Glassdoor - take it seriously

Glassdoor (Wiki) is a recruitment site with a difference - and that's why it's featuring here.

Besides being a massive job site, it is the world's biggest online employment review website. 

So why should we be taking any notice of it?

 Why would IBM be happy with a score of 3.3 on Glassdoor? Review management is about more than just Google and Facebook!

For three reasons:

1.  It ranks really high in search; if your business is reviewed on Glassdoor those reviews will show up in search. If those reviews are negative - however unfairly - they will create a bad impression
2. If the comments on your business are unfairly negative, they will be driving quality recruits away 
3. Because it ranks so well in search your prospective customers will see it

People are far more motivated to write a review if they have had a negative experience - and that applies equally to a stay in a hotel or a review of your place of employment. So, to look as good as the reality on Glassdoor a business must be proactive there in the same way as it would be with Google reviews.

The reason IBM looks as bad as it does is because the overwhelming majority of reviews are written by either:

• leavers or
• recent recruits

Both categories where dissatisfaction is likely to be higher than average. 

The Solution

First: the business must ask current staff to write reviews. And the key word there is 'ask' - not 'demand' or 'insist' or 'bribe' - otherwise it risks a massive PR nightmare. 

  Respond - however critical or unfair or badly written the review is, always respond - and also obey the second golden rule: address the issue(s) raised in the review - head on.

Then: respond to your reviews. Don't assume you will be somehow glorifying or condoning the review by doing so, you won't, you will be protecting your business's reputation. Remember that people are looking at these reviews for a specific reason: they are considering working for you! Who do you want to have the last word in that context?

If you are unsure about the mechanism for responding to reviews on Glassdoor (or any other site, for that matter) don't hesitate to speak to Karen or one of her team. In the same vein: if you are unsure as to the wording of your response speak to Karen or John Williams.

The world of Reviews and Review Management

The web has accelerated the rate of change in the business world to an extent that would have been unthinkable just twenty years ago. Companies that took decades to grow have withered and died. Businesses that no-one had heard of a generation ago now bestride the world.

  For all of time 'personal recommendation' has been the gold standard - the most effective business driver of all. This chart shows just how much reviews have caught up, as they have proliferated and as consumers have learned to trust them. The most significant number is the massive percentage drop - from 33% to 13% - in those who would not trust reviews. Alongside this the importance of authenticity has risen: reviews are now seen as good by themselves but verified reviews are what consumers want most.

And the world of reviews is no exception - ten years ago they hardly existed, now there's barely a business on the planet that hasn't been reviewed somewhere on the web. Here we bring you right up-to-date with what is happening and what strategies your business will need to adopt to stay abreast of all matters review related for the foreseeable future.

Review websites - yesterday's solution
 
Mostly founded in the last ten years, these sites are already becoming last years' news. From Yelp to Feefo, from TripAdvisor to AllAgents, changes in the way your customers consume information on the web have changed to leave these sites wallowing - mostly - in Google's wake.

It's all about mobile...

Just stop reading this for a moment and search for your own business on your phone. That's how 70% of your customers are finding you. So how you look - and what appears there when you search - are critical.

 The choice is yours: to look like the business on the left or the one on the right - and, indeed, the ones in the 'People also search for' boxes to the right of our client's under the Houghton Estates search. Note the prominence Google are giving to reviews in search now, with reviews taking second billing to the business name along with the score and the rich snippets (the three quotes taken from the business's reviews in the Greene & Co example).

And it's there that you should be looking great. In every way you can. And that means reviews:

• reviews on your site

...and Google

•  reviews on Google - in the Google box and in natural listings

 Ratings in natural listings, Facebook score showing and rating and rich snippets in the Google box - it does not (and cannot) happen by accident. It is the result of professional review management - by the business and by HelpHound.

There's no point in looking great on a website that does not appear in these two searches:

1. A search on your business name [XYZ estate agents]
2. A local search on your business type [estate agents in 'location']

Some will say "But we look great on - [insert name of independent review site]

But what's the point - when all that shows are Google reviews - and Google ratings? 

Once your business looks great on Google, you should turn your attention to Facebook - simply because people trust recommendations from friends. Do the numbers: if all 208 Facebook members have 500 friends each: that's over 100,000 people who have been told this business is great by a personal friend.

So it's our own website and Google - and Facebook once we have cracked Google -  that matter?

Exactly!  

The consumer journey is so simple now: 

1. Google the business - or type of business - and read reviews
2. Be impressed by those reviews enough to go on to visit the business's own website
3. See more great reviews - make contact 

So where does Review Management come in?

Review management in its simplest form enables you to:

• display independently verified reviews on your website

 It is critical that whatever mechanism you use is demonstrably independent of your own business - and enables consumers to read and post reviews whenever they like. It is important that you understand that these reviews should belong to you, to display as - and importantly where - you wish. You should not be using a service that invites your customers to follow a link away to reviews held on any other site but your own. You should certainly avoid any service that provides easy access to reviews of your competitors.

Without independent verification your reviews revert to the status of testimonials - and lose that crucial credibility in the eyes of consumers.

And?

A professional review management system should allow you the opportunity of addressing potentially inaccurate or misleading reviews before they are published.

And?

It should incorporate a mechanism to make it easy for your customers to go on to copy their review across to any third-party website (currently Google, of course*).

*Google is the third-party site of choice for the overwhelming majority of our clients - simply because Google reviews currently have higher visibility than any others. In some instances - hospitality is a good example in the case of TripAdvisor - there are high profile sites where clients should have exposure; we work with other clients to get reviews to Facebook.

And?

Professional review managers should provide advice, training and assistance in:

• drafting responses to negative reviews - on your own site and anywhere else - Google or TripAdvisor, for instance
• drafting responses to positive reviews - essential if you are to impress potential customers
• managing your G+ page(s) and account(s)
• managing accounts with other review mechanisms - TripAdvisor, Facebook or Yelp for example
• appealing negative reviews on Google - including having a thorough knowledge of Google T&Cs and communication channels. Drafting the appeal and managing it through to conclusion
• appealing negative reviews on other platforms, such as TripAdvisor and Facebook
• monitoring external review sites for future relevance
• monitoring Google for changes in their algorithm*

*Did you spot the introduction of the Google review filter - enabling users to filter businesses with fewer than 5 reviews or with scores of less than 4.0 out of search altogether? We did, on the day it was introduced.

HelpHound?

HelpHound incorporates all the above - and more.  HelpHound are the Review Management professionals: if it relates to reviews and how to use them in generating business HelpHound is here to help and advise.

Google reviews - are they credible?

Our simple answer is 'Yes' - but no review system is 100% watertight, so here we mine down into the Google system.

 We understand that the marketplace is crowded with competing independent review sites - in a way we are lucky that helpHound, as review managers, can sit above the fray - but we're concerned that the independents shouldn't call Google reviews' credibility into question without backing that up with hard evidence. As review management professionals we're often the first to spot anomalies in Google reviews - we alerted Google to a nasty US-based bot posting negative reviews earlier this year - if you have any examples of competitors successfully posting damaging reviews, do post a comment here, because we very rarely come across such behaviour on Google (unlike TripAdvisor and Yelp and some of the other independent sites).

You can post a review to Google if:

• You have a G+ account
• You have a Youtube account
• You have a Gmail or Googlemail account

Here is what a Google staffer had to say on this subject in 2013:

For some people there is an inherent negative in this policy (they may be reluctant to post reviews under their real names, or they may be reluctant to attach their name to a sensitive business - medical being an obvious example).

We strongly feel that the positives - reviews having to be attached to an identifiable entity - outweigh any negatives. From a business's point-of-view it is preferable to accept that some people will not post to Google as a trade-off for the credibility Google reviews have built-in. 

But what about Google reviews like this?

And Names like this?

They are - almost - a thing of the past. There continues to be the occasional suspect username...

But if it is one amidst a sea of obviously genuine names...

...and 282 other reviews, is it that big an issue?

Think a review contravenes Google's Comment posting policy?

Then you can always flag the review: 

 Mouse over the area immediately to the right of the review date and this flag will appear

And, for our clients, if you feel a review contravenes Google's posting policy, consider using our review appeals advice. it certainly worked wonders for this client whose business was being severely damaged by a fraudulent review by a genuine G+ member. Our extensive experience and expertise in wording appeals has generated many success stories like this one.

In Summary

The overwhelming majority of Google reviews are the genuinely held opinions of real customers. Over and above that, they are the guide of choice for billions of consumers worldwide. So if someone is trying to put you or your customers off Google reviews by undermining their credibility we would respectfully suggest they think again.

Google is the gatekeeper. ALL your customers see your Google reviews - even if they never visit your website. You have to look great there and you have to look great on your own website (not on what we call 'hostage' sites: sites which invite reviews from your customers and then effectively sell them back to you!). 

And: if and when one of the independent review sites becomes more important than these two, we will be the first to let you know.

HelpHound: review management, not a review website (we should know, we were once upon a time!).


 

HelpHound in 2016

In 2016 we provide our clients with an ever more comprehensive solution to reviews and review management.

Note: whilst we have used estate agency for the examples that follow, they apply equally to any and every business, from accountancy to zoos.

Taking our clients from this (on their own websites)...

To this...

And this...

From this (on Google)...

To this...

And this...

And this (on mobile)... 

And this (on Facebook)...

From this (in organic search)...

To this...

There is only one way your business can tick all of these boxes...

• Your own independently verified reviews on your own website
• Great Google reviews
• Star Ratings in organic search

...and that is by being a member of HelpHound

Notes:

1. Google reviews: In theory a business can do one of the above three functions for itself: it can invite customers to write reviews to Google. But even in this respect, HelpHound adds value: our clients get reviews to their own websites before they ask their customers to copy them to Google. In doing so they give themselves, and their customers, a crucial opportunity to correct inaccuracies and misapprehensions: providing prospective customers with an even more accurate picture - on their own websites and on Google
2. The customer journey: it is important to understand how your potential customers consume reviews. In non-specific (e.g. 'business' in 'locality') search it goes: 'Google the type of business combined with the location - read the Google reviews - be impressed - visit the business's own website - be impressed again - contact the business or make the purchase
3. Negative reviews: While HelpHound membership will not work unless a business is committed to high standards of customer service, we recognise that no business is perfect - and that some customers are less than perfect as well! - so all negative reviews are first offered to the business for comment. By joining HelpHound the business commits to responding in 100% of cases, benefiting both business and consumer. The reviewer always has the option to post their review after the business has responded - currently just under 3% do so
4. Time and effort: Sometimes prospective clients assume that results like these are a result of a considerable amount of time-consuming effort. You should be reassured  that any well-managed business should be able to incorporate review management quickly and effectively - with results coming just as swiftly. For a detailed example see this case history
5. Review Management: It's a relatively recent discipline. Before review management a business's only option was DIY. But that meant hours of research and the difficult choice of 'which review site to commit to?' With HelpHound we do all the research and you retain ownership of your reviews. We are your professional advisers in the same way as your lawyers or accountant. If we think there is a review site that's important for you - such as TripAdvisor for our hotel clients - we will be the first to advise you
6. And finally: Our service to you: one of the aspects of membership that is often commented upon is the backup we provide for our clients. This email from Paul Grover of Winkworth sums this up far better than we could ourselves:

If you have any more questions just call - 020 7100-2233 - or email Karen Hutchings - karen.hutchings@helphound.com or Fiona Christie - fiona.christie@helphound.com - and they will answer them.

SEO - is your business wasting TIME and MONEY?

SEO - the art of getting your business listed high in search - has been part and parcel of web design for as long as the web has existed. But is it about to become redundant?

The simple answer is probably: 'Not entirely'. But to understand this it is important to look at the overarching logic of search.

First: what are consumers looking for when they search for a business?

There are two main types of search: 

1. Specific search: where the consumer knows the business they are searching for. They search on the business's name - Joe's Pizza. they may be simply looking for its phone number or address, or they may be looking for more specific information about the products and/or services that the business provides. They may have pre-existing knowledge of the business, or they may be responding to the business's marketing; they may have been recommended the business by a friend or colleague. In the main they are looking for the business's own website
2. Generic search - often called 'local search': where the customer knows what kind of business they want - Pizza - but they are looking for more information - before they contact a specific business (or make a shortlist)

In the first - the consumer is simple looking up a business, as they would have done in the telephone book 20 years ago; in the second the consumer is looking for qualitative information - the equivalent of the 1990's Yellow Pages advertising.

Specific search and SEO

It is rare, these days, that a specific search does not turn up the result the consumer - and the business - require. With more and more searches being made from devices that know the location of the searcher, it is highly likely that searches for multi-location/branch businesses will return the local branch of the business searched for - Joe's Pizza in Highgate.

So: no investment in SEO needed here. Just make sure that the details Google holds on your business - business name, contact details, opening hours - are correct and up-to-date.

Generic - local - search and SEO

This is where the bulk of the investment is currently made by businesses. There may be twenty pizza restaurants in any given area, and Joe's want to rank high in that list - local search.

So they invest time and money - it doesn't matter whether it's their time or their web designer/SEO agency's, it still costs the business money - in SEO.

And there is one thing that no web designer or SEO agency will do, and that is promise concrete results for Joe's spend. Why? Because no-one knows, for certain, what needs to be done to ensure that Joe's Pizza ranks above their competitors. 

Why? Partly because all the web designers and SEO agencies working for all the other Pizza restaurants in the area are working towards the same aim: top ranking. And - self evidently - only one can achieve that at any given time. But more importantly: the algorithm that everyone is trying so hard to figure out is Google's equivalent of the recipe for Coca Cola - if it were ever figured out Google would cease to be viable as a search engine overnight. The word on the street would soon be: 'Don't use Google, their search results give priority to the business with the best SEO.'

Back to Basics

At the start we asked what consumers want from search. The simple answer is:

"They want the best business"

So how does Google deliver that 'best business'? It doesn't - yet - quite. But it has the tools - and the information - to do so:

• Reviews - its own on G+
• Reviews - independently verified - through agencies like HelpHound
• The Review Filter
• G+

 

 Our clients' review scores show in organic search, alongside their Google reviews and their rich snippets...

 

in mobile search... 

 

and in G+/Maps

It is a simple - and unarguable - fact that the best guide to a business is the opinions of that business's customers. Until the advent of the web it was called word-of-mouth, now it's called reviews.

By combining those reviews with their Review Filter (enabling users to discard businesses with less than great review scores - or no scores at all) and then dovetailing with G+ Google can, in theory, provide consumers with near perfect results:

• Businesses that are highly regarded by their customers (great review scores)
• Without muddying the waters with less than perfect businesses (those that score less than 4.0 or have fewer than 5 reviews)
• Combining the above with G+ - so consumers can source reviews written by people they know

So: what strategy should businesses adopt? 

We are not advocating dumping SEO spend overnight, but we are recommending:

• Getting great reviews on your own website - Google will show your score in search
• Getting great reviews to Google - they will show in every search for your business
• Doing everything you can to ensure you score more than 4.0 - avoiding the Review Filter
• Making your G+ listing sing - with great content - and that includes reviews

The alternative? To sit and wait - and continue to pay for SEO - until Google flicks the switch to make their natural listings - including the 3-pack - reflect the very best businesses out there, in the opinion of their customers. 

It will happen - it's just a case of when. And when it does, HelpHound clients will look even better than they do now, because they have done all they can to future-proof their images in search.

Reviews - the Long View

 One day someone will make a movie about a consumer who goes 'Back to the Future' to a time when some businesses did not have reviews. Unlikely? We agree - but it's a point worth examining in more detail. What will the reviews landscape look like in the near future?

It's only natural. We all focus on this month and next month, whilst occasionally neglecting to take the long view. Here we will make some more of the predictions that regular readers are used to. Some of these will be unarguable - that there will be more reviews written next year is an obvious example. Some will involve a little crystal ball gazing, but, without appearing to boast, we have a pretty good track record on that front.

First, let's turn to 'unarguables':

• There will be more reviews: Businesses that already have reviews will have more, some of those that have none will have some. Of course, you say. But what of the implications? 
• There will be businesses that engage: they will respond to their customers' comments and they will actively seek out ways to harvest and promote those comments: they will show verified reviews on their websites - not testimonials - and they will incorporate them into their marketing
• The will be businesses that remain in denial: they will simply sit back and wait for the first review to be posted, ignoring the power of positive consumer opinions to drive business
• That Google will continue to dominate: for the simple reason that it provides reviews without being interrogated. If you want Yelp - you have to go through Google. Need a hotel? you Google - and see Google reviews first. Simply by virtue of being the gatekeeper to the web for the overwhelming majority of consumers, Google reviews are the ones that get seen by everyone - even when they are not looking for them!
• That hosting verified reviews on your website will drive more and more business: all evidence points to the consumer journey being: 'search - see Google reviews - be impressed - see more reviews on the business's own website - make contact'

And now to our predictions:

• That review growth will continue to be exponential: currently about one in three Google reviews are being written by first-timers - we call them 'Google Virgins' - but nearly half of them get the review bug to some degree - going on to review more businesses. This results on a ever-expanding number of reviews. Our prediction: Your business will get more reviews; if your business has not been reviewed already, it will be - soon!

   

Research at MIT shows that it's your most loyal customers who are most likely to leave a negative review. Wouldn't your rather they did that direct to you rather than publicly on the web? By adopting professional review management you enable them to do just that

• That succeeding generations are more, not less, likely to write and read and be influenced by reviews: Millenials, now in their late thirties, are far more likely to trust reviews and other UGC (user generated content) - by a factor of up to 50% more than Generation X (those born between 1960 and 1980) - according to global research giants Ipsos. Our personal and professional experience dovetails with this. You never hear a 30 or 40-something say 'I wont read reviews' or 'I don't believe reviews'. They get that reviews can be gamed, but they are used to applying their own filters to get an impression of a business. They are far more likely to say 'I won't consider a business unless it has great reviews'. How do you think AirBnB has grown so quickly? In a word - reviews. Our prediction: reviews will become more important by the month. Businesses with few - or none - will suffer against those of their competitors who actively engage

 Just because those under 35 trust reviews more than their older peers doesn't mean that Baby-boomers and generation X don't trust reviews - just look at this chart: still 69% in the 55+ age group trust reviews. There's much more on this here courtesy of SearchEngineLand

 

• That businesses will soon fall into three categories: those who have great reviews, those who have no reviews and those that have reviews but look less than great. Given that the cost of the former is in the realms of a decent mobile phone contract there is no barrier to entering the review management arena. Our prediction: the first category will outperform the other two

 

We were one of the first outside Google to notice the introduction of the review filter - and we doubt that anyone sets their filter at anything less than 4 stars - we suggest you try it on a search for local restaurants and then imagine it being applied to your business

 

•  The Google Filter will be introduced for all businesses: Those of you who have noticed the Google Filter on mobile will be unsurprised to hear that we predict that a version will soon be introduced for desktop. More importantly - with well over 50% of search being on mobile these days, we predict that the filter's range will be broadened to non-hospitality businesses. Our prediction: Businesses - of any kind - that score less than 4.0 out of 5 will be filtered from search

Does your heart sink when you receive an email like this? So why are businesses still sending them? Because customer feedback is central to efficient business management. But how much better to allow your customer to write a review whenever they want?

• The days of the customer survey are numbered. Good review management will perform even more of the functions currently fulfilled by customer surveys, and in a way that benefits both businesses and their customers. Our prediction: Review management will replace much conventional CRM

  

  First adopters are traditionally the smaller, more entrepreneurial businesses - those that have the largest market share, like the household names above - will follow. By 2020 well managed Plcs will look just like this:

• That high value services will adopt review management: services such as wealth management, the medical profession and legal advice will recognise that their potential clients/patients are reassured by reviews. Our prediction: In three years' time the market leaders in these services will have adopted professional review management

In summary:

Reviews are here to stay, and they are going to be more important every day. Every business needs a review management strategy, and those that are slow to adopt one will suffer. Not just because they don't look great on their own websites and in search, but because consumers are becoming conditioned to expect reviews and when they don't find them they are increasingly inclined to think that the business in question doesn't care sufficiently to engage with its customers in public. Maybe it even has something to hide? Is that the message you want your business to convey? If you have read this far, we guess not. 

Speak to Karen Hutchings or Fiona Christie and they will fill in the gaps - and tell you how little it will cost your business to be a 'business of the future' today.