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Rep Management- Getting Positive Reviews Posted

by JRoon
13 replies
I've recently seen a lot of these rep mgmt systems popping up where people can leave a good or bad review and then if they select good review, they are presented with links to the respective yelp, insiderpages, merchantcircle site. I had one question though. In my experience, for those that select "Good" experience and are then presented with the links to make their reviews, they don't often take the time to leave a review. And, even if they do, on some sites like Yelp, unless they have a seasoned account, the review will be filtered so consumers can't see it. Just wondering if having the people go and post a review is actually effective 9of course we want them to post their own review, I am more concerned about if they get posted properly.

JRoon
#management #positive #rep #reviews
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Yelp will screw you around. Take them to other sites.

    It's kind of funny... Yelp exists because of businesses. It survives based on businesses advertising, and their VC funding. However, they're not business friendly at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author xInd
    For rep management, it's best to follow up with your clients directly, and a great trick is to setup your own review sites and market them. Just do it honestly and truthfully. Sometimes negative reviews can look good in many ways, especially since people know that nobody is perfect, everybody is different and sometimes shhhhhht just happens.
    For example, if I said "I was disspleased with ur services because I wantled what didernt happon in times of this" well the grammar and spelling speaks for itself....
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Yelp will screw you around. Take them to other sites.

      It's kind of funny... Yelp exists because of businesses. It survives based on businesses advertising, and their VC funding. However, they're not business friendly at all.
      Yelp is like a social community for consumers and accounts that don't have activity tend to get reviews screened because Yelp is looking for community. That's the secret to Yelp but in many cases a businesses customer will have to create a new account at Yelp to leave a review and because that's the initial reason the account they don't do anything else on the site. This is activity or lack thereof that triggers the review filter. Also we all know there are other business practices that aren't very business friendly as well.

      --------------------------------------------------------------

      Originally Posted by xInd View Post

      For rep management, it's best to follow up with your clients directly, and a great trick is to setup your own review sites and market them. Just do it honestly and truthfully. Sometimes negative reviews can look good in many ways, especially since people know that nobody is perfect, everybody is different and sometimes shhhhhht just happens.
      For example, if I said "I was disspleased with ur services because I wantled what didernt happon in times of this" well the grammar and spelling speaks for itself....
      I can't agree with some of the stuff you've posted here. You say to set up review sites and market them and be truthful and honest.

      That would mean that the business needs to disclose the connection between the site and the business with each review. This just serves to make users suspect because they want unbiased feedback and any of a connection is going to make the reviews suspect.

      This is a form of astrotrufing and that's regulated by the FTC.

      Yes you are correct that no one is perfect and that people realize that, however, we aren't going to convince any business owner that it's OK for a negative review to be online so they can address it or that potential customers can see it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Yelp is crap. They find ways to hide your good reviews unless you pay them.

    Google is the bread and butter for reviews so send the people there first.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRoon
    Good info. Yeah yelp is tough. What if the customer's first listing in google is a yelp review? Should they work on google reviews instead?
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Ok I have a bit more time today so let's talk about how we handled this at work.

    A few things we have done.
    1. During the ship out process (we sell RVs for those who don't know me) we bring up online places to leave reviews. Facebook, Google Places, Yahoo, Yelp, etc

    2. For ourselves we have used a paper in house review form. We give them a self addressed stamped envelop to return it.

    3. We take good comment from there and use them as testimonials on our website.

    4. We actually went through a load of the in house ones and called up the ones who gave us good reviews. We asked them if they would share their experiences online with honest reviews (we never ask for positive but most will give you positive reviews). In exchange for their time we told them we would send them a company logo jacket. (This step right here is why we have the most reviews online of any major RV dealership).

    5. We actually get video testimonials from our best and most loyal customers and put them in different videos about the company. These have been in youtube videos and TV spots.

    And honestly we could do a lot more with this if we really wanted to get more reviews. We have had talks about doing the following.

    1. Set up a review station in the dealership so they can log in right away to review us. (don't like the IP issue so I am the one who continues to nix this idea)

    2. Send out an automated email a week after purchase to get reviews with links to all of the major places to leave them.

    2a. Have the sales people do it as part of their post sale follow up.

    3. Maybe add some kind of gift for those who will show they gave us a review online (not a jacket this time but something cheaper).

    Hope this will help.
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by Aaron Doud View Post

      1. Set up a review station in the dealership so they can log in right away to review us. (don't like the IP issue so I am the one who continues to nix this idea)
      So there are a couple ways around this.

      1.) Get a tablet, don't connect to the wireless use the 3g/4g service. Each time someone leaves a review, clear the cache, and cookies, turn airplane mode on and back off. That will refresh your IP from the pool of IP's across the county.

      2.) Set up a desktop or laptop, and use ProXPN or a similar service. I think it's like $10/mo. You can choose where you want your IP from, but you still have to clear the cache and cookies
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

        So there are a couple ways around this.

        1.) Get a tablet, don't connect to the wireless use the 3g/4g service. Each time someone leaves a review, clear the cache, and cookies, turn airplane mode on and back off. That will refresh your IP from the pool of IP's across the county.

        2.) Set up a desktop or laptop, and use ProXPN or a similar service. I think it's like $10/mo. You can choose where you want your IP from, but you still have to clear the cache and cookies
        Can't these customers leave reviews from their mobile phones? Wouldn't these all have different IP addresses?
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

          Can't these customers leave reviews from their mobile phones? Wouldn't these all have different IP addresses?
          Is this a dumb question? Am I missing some basic mobile phone thing that everyone knows but me? Guys?
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Nameless thanks for the tips. If the bosses still want to do it I will bring that up as a way around the problem. Also feeling a bit silly for having not thought of and suggested it myself to the bosses.
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  • Profile picture of the author HighRiskJohn
    Why not use review cards with a QR code on it or a website that customers can use from their mobile phones or when they get home? There are a couple of good Wp Plugins that allow you to have a testimonials page or you can have a page with links to the different sites you'd like to be reviewed on.
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    • Profile picture of the author Pierre!
      Originally Posted by HighRiskJohn View Post

      Why not use review cards with a QR code on it or a website that customers can use from their mobile phones or when they get home? There are a couple of good Wp Plugins that allow you to have a testimonials page or you can have a page with links to the different sites you'd like to be reviewed on.
      This sounds like a good idea - with Yelp requiring an App to enter a review from mobile phones, and G+ not making it easy to enter a review any more... the list of sites that let you submit reviews from mobile phones would be quite handy.

      Hmmm....

      Thanks for the thoughts HighRiskJohn!

      Patrick
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  • Profile picture of the author jnels999
    Needing to disclose whether there was an "incentive" for the review is problematic, as Russ correctly reminds us.

    I think that's why big companies incentive reviews this way:

    Instead of the certainty of a gift certificate, they give the respondent a "chance" to win a gift certificate. The uncertainty of winning means it's not an incentive.

    Less effective at getting customers to do it, no doubt. But fully in compliance with the FTC!
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