The New York Times reported a crackdown on companies that place false online reviews, as well as SEO companies that offer to place paid online reviews on sites such as Yelp, Google, Yahoo, and Citysearch.
This practice, known as “astroturfing,” is actually quite widespread.
“The investigation revealed a web of deceit in which reviewers in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Eastern Europe produced, for as little as a dollar a rave, buckets of praise for places they had never seen in countries where they had never been.”
“In some cases, the reputation shops bribed their clients’ customers to write more fake reviews, giving them $50 gift certificates for their trouble. They also went on review sites that criticized their own fake-review operations and wrote fake reviews denying they wrote fake reviews.”
Of course the fact that this is a widespread practice is not earth-shattering news. What is notable is that the authorities are taking notice and really trying to doing something about it. I for one hope this trend continues.
A survey conducted by Dimensional Research found that online reviews strongly influence consumer decisions:
And 68% of those surveyed for the latest Neilson Trust in Advertising report expressed trust in online reviews. So make no mistake, online reviews can do a great deal of good or harm to any business.
How to Get Great Online Reviews without Cheating
1. Provide Something to Praise: Do an AMAZING job
First and foremost, treat people right. Deliver excellent value and provide a superior customer experience.
If positive reviews of your business are not justified, you are simply not going to get them unless you or your employees write the review yourself, or you pay an unscrupulous service to create them. But if you really go out of your way to take care of your customers, they will be much more likely to share their experiences online.
2. Ask for Reviews
You don’t want to be pushy, but there is nothing wrong with asking your customers to review you, and making it easy for them to do so. You may follow up a successful customer experience with a short email thanking the customer, and telling them how much you would appreciate it if they would place a review on a site, and provide links to your profile.
Here is a suggested example from Reviewtrackers.com:
Hello,
Thank you for your recent visit to our office. We want to provide you with the best service possible. Would you consider posting a review of us online? In addition to providing feedback, online reviews can help other customers learn about who we are & about the services we offer. They are also a great way to give referrals to you family & friends.
Please take a minute to leave a comment on one of these sites - we would really appreciate it!
Thank you, in advance, for your review & for your patronage!
In addition, you can include links to your online review pages in your email signature. Many customers are likely to follow those links and add their own reviews.
3. Engage Your Customers Online
Interacting with your customers on Facebook or other social media sites makes it much more likely that they will post reviews about you, especially if your customers are younger people who are more accustomed to posting even the smallest details of their daily lives.
4. Reach Out to Negative Reviewers Right Away
A negative review can often be turned positive by quickly reaching out to the reviewer in a positive manner. Apologize, thank them for pointing out the problem, and do whatever it takes to make it right.
After all, most people are reasonable, and odds are that if you show the reviewer that you care, and resolve the problem in a satisfactory manner, they will be willing to retract the negative review and write a positive one.
5. Go for the Numbers
An unfair negative review can be frustrating, but the fact is that some people are unreasonable, and will not be pleased no matter how hard you try. And often it’s pretty easy for the reader to identify those reviews.
Your goal should be to obtain a large majority of positive reviews. If you have 100 reviews and 8 of them are not good, that’s a commendable 92% positive rate!
Online Reviews Are Here to Stay
Regardless of increasing awareness of how online reviews are not always legitimate, the fact is that we humans are pretty easily influenced. Online reviews will continue to be a powerful force that will either drive or deter prospective customers.
Every business needs to monitor and manage its collection of reviews, but it can be done honestly. In the end, the dishonest methods will most likely backfire. The best strategy is to provide a great service or value to your customers, treat them right, and make it easy to post great reviews, and you will have excellent results.
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