It's A Review World – You Better Adapt
I recently picked up 2 new clients and one of the first tasks is going back through all of the reviews for 2016. Both of these clients had been ignoring reviews and it was on the top of my list due to the importance consumers have placed on reviews these days. When I say consumers, I also mean me. I can honestly say that 50% of the purchases I make through new companies are done after checking out their reviews. For me reviews aren’t the “end all be all” but they do offer me a glance into how they operate their business over and above what was said about them.
Online reviews are not going anywhere soon. They are taking over the online world and there is one common thread many businesses have in common, THEY ARE IGNORING THEM!
Consumers have a voice more than they ever have with the rise of Social Media. This has opened up a whole new area that business owners need to focus on. Out are the days of customers voicing their concern in your business to a manager, they skip that entirely and go online first. WHY? Intimidation in my opinion. Most people are not Type A personalities and are not comfortable complaining. Plus, everyone can hide behind a keyboard and not worry about a confrontation. Below are my tips on what you should and shouldn’t be doing.
#1 – RESPOND! Try your hardest to respond to every negative review, then respond to all of the positive reviews (more on that below). When customers see negative reviews they look to see if you responded. They are accustomed to not seeing businesses respond so if you respond you’re ahead of the game. It shows that you care and that you’re paying attention.
#2 RESPOND to positive reviews as well. I’ll admit I didn’t do this a few years ago until I heard this line at a seminar: “If you passed a person in the hallway at work and they complimented your tie would you ignore them and keep walking?” Of course you wouldn’t, so when someone says nice things online say THANK YOU.
#3 Be nice. I’ll admit it, over 50% of the reviews I see are way overblown and out of line. I’m amazed by what I see people complain over, but guess what, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. There’s only one way to look worse than not reviewing and that’s by starting a fight. Apologize and try to get the conversation offline. If it’s on Facebook then ask them to private message the page. Most people won’t respond to your answer or request, but no one else knows that. They only see your apology and effort to fix the issue.
#4 If you can’t be nice, delegate this to someone less emotionally tied to the situation. I get it, our businesses are our babies. We’ve all worked out butts off to get where we are and HOW DARE someone tell me my baby is ugly. Reviews can hurt sometimes, and some people are not cut out to answer negative reviews. If this is the case, have someone else that’s not so close to the product answer them.
#5 Follow through and make a peace offer. I don’t care what business you’re in and how much your products cost, bad reviews cost WAY MORE. Be prepared to make them an offer to make the situation right. If you’re in the repair business and it was $500 ticket make it right. If that ticket was $500 then there’s a GREAT chance there are 5-10 lost customers due to that negative review. I’d rather be out $500 than $5,000.
#6 Prioritize the review platforms for your business. Unfortunately there isn’t 1 main place to check. In fact there are way too many. Yelp, Facebook, Google and the list goes on. I’d figure out where your biggest impact area is and start there. For example, I have 7 clients that get hundreds of Facebook reviews, that’s our main focus. Up next are the smaller sites for them like Yelp, Trip Advisor and Google.
#7 Reviews are and will show you the light. Guess what? Every review isn’t by a crazy person and they are offering you a look into your business that you might not get otherwise. I recently had a customer get 3 1-star reviews in a week. They hadn’t gotten that many in 6 months. So I dug deeper into the reviews and through conversations OFF LINE I was able to get the employees name. Guess what, all 3 had bad service from that same employee. Houston I think we’ve found our problem. Reviews can be great tools to find out things that are going wrong in your business that you might not realize.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST – You’ll increase sales to these customers. Customers that complain aren’t coming back, UNLESS you get them back. What’s the worst that can happen, they don’t come back. But the best case scenario is that you get them back, earn their trust and you have another paying customer.
Good luck and get your butt to Google, Yelp and Facebook to see what you’ve been missing 🙂
Make 2016 Different & More Profitable
I have a saying I use frequently “advertising is easy, but marketing is HARD”. Why is it hard? Because marketing requires you to do the heavy lifting and thinking. You’re not just hopelessly placing ads, you’re creating ideas that will drive revenue and profits.
In this event you’ll get the tools and ideas to help make 2016 different from past years. During this 3 hour seminar you’ll hear from 5 speakers who will help jumpstart your thinking and get you ready to market your business like never before.
We’ll cover in depth the following topics:
1. Social Media Marketing – How to use Social Media to market your business and as a customer relation tool.
2. Referral Relationships – You have a great group of satisfied customers, now lets make them a sales staff.
3. Advanced Facebook, Instagram & Twitter Marketing Tactics – Create impactful ultra targeted ads to get in front of your best customers.
4. Search Engine Optimization – Getting found online and what it takes to be on the top results in Google
5. Newsworthy – Learn how to get the attention of the media and get your business in the headlines.
6. HOW TO SELL! Many times this is one of the most over looked aspects of marketing.
7. Email Marketing – Learn the best practices for sending email and how to make this great marketing tool drive traffic and sales to your business.
8. Reviews – Stop worrying about bad reviews and HOPE you get some, then you can show everyone how you handle issues.
You’ll leave with a custom marketing plan and workbook that will help make 2016 even better than 2015!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
You need to act 5 again to succeed
Many times while brainstorming with a client I’ll warn them that some of my ideas are going to be really off the wall. Why, because I pride myself in thinking of ANYTHING that can help drive revenue. I’ve found that many times when you are outside of someone else’s industry you have a completely different view. There have been many times where my clients look at me like I’m on drugs, it’s kind of humorous.
Recently I was at a conference in Florida where I had the honor to hear Derek Daly speak. Derek is a LEGEND in the auto racing world and he’s an amazing business speaker as well. Derek covered this topic in a way that was new to me and it really hit home. The picture attached is a slide from his presentation that referenced a research study about how we lose creativity as we age.
The graphic says it all, most of us have lost ALL creativity by the time we turn 30. At 5 you are 98% creative, because your ideas haven’t been shot down yet. You’ve not been taught what you’re supposed to think. It drops to 20% by 10 years-old and all the way to 2% by the time you turn 30!!! That’s just crazy to me. This goes back to the line that “no question is a stupid question.” Many people say that, but very few practice it. They are scared to throw out an idea that’s too off the wall or ask a question that hasn’t been asked in a long time, if ever.
I’ve found that I’m somewhere between a 5 & 10 year-old. I’m comfortable enough with where I am in my career and the results that I deliver that I’ll throw out ideas that make people look at me like when a dog slants its head to figure out what you’re doing. I’m been looked at like an idiot before, but it doesn’t bother me. I can point to enough ideas that I was told wouldn’t work THAT DID!
My point of this blog is to get you to start thinking differently. What else could you be doing to drive sales. What ideas have you had that you never put on paper or said out loud? What’s the worse that could happen, you don’t gain anymore business?
GET BACK TO BEING A 5 YEAR-OLD
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!
Sales people have you ever heard of Google?
Business decision makers are busy people. The day to day tasks of owning and operating a business are tough and most people never get the chance to experience this type of life. Which brings me to my “rant” about sales people. I’m a sales person and always have been. In my days of selling advertising I’m sure I did my fair share to bug my clients, but I’m pretty confident it wasn’t due to not doing the obvious. Every week I deal with reps from every advertising medium that exists. Online ads, radio, tv, magazines, new apps, etc. I handle 100+ inquiries per week on behalf of my clients. Some people don’t like this, but I don’t mind it. My clients are paying me to find every opportunity possible to drive sales and profits.
The bad part of this is dealing with the bad and lazy sales reps. This blog is being written for 1 reason, STOP ASKING ME & MY CLIENTS FOR THEIR BASIC INFORMATION! A week doesn’t go by that a rep doesn’t ask me for a clients website, phone number or address. I don’t care about giving this to them, but when I sold this wasn’t a question I ever asked. WHY? It’s this little thing called THE INTERNET. As sales people your job is to handle as much of the work as you can for your clients. When you close a deal all you really need to do is get a signature and form of payment. It doesn’t bother me that I need to type out my clients info and send it to them, that’s obliviously pretty easy. It bothers me that they don’t do this on their own. This is such a minor point in their sales process that it makes me wonder what else they are missing. Do I have to hold their hand through every step of our business relationship, I hope not. So in closing, sales people, make the process simpler for your clients. It’s hard enough to close deals, the paperwork should be the easy part for the client.
Rant over 🙂
HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS!
I had a conversation last week with a professional sales person that I thought I’d never have in 2015. We were talking about creating a marketing campaign to inform his date-base about the new business he just launched. I asked about the size of his database to which he said “what data-base?” During the next 5 minutes I came to find out that he had no info gathered on the people he had been selling to or calling on for the past 25 years.
To put this in perspective, I have 3,000 people in my database. I have the contact info of every customer/prospect since 1999. I knew when I started in radio advertising on March 13th 1999 that the key to my success was creating a strong customer list and maintaining it. I knew that without this I’d be recreating myself and starting from scratch everywhere I went. I guess I’m naive in thinking that others think the same way. It truly saddens me to think that sales people waste so much time due to their lack of planning for the future. I remember the days of our “1 Day Sales” when I was selling radio advertising. Our bosses would announce that in 1 week we were having a sale and on the morning of the sale they would give us the special that was only available on that day. I would watch as all the other sales people would scramble running all over town for 5 days to line up prospects for this sale. I’d create an email/fax and mass send it to my clients/prospects(with a personal touch of course). I’d then followup with them via phone calls that day and line up my hot prospects. I’d accomplish in 1 day what my colleagues did in 5. On the day of the sale I’d blast out the offer to my clients and by 10am I was the #1 rep in the office while the other reps pounded the phone 1 call at a time all day. EVERY YEAR I was the #1 rep in the “1 Day Sales”. Why? Because of my customer date-base I kept in ACT. Another bi-product of this effort was I never messed with my other sales activities. While the other sales people were spending 5 days preparing for the sale, I was spending 1, which meant I never skipped a beat on the other parts of our business.
Without a working database as a sales person, you are basically traveling across the country in a car with a broken gas gauge and no GPS. You may reach your destination, but it’s going to be a rough trip as compared to the alternative.
SO, in closing, if you’re someone who fits into this category START A LIST! I don’t care if you’re 25 or 65, if you don’t start building your own radio station today, then you are setting yourself up to fail tomorrow.
New Copywriting Positions Available
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Tu vero, inquam, ducas licet, si sequetur; Verba tu fingas et ea dicas, quae non sentias?
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Primum in nostrane potestate est, quid meminerimus? Deinde disputat, quod cuiusque generis animantium statui deceat extremum. Non enim, si omnia non sequebatur, idcirco non erat ortus illinc.
Sed quid sentiat, non videtis. Satis est tibi in te, satis in legibus, satis in mediocribus amicitiis praesidii. Dici enim nihil potest verius. Non quam nostram quidem, inquit Pomponius iocans; Etenim semper illud extra est, quod arte comprehenditur. Facit igitur Lucius noster prudenter, qui audire de summo bono potissimum velit; Bonum patria: miserum exilium. Si qua in iis corrigere voluit, deteriora fecit. Nunc haec primum fortasse audientis servire debemus.
Silvertooth Opens New Gym to Employees
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Qui autem de summo bono dissentit de tota philosophiae ratione dissentit. An eum discere ea mavis, quae cum plane perdidiceriti nihil sciat? Tum Piso: Quoniam igitur aliquid omnes, quid Lucius noster? Ut optime, secundum naturam affectum esse possit. Dic in quovis conventu te omnia facere, ne doleas. Nec vero sum nescius esse utilitatem in historia, non modo voluptatem. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Sed mehercule pergrata mihi oratio tua. Naturales divitias dixit parabiles esse, quod parvo esset natura contenta. Atque haec coniunctio confusioque virtutum tamen a philosophis ratione quadam distinguitur.
Tu vero, inquam, ducas licet, si sequetur; Verba tu fingas et ea dicas, quae non sentias?
Laelius clamores sofòw ille so lebat Edere compellans gumias ex ordine nostros. Roges enim Aristonem, bonane ei videantur haec: vacuitas doloris, divitiae, valitudo; Nam his libris eum malo quam reliquo ornatu villae delectari. Utram tandem linguam nescio? Tu vero, inquam, ducas licet, si sequetur; Ne amores quidem sanctos a sapiente alienos esse arbitrantur. Quorum sine causa fieri nihil putandum est.
Primum in nostrane potestate est, quid meminerimus? Deinde disputat, quod cuiusque generis animantium statui deceat extremum. Non enim, si omnia non sequebatur, idcirco non erat ortus illinc.
Sed quid sentiat, non videtis. Satis est tibi in te, satis in legibus, satis in mediocribus amicitiis praesidii. Dici enim nihil potest verius. Non quam nostram quidem, inquit Pomponius iocans; Etenim semper illud extra est, quod arte comprehenditur. Facit igitur Lucius noster prudenter, qui audire de summo bono potissimum velit; Bonum patria: miserum exilium. Si qua in iis corrigere voluit, deteriora fecit. Nunc haec primum fortasse audientis servire debemus.
July Marketing Seminar
Not 1, not 2, but 3 speakers! Yes, 3 speakers will help you understand how to supercharge your website, reach your customers who effective Email Marketing and grab their attention through Social Media!
In this 2 hour seminar we’ll cover in depth the following topics:
1. Website creation, mobile websites and on-site SEO – Logan Dotson of Launch Runner will walk you through the MUST haves when it comes to your website, mobile website and on-page SEO.
2. Advanced Email Marketing – Erin Bemis from Constant Contact will not only show you how, what and when to send your emails, but also the best practices that will take your Email Marketing to the next level.
4. Social Media Marketing – Matt Plapp will cover Social Media Marketing and everything you need to know to reach the people who “Know, Like & Trust” you more often.