Quality is SO important where reviews are concerned

We have commented on the difference between 'feedback' and 'reviews' recently - here - but there is one aspect we neglected: quality.

If you are selling products a five star review is worth having, irrespective of the words attached to those five stars. people will buy a five star camera or a five star toaster on the basis of the star rating alone - but a high-value service? Not the same. They want to mine down into the content of the reviews themselves. 

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Interestingly, for us at least, these reviews are the last three written for the first client we looked at. Check any HelpHound client's reviews and you will see the same. Why? Because of the way in which our clients ask their customers for their reviews - by email (not text). And the way in which they prepare their customers - the request to write a review does not come as a surprise, they have been preparing the way by 'warning' their customers that they will be asking for a review at every point in the transaction.

So: don't let the temptation to indulge in a headlong rush for numbers and ratings, quality of the reviews themselves is what drives business through the door for service businesses.