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Many of you have already been introduced to Mike Blumenthal's work through Ed Brooks. I read his blog religiously and to be honest, most of what he writes about is WAY beyond my ability to comprehend. But I have to share this recent post.


Parts of the post are intended to be humorous. Mike is applying Cosmo's famed questionnaire model to diagnose Review Management Stress. If you don't have time to read the whole thing here are some really thought provoking excerpts that could be unpacked at length here in the forums. Warning: This is straight talk from a REAL authority on Google's Local offerings from OUTSIDE of the automotive vertical. He appears to disagree strongly with some of the things that are being pushed down within the vertical...


Here's the link to the original article:

9 Questions To Assess Your Review Management Stress Levels | Understanding Google Places & Local Search


Did your reviews get reduced by more than 20% of the total by the new Google review filters?

Google wants solid review content from trustworthy reviewers. If more  than 20% of your reviews were taken down in the past 6 months either  your methodology is too aggressive or you are asking the wrong people to  leave reviews.


Are you asking questions like: Why is this happening to me? Doesn’t Google care?

...if you are asking these sorts of  questions 1)you are driving yourself crazy and 2)you are focusing on the  wrong things.


 Did (or does) your listing have 100% or more reviews than your nearest competitor on Google?

If you are focusing all of your efforts on Google your review count was  (and probably is no longer) way ahead of most in your industry. Google  isn’t stupid. If you have a ton of reviews at Google and no place else  you, are clearly soliciting reviews and Google’s spam review algo will  catch more rather than less of these. If I can see it, you can see it  and Google can see it, do you think that clients can’t see it? They too  know you are cooking the books.


 Do your clients often complain that their reviews are not showing at Google?

This is a failure on your part in two ways. You shouldn’t be sending all  of your customers to one review site and when you do send them  someplace, you should send them informed.


 Customers should have a choice as to where to leave reviews. They  will choose based on their comfort level. If you advise them upfront  that Google and Yelp might bury their reviews if they are not active  users of those services then they can make an informed choice and not  blame you for either’s policies. And remember a single review at  CitySearch is infinitely more valuable than 10 reviews that don’t show  at Google and/or Yelp.

 

Have you thought: I should focus my review efforts on Yelp instead?

Right, this thought proves your mental state to be less than stable. You  will get a fraction of the exposure and twice the grief with Yelp. Yelp  should be in your review management plan but remember: Yelp is for  Yelpers. Sending anyone else there is an act of pure futility. And  selecting Yelp as an alternative to Google is going from the mental  frying pan into the fire.


 Are you handing users an iPad or directing them to an onsite workstation?

More & faster is not better with reviews. In fact very slow and very  steady is best. With an onsite review station you run the risk of  violating your client’s trust and having Google take your reviews down.  There are a few limited situations where this might make sense but  certainly not in most businesses and not in most offices. You are trying  too hard and it will lead to both your and your client’s frustration.


 Are you sending out more than 20 emails a week requesting reviews at Google?

Google doesn’t seem to take reviews down strictly because they were  solicited by email. The algo is likely more sophisticated than that.  However your foot print will be way too obvious if you are asking for  reviews in bulk. 1)you will be getting too many reviews in too short of a  time and 2)the reviewers are not likely to be ones that Google already  trusts. The simple change of giving the users 4 or 5 places to leave  reviews with reasons why they might pick one over the other would  quickly solve the problem.


 Another alternative would be to just hand a piece of paper with the  same instructions. Remember you don’t need a million reviews to stand  out, you need as many as is typical of your industry and they need to  reflect positively on you.


Email review solicitation can work but it is important that you give  clients lots of choices, that the process engenders reviews elsewhere  and that the emails are spread out over time and not bunched heavily.


 Are your following up only with happy customers and not every customer to ask them to leave reviews?

At the end of the day the purpose of reviews is to inform other  potential customers about your services. The process of asking for  reviews can and should be used to improve your services. If you are  running your business well then giving voice to every customers that is  willing to speak out is the best way to build a predominantly positive  review corpus, gain an understanding of what needs to be improved and  finding future customers that are right for you.