When you are shopping for products, how many times to you read the reviews? I was recently looking to buy a food dehydrator and got overwhelmed by all of reviews on Amazon.
If you want some laughs, hop on one of the travel sites and start reading hotel reviews. I often times wonder why something like the hotel having not too fluffy of pillows warrants a 1 star! Not everyone likes fluffy pillows.
When is the last time you wrote a review? I went on vacation and didn’t have a great stay because of the noise from the room below us. After numerous calls to the front desk I wasn’t too happy when I was woken up at 6 am by the loud guests. I could have written a review about the hotel or commented along with the man who said the walls were paper thin. The staff at the hotel upgraded by room and provided us with a bottle of wine and goodie box. I was a happy camper then!! No way was I going to write a bad review. I actually wrote them a 5 star review and mentioned the staff by name who helped us (kudos to her).
Most people write reviews when they aren’t happy. I remember in college hearing something about a person who has a bad experience will tell 10 people, but if they have a good experience only tell 2. I always think about this when I deal with a client. I try to give them the best response possible, the one that would make me happy or make me say ok I understand your policy but thank you for being so nice about it.
Reviews are important to your business for a lot of reasons.
- It helps give you credibility
- It helps to highlight areas you do go in
- It gives customers insight into your brand or service
- It gives you ideas of where to improve on
Here’s my take on places for reviews:
- Yelp
- Google Plus
- Ecommerce site (with each product)
- Your own website
Review sites are not always the best since you don’t have full control over what is posted. Some review sites like Yelp and Facebook are not really the most accurate place for reviews.
I like to be in control of my reviews. Because honestly, I might be having a bad day or I might have “that” customer or my way of doing things might not be what the client likes. With people giving negative reviews for silly reasons I don’t think my business should suffer.
For example, my wife has a wedding business and I could see a bride who never booked with us give her a bad review because she told her that her wedding date and time was available but a few days later, when she’s ready to book, that time and date were already booked and she can’t do her wedding 🙁 . Her policy is that the date is saved once the contract and deposit are paid. If she held every date open for a bride who was interested that might not be the best way to do business.
So, being in control of your reviews is always my recommendation whenever possible