

They look great on Trustpilot...

  

 

But what about on Google - where all their potential customers are searching?

And it is a similar story across nearly all their outlets:

The message? Professional review management pays dividends - especially for high-value service-led businesses - in both the short and long-term. It guarantees your business maximum visibility whist minimising the risk of unfair harm to your business's reputation. It also gives your potential customers reviews, again: on your own website and on Google, that they can trust.

As a client said recently: "It costs us the same as the office round of coffee from Costa every Friday". Surely a small price to pay?

Further reading...

• 'Deflection' another unintended negative consequence of using an independent reviews site - unhappy customers are increasingly choosing to post their reviews to Google
• For more on review sites: read this
• For more on what your business will look like with professional review management read this

HelpHound and the Marketing professions - everyone wins

HelpHound - solving the reviews conundrum for you and your clients - and their customers    
  

 Just a small selection of the hundreds or review sites that businesses and consumers have to contend with. Is it surprising that professional review management has a vital role to play?

HelpHound is not a review site - we are review managers. That means we provide businesses and their advisers with professional review management, that we are your guide through the minefield that is the world of reviews - choosing whichever solution benefits each individual client and their customers, now and for the future.

Reviews - maximising the benefits whilst minimising the disadvantages

The Strand Palace Hotel, one of central London's largest (800 rooms) four star hotels uses HelpHound to host reviews on its own site to encourage direct bookings,helpHound enables the hotel to manage guest issues offline and enhance its rankings and scores across the web

Every business on the planet loves reviews - in theory. It is only when they experience the downsides that they back away - and often disengage altogether.

What can go wrong with reviews? Let's see...

• they can be factually incorrect - or just plain misleading - reviews can be written
• malicious reviews can be posted - by competitors or ex-employees
• human nature and human behaviour on the web - means that an unhappy consumer is an estimated fifteen times more likely to write a review
• a business can engage with a review site, only to find that it's the wrong review site (because it lacks visibility in search, doesn't comply with CMA rules or simply vanishes - Yelp, the biggest reviews site on the planet packed its bags and left the UK last year)

 But when you get it right...

    

Our standard module on a client's website - covering their three branches -and driving enquiries and new business. It could be any kind of business - from accountancy to a zoo - HelpHound adds value for everyone

• reviews drive enquiries
• reviews drive business
• reviews improve staff morale
• reviews form the basis for great PR and marketing
• reviews support advertising

HelpHound's role...

 Two businesses - with very different Google scores. You, even as an experienced marketing professional, will almost certainly be thinking 'Well, I won't be using the one on the left' when the only difference between the two is the one on the right is a HelpHound client

...is to ensure our clients - and their professional advisers - have mechanisms in place to ensure that they make the very best of these positives whilst minimising any negatives.

We will work with you to make sure your clients...

  

Working with Winkworth Plc and Homeflow to ensure maximum impact on their website

• display great credible reviews on their own websites
• go on to deploy those reviews on the sites that give them maximum visibility

 When Winkworth became clients their average branch had 2 Google reviews and - self-evidently - none on their own site. These now feed through to organic search - top left (with star rating directly derived from their HelpHound verified reviews) and under 'Reviews from the web' in the knowledge panel. All the 41 Google reviews are thanks to HelpHound - and the important rich snippets are gleaned from them by Google

Whilst...

• enabling them to manage all the 'disadvantages' through our Resolution™ mechanism

  

 All good businesses - whether large (Greene & Co - part of Countrywide Plc) or a small independent (like Sussex Oven Cleaning) benefit from professional review management

In addition...

   combine your design with HelpHound's software and professional expertise

• by using our API you and your client have full design control and flexibility - to show verified reviews on your clients' websites, in the locations you choose and with design to complement their branding

Winkworth's new site goes live - and that's just the beginning

Winkworth's brand new website went live this week. It includes HelpHound verified reviews - and that's not by chance.

The decision to completely revamp their website gave Winkworth the ideal opportunity to have a long hard look at their options with regard to reviews - and they were very thorough: HelpHound were invited to re-pitch alongside all the obvious contenders in the reviews arena.

So why did Winkworth choose HelpHound?

First let's get the financial aspect out of the way. HelpHound were not the cheapest. We cannot compete on price with the mass-market independent review sites - simply because professional review management is about so much more than just a piece of software. If you read the comments made by Nigel Field and Loran Absalom at Winkworth Kennington you will soon get a flavour of this.

Winkworth Plc's  requirements: 

1.  Independently verified reviews on their own site

On desktop...

And every other platform - here's mobile...

Feedback from their franchisees had indicated that contact was being made as a direct result of potential clients seeing reviews on the individual branch's website. They may have been encouraged to visit the site by seeing great reviews on Google, but it was the reviews - independently verified - on the Winkworth branch pages that were driving enquiries and business.

2.  The ability to get those reviews across to sites that matter in search 

Currently the No. 1 destination is Google. About this there was never any argument; the reviews that always show - in every search, for every business - are Google reviews. The independent sites rarely feature nowadays (except sometimes in the greyed-out links in the Knowledge box and in paid-for CPC). The point is: if an independent site is important for an individual branch HelpHound will advise accordingly.

3.  Ratings that show in Google search

There's no doubt that consumers' eyes are attracted to great star ratings. Winkworth knew this and so did HelpHound. Now their reviews - both score and number - show in natural search and link direct to the branch website.

4. Looking great in the Google 3-pack

Appearing in the Google 3-pack is currently down to SEO, but we are confidently predicting that Google will soon apply their 'Top Rated' filter to the 3-pack (it is already an option in many searches). Bear in mind that the 3-pack is a double-edged sword: if your review score is weak and you appear it will drive business away.

5.  Looking great in the Google Knowledge Panel 

A quadruple-whammy here: a great score, 41 reviews, a link direct to the branch site and their HelpHound reviews under 'Reviews from the web' and three great rich snippets.

6.  Full service

Reviews are so easy - you just ask for them and they miraculously appear. In our dreams they do! There is much more to review management than meets the eye - and it is not just about software. 

At HelpHound we have a deep understanding of everything review-related, and if we had any advantage when pitching to Winkworth it was being able to reassure them that they, and their staff and franchisees would be able to rely on HelpHound for advice, training and support.

7.  Flexibility and future-proofing

HelpHound are review managers, not a review site. This is important; our only loyalty is to our client. If the best advice is to get reviews to one of the independent review sites then that is the advice we will give. If one of those sites shows well in search, then Winkworth can rest assured that we will be advising them on a strategy to look good there (If you are not yet a HelpHound client and you are considering an independent review site you are strongly advised to read this recent article).

We have conformed to Winkworth's design requirements and advised them on the myriad ways that reviews can be used in their marketing.

You can read what they think about HelpHound here. Now - do you understand why Winkworth chose HelpHound? If you are not already aboard speak to Fiona or Karen today. 

Lessons to be learned from the inexorable slide in review sites' share prices

Let us look at the numbers - for two of the biggest quoted review sites:

Yelp...

  A fall of over 60% in three years (in the same period the index has risen over 20%)

and TripAdvisor...

 a similar tale of woe for shareholders - and a powerful message for businesses looking for maximum visibility for their reviews

The unavoidable conclusion?

The fundamentals of both these stocks are under attack. But from who/what/where? From Google, that's where.

Look at what happens when you search for any business today:

A plumber...

A hotel...

An estate agent...

Regular readers will recognise a HelpHound client here; looking great in the Google three-pack and leading the natural (also known as organic) listings with their HelpHound review score and link for all to see - and follow to their website where more reviews are shown

See?

Or rather - 'not see'! These searches are no longer returning the independent review sites - whether Yelp or RatedPeople for plumbers, TripAdvisor or Trivago for Hotels or Feefo or Trustpilot for estate agents. The only way these sites are now showing is in paid-for advertising (CPC) and a greyed-out link in the business's knowledge panel. 

That is why the share prices of the quoted independent review sites are in free-fall (and if we were investors in the independent sites that are still unquoted we would be feeling distinctly uncomfortable). 

Advice for our clients

This is where professional review management pays off. We have no bias - so we just make sure your reviews are where they are going to be seen - and today (and for the foreseeable future) that is:

• on Google
• on your own website

And if something happens in the marketplace that dictates otherwise? We will be here to advise you.



 

Hotels - a valuable case history

If we ask hotels what they want from the day they join HelpHound their answer will invariably be:

1. Better rankings and scores all-round; TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Google and all the OTAs and aggregators
2. Less negative reviews on all of the above
3. More positive reviews on all of the above
4. Great reviews on our own website to drive direct bookings

And - in nine cases out of ten - that's what we deliver. This case history covers the the tenth.

A valuable lesson learned

We will not publish anything here to identify the hotel in question. Suffice to say that it is a modern central London property of more than 100 rooms owned by a major multinational. They joined in 2015. At the time they ranked inside the top 10% of all hotels in London. This is what happened to their TripAdvisor ranking after joining:

 
After twelve months they resigned from HelpHound (the hotel management, and their guest relations manager in particular, knew HelpHound were adding value by enabling them to address guest issues before the guest posted a publicly visible review, but Head Office were looking to make savings, so the axe fell on HelpHound).

This is what has happened to their TripAdvisor ranking since they resigned:

So?

Sometimes our role is simply to maintain a property's position. In the time they were clients we enabled the hotel to manage over three figures of negative reviews from guests who might otherwise have been expected to go on to post somewhere - TripAdvisor or Google or any of the other OTAs (and enabled them to get a similar number of extra positive reviews to TripAdvisor). Now - as you can see from the chart above - those 'less than happy' guests, lacking any other outlet, have been posting (and the 'happy' ones have not).

At first sight it doesn't look a lot - but a doubling of negative reviews has had a pronounced effect on the hotel's ranking - with the contingent knock-on on pricing

In the same way, this fall in the number of positive reviews has had a measurable impact on the hotel's ranking

We would respectfully suggest that a move ostensibly saving the hotel hundreds of pounds a month has resulted not only in lower RevPAR but in an overall weakening of guest relations as well (inviting and managing reviews is a massive aid to guest retention).
 
Note: Fair to all

HelpHound's role is not to make a hotel - or any other business - look better than it is. Rather, it is to enable the hotel and its guests to give an even more accurate impression - for the good of everyone concerned. 

Cornell School of Hospitality estimates that a guest is nearly fifteen times more likely to post a negative review than a positive one - HelpHound's role is simply to enable our clients to address that imbalance. 

If your property is using a service like ReviewPro or Revinate or any other customer relationship software to improve the guest experience, it should be using HelpHound at the front end - so it looks as good as it is - everywhere.