Review Management - four options for businesses

Do nothing

It's what a lot of businesses do now. The majority, in fact. Just look at how many plumbers in Chiswick have bothered to get their customers to post reviews:

Advantages:

• We cannot think of any (apart from the fact that it would save someone in your office about half-an-hour a week) but that's maybe because we have seen all the advantages of taking a proactive stance with reviews for so long now!

Disadvantages:

• You lose a massive opportunity to harness your customers' goodwill to drive new business
• You allow your competitors to steal a march - and look better on their own websites and in search than you do

Independent review sites - general

   These days only one kind of review shows up directly in Google search: Google reviews.

Advantages 

• Reviews can be shown to potential customers, via links in emails or in person.

Disadvantages

• They don't always show in search when Google reviews invariably do
• Beware of their business models: do they rely on pushing your reviews down unless you pay - often called 'Premium Listing" -  (Yelp)? 

Independent review sites - specialist

   There are three ways of being listed by Google showing in this single screenshot: Paid-for advertising, the 3-Pack and natural listings. Greene & Co currently appear at the top of the 3-Pack and are the top of natural search as well. Two questions: Do you see any independent review site (specific: AllAgents or RaterAgent or general: Yelp/Yell) showing and do you think their Google score of 4.9 from 131 reviews is helping to drive business?

Advantages

• They're sector specific, so you know that someone looking at them is looking for a business like yours

Disadvantages

• You will be shown alongside all your competitors, often at a disadvantage if you do not pay for a 'premium listing' or if your rating or score is not quite as good
• Few of them will allow you to embed reviews without a link to their websites (it's never advisable to invite visitors to your website to leave to visit a site containing details of your competitors)

Do-It-Yourself

Advantages 

• You save any fees (although you should factor in time spent ensuring your strategy remains current)

Disadvantages

• You are unable to claim that you host verified reviews on your own website (verification self-evidently must be done by someone independent of your business)
• You will need to monitor changes at Google and the relevant review sites (see under 'Professional - advantages' below)

Professional Review Management

It is all about trust: this hotels' potential guests are able to fully trust the reviews hosted on the hotel's own website - all 429 of them - because they are being reassured by the line under the hotel's logo. They also love the subliminal message that they too will be invited to post a review after their own stay.

 
Here we'll take the disadvantages first!

Disadvantages

• It's going to cost you. Not a lot, and we would like to think the advantages listed below tip the balance, but it's not free
• That's it, unless you count the time spent in implementing and maintaining our recommended strategy across your business

Advantages

• You will have independently verified - and therefore credible - reviews to show to every single visitor to your website
• You will be able to ask your customers to copy those reviews onto any other open website you choose: Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp and a so on
• You will have someone - HelpHound - monitoring the reviews landscape for you 24/7. Did you notice the introduction of the Google review filter? On January 1? We did. When did we tell our clients about it? On Tuesday January 5 - the first working day after its introduction. The Google Magic 7 replaced by the 3-Pack? Same. Advice to our hotel clients to take care with TripAdvisor's modified Review Express? Within a week. Important and relevant advice - when you need it
• Full support: had a negative review - on any site? We'll advise you. Need to understand your G+ page(s): We'll explain them. Cannot wait to dovetail your reviews with social media? We'll show you the best way to integrate them with Facebook, G+ and Twitter.

Finally

If we discount the first option (doing nothing) and the second option (getting reviews to sites that don't show in Google search) the choice is yours; if we have said enough to convince you to at least speak to us about going the professional route just speak to Fiona Christie or Karen Hutchings today.

Reviews: What we can all learn from AirBnB

 We constantly look at other businesses to see how they are using reviews; AirBnB are just one - great - example of a business which has realised that reviews are not just a useful addition, but core to their success

When AirBnB began their journey they recognised they had to overcome one significant hurdle: trust. How could they ensure - as far as possible - that hosts and guests would have the maximum reassurance that both parties would uphold their sides of the deal?

Reviews became the answer...

They took a long hard look at TripAdvisor. How to emulate them, but go one better? Simple: don't just invite reviews, but make reviews mandatory - on both sides of the equation. Now, for every stay, there's a review by the guest and a review of the guest by the host.

The impact:

   These 3 screen-grabs are taken from AirBnB's blog 'Building for Trust' - today. If you would like to see Joe Gebbia of AirBnB's TED talk on this subject it's here (it's worth it for the story of the traveller whose life was saved by his AirBnB hosts)

First we'll look at this from the consumers' point-of-view, it answers all these questions at a stroke:

• Am I getting all their guests' opinions? 
• Was the stay value for money?
• Did anyone not enjoy their stay? And, if not, why not?
• Are the hosts painting the full picture? 

And now from the business's...

• They know their guest is getting the full picture. They know the guest can rely on their fellow guests - completely. They know it gives their potential guest the confidence to go ahead and book.

And a word for the nay-sayers:

We have all heard the AirBnB horror stories. They are invariably as a result of one or both parties going off-piste and not communicating (or paying) through AirBnB. bear in mind that AirBnB list 1.5 million properties across 34,000 cities - it works!

Become like AirBnB

Explain to your customers that leaving a review is considered standard practice for your business, and explain why:

• because you rely on them 
• because your potential clients rely on them

 ...then you can sit back and watch the business roll in.


N.B. At HelpHound we are proud that our review management system - Dialogue™ - only works for good businesses. If you think your business will attract a lot of negative reviews, then perhaps you need to address whatever failings might cause your customers to write them before you join.

Dialogue does incorporate a great - and extremely effective - dispute resolution mechanism (called Resolution™); and our clients and their customers do make use of it. An average of 8% of all reviews go through Resolution - with over 97% of those resulting in a satisfactory outcome for both parties.

Estate Agents: making the best of Dialogue™

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

1. If you just send emails you will get very little response
2. If you follow-up each and every email with a phone call*, within minutes of the email going to your client, response will increase 
3. If you get all your staff to explain to clients just how important reviews are for your business - both reviews (to your site and to Google) response will be even better
4. If you target your staff to produce a specific number of reviews a month (say three to your website and one to Google), you will do even better still
5. If you incentivise your staff to ask for (and get) reviews, you will do brilliantly

 Do you want to look like this? Then make sure you do 2, 3 and 4! And for the eagle-eyed: the 'branch' with only 8 reviews is their head office!

If you are new to Dialogue you will soon understand just how valuable each review is to you (see this article: 'Just How Much is a Single Review Worth'), and how effective Dialogue is in driving new business.


*We are often asked about the content of this crucial phone call...

The Call

Of course, the call is made a whole lot easier for both parties if your client has been 'warned' to expect it during their previous day-to-day dealings with you (you will find that current clients - who have had the importance of reviews stressed to them - write proportionately more reviews, especially to Google, than past clients). Your client will also find writing the review easier if you can give them some prompts, along these lines:

"It would be helpful if you mentioned...[that you had considered other agents]" and "Do you remember that we...[recommended a great mortgage broker]"

Response is also much better if you are completely candid with your client...

"We really need your opinion, on our own site and on Google....because that's the way new clients find us nowadays."

...rather than dressing it up as 'customer feedback' (which most of us have learned to hate!). 

Overall

The calls (and other client contact) are key; get all your staff to familiarise themselves with the process - on desktop/laptop and on tablet/mobile, both for Dialogue and for Google - by writing real reviews of businesses they have used recently - and they will be able to empathise with their clients and explain the process to them, so your success rates will be as high as you need them to be.

Getting reviews posted on Google via mobile and tablet: Google links change all the time (without notice) so warn your clients. They will be able to write (and copy) their review very easily as long as you explain the simple procedure.


Note: Regular readers may recognise much of this article - please read it all - we never stop learning and refining our advice.

Dialogue™ - effective and, most important of all, fair

There are three parties to the exchange that takes place through Dialogue:

1. The business (our client)
2. Their customer
3. Google*

Here we examine, in detail, the pros (and cons) of Dialogue for each of those.

The customer - always the first focus of everything we do

Any verified customer of a client business may write a review to that business's HelpHound Dialogue module. Then the review is read by our moderators; if that review is positive - 4 or 5 star - it will be published, if it is negative - 3 star or less - or contains potential errors of fact, it will be forwarded to the business for comment (the process we call Resolution™). After the business has responded the customer will be invited by HelpHound to post a final review.

This means that...

• customers who are writing the review as a 'thank you' will always have their reviews published straight away
• customers who are less than satisfied will have their complaint investigated and responded to (a pre-condition of membership of HelpHound for the business); after that they will be invited to post a final review on the business's module

After that process we invite every customer to post a review to Google - no exceptions are made. 

The business

Dialogue enables businesses to invite and display verified - and therefore credible - reviews on their websites. So far, so good; but there are potential pitfalls:

• All of our modules are 'open' - in other words anyone - and we mean anyone - can write a review of our client business
• We promise - on our client business's behalf - that every reviewer has the right to have their review published on the business's website
• Everyone who has a review published on our client business's website is subsequently invited to post that review to Google

Misunderstandings can arise about these three points, so let's deal with them in more detail:

• 'Open' modules: If the reviews on our clients websites are to have complete credibility, those reading them must know that they are much more than simply 'representative' - they must know that each and every customer is able to write a review. 

• 'Right to be published': We allow no filtering. The only way a business can delete a negative review is by resigning from HelpHound (and losing their module). That, however, is very different from a system that allows misconceived comments to be published. Time and again we forward negative reviews to our clients who then politely - and calmly - correct errors of fact.  Errors of fact in reviews help no-one: the reviewer, the business or the reader of the review. There is a grey area, of course, between a review that contains an error of fact and one that simply says 'I cannot recommend this business because...'. In this instance the business is allowed to state its case (by apologising, if an apology is appropriate) and then the reviewer is invited to post a final review. This has the huge benefit for both business and customer of adding a dispute resolution function into Dialogue. We have countless examples of messages where the customer has said that they were grateful to have the opportunity to resolve the issue at hand with the business.

• To Google: Google reviews are seen by everyone - whether they are looking for them or not - simply by virtue of being served in every search on a business's name. Unfortunately proportionately very few customers post a review (The Ritz Hotel in London, for instance has 133 rooms and 161 reviews on Google; the oldest Google review was posted in 2011, so the hotel has been reviewed on average 32 times a year - we estimate that to be about one in a thousand of the Ritz's guests writing a review to Google - hardly a representative sample - and therefore not that helpful for someone looking to get a feel of the hotel before booking a room). It's the same - or, if anything, even worse - for high value businesses like financial advisers, lawyers and estate agents (for instance: the UK's largest private client stockbroker has no Google reviews). It has to be in everyone's best interest - the consumer, the business and Google - to see the most high quality real reviews posted there. At the moment we reckon HelpHound's Dialogue is the only mechanism that is achieving this.

Google

Google's raison d'etre is centred on providing the highest quality search results for its users. And that has to include reviews (if not, they would not give them such prominence in search). HelpHound adds value for everyone concerned by directing a flow of high quality - real and verifiable - reviews towards Google. We have countless examples of clients who had no - or very few - Google reviews before joining HelpHound and choosing Dialogue for their review management who now offer both their potential clients and Google a valuable resource.

It is demonstrably not in Google's best interest to be serving inaccurate or misleading reviews. Google provide a great response mechanism for the business, but that does not impact on the individual business's score - which is increasingly used as a benchmark by potential customers - a business scoring 4.5 being more likely to be chosen than a business scoring 4.3, for example - which will be diminished, causing the business harm in the process. HelpHound's Resolution ensures, as far as possible, that the reviews that are posted to Google are an accurate reflection of the customer's experience of that business.

 
*we understand that there are alternatives to Google reviews, but they are either insignificant in terms of reach or on the wane (e.g. Yelp or TripAdvisor) - for that reason we currently consistently focus our clients on their presence in Google reviews.

Estate agents: 10 steps to successful review management

This article is intended as a comprehensive introduction to review management for agents. Where relevant, the points made are reinforced by links to other articles on this blog.

But, before we start, we would like to show you real results - so see what these HelpHound clients have achieved: 

After a month:

 After a year:

Now for the 10 steps we promised:

1. Understand exactly what review management (RM) is: Review Management is part and parcel of modern professional marketing - by adopting professional review management a business ensures it is doing its utmost to promote its customers' opinions across the web - on its own website and on other sites that matter (Google being the main one) Read Google and Reviews: Q&A
2. Understand what it is not: RM is not about manipulating what is said about your business on the web (that is reputation management - the sort of strategy BP engaged in to suppress negative comment after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill). Some businesses will promise to suppress bad news and promote good news (and good reviews). If you represent a well-run business you do not need reputation management. Whilst not designed specifically to enhance SEO (your business's visibility in natural local search) professional review management should enable you make significant savings in PPC. See Are you Paying to Drive Traffic to your Website?
3. Decide to adopt a professional strategy: RM is not going to be merely bolted-on to your day-to-day marketing, but become integral to it. Only by adopting an holistic approach - and fully integrating review management into everything you and your colleagues do - will RM truly bear fruit. If you would like to understand the difference between review management and review sites like AllAgents and RaterAgent read Independent review sites: Yesterday's Answer and for those considering going it alone read this
4. Factor RM into your sales strategy: You should aim to be telling all your prospective clients that you invite reviews, as part of your sales pitch - "Why do business with us? Because we are so confident we will do a great job that we will be inviting you to write a review that we will display on our website." For the wider uses of review management in your marketing - from window displays to portals to newsletters to leaflets - read Reviews 2016 Style
5. Factor RM into your customer service: all your staff should be trained to invite clients to mention positive experiences in their reviews "Oh, thank you for [that compliment about whatever aspect of our service] Mr Smith, it would be great if you could mention it in your review." Read Advice for Managers to get a flavour of how our clients are shown how to succeed
6. Learn to welcome negative comments: this is one of the hardest tasks facing our new clients, but in 2106 you definitely want your less-than-delighted customers to be communicating their dissatisfaction in private rather than seeing them posted on one of the many places on the web that will welcome them with open arms (Google in the main, but comments posted on the smallest site, which will not normally be served in search, will be used by your less scrupulous competitors against you - "Have you seen this..."). HelpHound's Resolution™ enables you to manage - and respond to - any comment in private. To date over 98% of such comments have been resolved to the satisfaction of both business and client - and not resulted in a final published review (anywhere). Here's a detailed explanation of Resolution
7. Welcome the HR benefits: Our clients say that their staff invariably up their game when they understand that they will be the subject of a review by their clients
8. Welcome the new business that having great reviews brings: Your prospective clients always find you through Google - if only to look up your phone number after a personal recommendation - and then they invariably check out your website. Having great reviews in both locations leads directly to new business. Here are two case histories: the Fastest Yet describes the recent experience of a brand new client and What a Difference a year Makes shows you what you should be aiming to achieve in the longer term. And when you've won that business and it is time to negotiate the fee? See how review management helps you with that too in Reviews and the Great Fees Debate
9. Welcome the client retention aspects of RM: How valuable would it be to given advance warning that you have a landlord who is thinking of moving their portfolio? We recommend that our clients invite reviews from landlords and any other 'ongoing' clients at least annually 
10. Don't put off adopting RM: You will know for cast-iron certain that professional review management works when a competitor adopts it! As soon as a business in your area adopts RM you will be playing catch-up - just ask any agent near a HelpHound client! So don't hesitate to speak to Fiona or Karen today

And, as if those ten were not enough reasons to seriously consider adopting professional review management read Estate Agents: Don't risk being Filtered by Google to see just how important looking great on Google is going to be when Google move their filter over to cover estate agents: no reviews - no show in search!

By now we hope you are thinking "All this - it must cost hundreds a month". But it doesn't: our fees for a single branch independent agency start at £90 and reduce for multi-branch businesses. Join us - without having to sign a contract for six months - and see for yourself.

Estate Agents: Are you paying to drive traffic to your website?

It matters not whether you are paying for SEO (search engine optimisation) or PPC (pay per click) or even both - the great news is that you are almost certainly looking at making significant savings.

Saving on PPC and SEO

Never mind the acronyms - they both involve paying someone to ensure you show in search. So what if you could show in search - and look fantastic to your potential clients into the bargain - without having to pay for SEO or PPC?

Look at this search:

This search ("estate agent" in "Location") is the most common search made by your potential fee-earners. It is also one of the most expensive to buy (which Bairstow Eves have done). But did Winkworth need to pay? No - they appear in the 3-pack and they look great with their score of 4.9.

And now this one:

Four agents are paying (and competing) with Google Ads. Greene & Co don't need to. With 131 great reviews and a score of 4.9 and the top position in the 3-pack - not to mention the top position in natural search - is that surprising?

Our advice

Don't drop your current strategy - at least not yet - but get Dialogue working for you and see what happens. We have clients saving hundreds a month - surely that's worth testing?

Estate Agents - Google and reviews: Q&A

Do Google reviews show in search?

Yes - always - on a desk-top/laptop and in mobile (well over half of searches are conducted on mobiles now). At present there may appear that there is little logic - or correlation between - your reviews and your appearance in search, but, rest assured, Google are working on it.

Do Google reviews influence our appearance in the Google 3-pack?

 We are not going to take all the credit for Winkworth's appearance at the top of this 3-pack for the search term 'estate agent Harringay', but we do take credit - alongside the staff and management in-branch - for the reviews and score that appear so prominently displayed

Everything you do on your own website and on Google is taken into account as far as Google is concerned. Bear in mind that it is in Google's interest to show the best businesses in search, and what better way to indicate the best than the businesses which, in the opinion of G+ users, are the best?

If you follow the golden rule: that everything Google can find out about you on the web adds up - you won't go far wrong.

When will Google begin to rank estate agents by review score?

We don't know (and Google won't warn anyone before they do) - but if we were Google we would wait until there was a critical mass of reviews of estate agents - what that will be no-one - maybe not even Google - knows. So our advice to our clients is simple: be ready!

Do Google reviews influence our appearance in natural search?

Yes - they are far from the only influence Google takes into account, and that may change - in favour of reviews - in the future - but Google give their own reviews such prominence in search that there is only one conclusion to be drawn: that reviews rank high as far as Google's search algorithm is concerned.

Should we be paying for Google PPC (Pay Per Click)?

 Here's a screenshot of a popular search - estate agent in [location] - which agent do you think looks most attractive to potential fee-earners? The ones advertising (PPC) or Greene & Co? OK, Green & Co are a client of ours, but we don't think they are unhappy (or currently feel the need to advertise - PPC - to get their reviews seen or for any other reason).

Maybe this question needs rephrasing. How about "Would we rather look great in the Google 3-pack and in natural search?" If you can save valuable marketing spend by looking great anyway, why wouldn't you?

Should we be paying an independent review site to get us a score to show in PPC?

This is an interesting one; as review managers we monitor all the relevant review sites and how their results show up in search. Independent sites' ratings mostly appear in paid search (PPC). Google reviews always appear, in every relevant search. Maybe that's the simple answer - Google wins every time. For more on this subject read Independent review sites: Today's Answer to Yesterday's Question.

Should we be paying an SEO specialist to improve our position in natural search?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is one of the web's 'black arts'; it is effectively all about fooling Google into ranking one business above another in natural search. For that reason Google devotes extensive resources to defeating SEO. We tend to advise clients to devote their energy and resources to getting their customers to help them look great, and leave the SEO for those whose customers may be less likely to volunteer great reviews.

Having said that, a good professional web designer will build - and maintain - your site so it is highly visible to Google and is returned in relevant searches. If your site is languishing, have a word with your website people, but do bear in mind that only one business can rank top for any given search.

What is the Google review filter?

  Who wouldn't set the filter at 4.0?

It allows Google users (your potential customers) to filter two kinds of business out of search altogether:

• those with fewer than 5 reviews
• those with more than 5 reviews but which score less than 4.0 out of 5

Don't panic! At the moment Google is only applying it to hotels and restaurants. But all logic dictates that they should and will apply it to all searches. Who, after all, wants to do business with an anonymous or unpopular business? So perhaps just a gentle panic to get your business score 4.5 plus for now? For more read Estate Agents - Don't Risk being Filtered by Google

When will it apply to estate agents?

Sooner rather than later is our guess. One thing you can be sure of is that Google won't warn anyone, it will just be there one morning, just as it was for hotels this January 1. Be ready - see above.

Can we appeal to have a negative review removed?

Yes, but the review must contravene Google's T&Cs. Just being negative or a 1,2 or 3 star review is not enough; Google are very keen on freedom of speech. There are two actions you should take if you are a HelpHound client*:

• Contact HelpHound client services, who will advise on the likely success of an appeal and then help you draft your appeal if both parties agree that the review in question may contravene one or more of Google's T&Cs and then 'hold your hand' through what is a pretty complex appeals procedure
• Immediately respond to the review in question. Again, HelpHound will advise on wording if required

*if you are not a HelpHound client we strongly advise that you consult an experienced new media lawyer. They will draft and manage your appeal for a fee.

Can we choose which of my Google reviews show in search?

No. Google will show your reviews in the order they choose. This always defaults to 'most helpful', but the user can choose any one of the following (and almost always chooses 'lowest score' before deciding to contact the business in question).

Does Google delete reviews after a certain period of time? 

No - not yet. But sheer logic dictates that they will at some point in the future. If you have taken over a business and there has been a fundamental reorganisation we recommend that you contact Google through their Google My Business forum.

Should we be posting/active on my G+ page?

We often describe your G+ page as the filing cabinet that Google goes to to see if there's anything about your business they should be showing for any given search. So to expand on that metaphor: fill that filing cabinet with as much relevant information about your business as you can lay your hands on, especially reviews - never mind that your prospective customers are not swarming to that page - they are seeing its contents displayed in search.

Should  we be encouraging people to 'follow'  us on G+?

 This screenshot of part of an agent's G+ page tells them two crucial things: first, that they have 11 followers (they could do with as many more as they can muster) and second: that Google has served the information contained in their G+ page nearly 250,000 times in search. If this were your business wouldn't you want those searches to include your great Google reviews?

Yes - for the simple reason that Google sees a business with 100 followers as bigger (and therefore perhaps more relevant in search terms). Start by encouraging all your staff to 'follow' you.

What is the Google My Business Community?

It is a forum where you can ask others in the community - but, importantly Google staffers as well - any questions about Google practices and absolutely anything else Google related. In our experience Google are pretty good at coming back with relevant and helpful answers. It's here.