Responding to reviews - again!

How many times do we need to say this: a response to a review should be seen as a CRM opportunity. But what do we see, so much of the time?

This...

And this...

And this...

Now, the company in this example - Cadent Plc - made an operating profit of £935 million in 2022/3, so we can safely say that shortage of cash was not the issue. So what would our advice be to it, and any other business finding itself in the same position?

1.  Stop treating reviews as a subsidiary branch of CRM

Reviews - Google or any other - should not be a substitute for customer service. Customers should be able to express their opinions in private, but if you read Cadent's reviews they mention, again and again, an inability to make contact with the business...

"We have been told there is a claim form to fill and to ring or e-mail certain numbers, all the phone numbers deny it's their responsibility, even given some numbers that don't exist."

"I have spent hours on the phone each time having to explain the problem"

"They think it's acceptable to leave a family of an 8-month-old baby and 4-year-old child without adequate heating overnight. It's disgraceful. I have contacted via contact form and email but no response."

All of which have received the response above, whatever their complaint. And we stress our use of the word 'complaint' here: these are not reviews, they are complaints. 

Which, we suppose, is better than no response at all, which is the case with their Google reviews...

2.  Invest in CRM/complaints management

Good - by which we mean effective - customer relationship management will deal with complaints offline, well before the customer feels that the only route left to them is to post a review. How? By inviting independent feedback at every opportunity - via the company's website. Social media can be effective...

...if, and only if, someone is monitoring it and responding...

...but it is no substitute for effective review management.

3.  Why 'independent'?

Consumers constantly tell us how grateful they are for our moderation of their reviews and their subsequent interaction with the business under review. When we launched our moderation process, nearly ten years ago now, we were concerned that consumers would somehow see HelpHound as agents of the business, but they seldom do. On the contrary, both we and the businesses under review are often told how reassuring consumers find our involvement. Moderation works. It takes the heat out of the exchange, and ensures that factually inaccurate, misleading and plain unfair reviews are very unlikely to be posted - anywhere. You only have to look at any HelpHound client online and you'll see just how effective the process is.

So: where does HelpHound fit in?

Our service rests within and above the business's existing CRM. It is the first and last port of call for any customer wishing to voice their opinion on the quality of service that they have received. It sits reactively on the client business's website and their email signatures and is used proactively to invite customers to write a review.

Most important of all, all reviews sent to the business are moderated by HelpHound, so factually inaccurate, potentially misleading and just plain unfair reviews are so much less likely to see the light of day.