Here at HelpHound, we have lived and breathed the evolution of reviews in general for nearly twenty years now - and we switched focus to Google reviews as soon as they were first introduced in 2010. We understood the reticence of some businesses when it came to actively engaging - the risk/reward equation was initially tipped heavily towards 'not worth it' for some categories of service business. Those days, however, are now in the past. Read on and we will explain.
It didn't take us long to realise that Google reviews would trump all other review solutions - they now make up 79% of all reviews written - and we estimate, because of their visibility and credibility, as much as 95% of reviews read by consumers.
As a result, we sometimes assume that all businesses and business sectors are up-to-speed and have, by now, adopted at least some kind of Google-focussed review management solution. Then we bump up against one that has yet to find one that suits them ('suits them' being the key here).
In this article we are going to focus on those sectors that have, in the main, yet to adopt such a solution and ask the key question: given the myriad of positive reasons to do so - increased inbound enquiries, support for conversion, and so on (see below): why not? And then we will go on to demonstrate the solution that will remove the understandable lingering doubts that these businesses have.
In no particular order...
- Wealth managers and financial advisers
- Independent schools
- Care Homes
- Marketing and PR agencies
- Accountants
- Private Medicine
It cannot be because they...
- don't want the increased enquiries for potential customers (patients/parents/investors/clients) that come with a great Google reviews profile
- want to actively deflect potential future custom by having - in some cases - low Google scores and predominantly negative reviews
- don't want the kind of social proof that reassures and encourages potential customers to make first contact
- they are afraid that their customers - clients/patients/parents - will post factually incorrect reviews - not all, but some. And 'some' is enough when looking at a comment that will live forever on the web. This is, by far, the number 1 reason that businesses avoid engaging with Google reviews.
- Five years ago a business stood a good chance of 'flying under the radar' where Google reviews were concerned: many just didn't have any reviews. Now Google reviews are ubiquitous, if a business has a physical address it will invariably have Google reviews.
- The overwhelming majority of consumers have now engaged with Google reviews - both reading and writing. A significant proportion of consumers use a business's Google score as a shorthand means of narrowing down their options. They then read the reviews themselves before contacting (or deciding not to contact) the businesses. Especially where high-value services such as those listed above are concerned.
- Dissatisfied consumers are far more likely to write a review. If you look at some of the businesses above with low scores, odds on that will be a big part of the reason. But that is not factored in by consumers, for many of them a low Google score = 'don't bother' and few reviews = 'a business that doesn't care'. Strangely some businesses continue to wear non-engagement as a badge of honour, but never in well over a decade have we seen a business engage and then revert to their previous standpoint.
- A business can now 'insure' against factually incorrect or potentially misleading reviews by employing a moderated system. Moderation will not deflect honestly and rightly held negative opinions - and nor should it, or all credibility, upon which trust in reviews is based would be lost - but it will enable a reviewer who has 'got the wrong end of the stick', as so often happens when dealing with complex services, to reassess and rewrite (or even withdraw) their review before it is published.
- Google trumps all other review solutions - by a country mile (and it's free!): but we continue to hear 'But we have adopted [insert name of review site - Feefo, Trustpilot, Yelp, Yell or Reviews.io and then the more obscure single-sector sites such as Doctify and CareHome]'. Look at the figures in this article and then speak to us; the obvious solution, at least initially, is to use both your original choice alongside a Google solution, at least until you have been able to monitor enquiry and conversion levels for a period. Oh - and here's our guarantee.
- Case histories: here is an article with precise numbers, showing increases in inbound enquiries as well as numbers and quality of business completed. And here is a 'before and after' showing just what can be achieved for two very different service businesses when they adopt a moderated review management solution.
