5 Star Reviews- My Golden Rule

The Five Star Review:

My Golden Rule

There are a lot of people who use the Review Map from places like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Facebook to decide whether they are going to come to your store. So as a business, you need to be paying attention to this. However, you shouldn't let it ruin your life if someone gives you a 3-Star, 2-Star or heaven forbid a 1-Star Review...

Let's talk about the importance of Reviews, first and foremost. Reviews on the web are necessary for two main reasons. Reason one, as I mentioned above, potential customers use reviews to decide whether the trip to your facility is really worth the drive and the money. They will typically read an average of three reviews and they will read them in an assortment of ways. Some people read 1 Great, 1 Mediocre and 1 Terrible review. Some people read three to five most recent posts (sometimes ignoring the ones without any detail or remarks). Some people just look at the Star rating and figure, 3+ or 4+ stars is enough for them. But no matter how they check out your facility pre-visit... they use the ratings to do so.

The second reason your Reviews are so important is because they raise your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which is what search engines like Google use to raise you on their search sites, (THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!! AND FREE...) If you want to hear more about SEO, Private Message me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/FECMGR and I will post specifically on SEO for Marketing.

Basically, the more good reviews you have (along with a mixture of other things like website traffic, words per page, updating etc.) the higher you go when people are searching for things like "Fun Things to do in the city near you..." or "Family Fun Spots". So, if you are getting 5-star reviews on the regular... you may be able to save a few bucks on Google Adwords if not canceling that subscription all together (like we did).

So WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT BAD REVIEWS? Take them with a grain of salt. Some people are just never satisfied... And remember "take it with a grain of salt" doesn't mean ignore it... it means look deeper for the truth that might be there. Salt purifies... so purify the review before ingesting it... (And yes... there may be some truth there... don't be too proud to see it...) But then, let it go...

And WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING AS BUSINESS OWNERS/MANAGERS? Well... The Golden Rule is "Do unto others what you would have others do unto you." So, when you go somewhere, leave an honest review (good or bad)... especially for the places you love to go! Leave a Review! If every business manager and owner left reviews at all of the places they went... everyone would benefit from everything reviews have to offer!  

Too good to review? Then don't cry when no one is reviewing you...

Just Another Manager

Brian Lee