What do you do when you get a bad online review? That’s what customer service expert Marilyn Suttle and I will be discussing tomorrow on Tribe Building Today. Hope you can join us. It’s free! Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/tbtmarilynsuttle
Here are some of the questions we will be answering:
– How damaging are negative online reviews?
– Who writes negative reviews? And what’s their real motivation?
– What are the best ways to handle negative reviews
– What are the common mistakes in handling them?
– What systems can you put in place to prevent emotional reactions from clouding your judgment?
About Marilyn Suttle…
Marilyn Suttle specializes in creating “Suttle Shifts” in the way people think and act, so they can produce massive results. A leading authority in service excellence, business and personal relationships, and content marketing for women-focused online communities, she’s been sourced as an expert by Ladies Home Journal, Corp Magazine, Inc. Magazine, LA Times. And the Chicago Tribune & network-affiliated news programs have featured her advice on communication and leadership.After working with Marilyn, her clients have won industry awards, raised customer satisfaction levels and gotten lasting results in reducing stress and experiencing greater success and self-fulfillment.
Company leaders have made her presentations available to thousands of employees, improving their quality of life and passion to excel in their professions.
Marilyn presents keynotes and trainings, as well as coaches and consults with professionals at Fortune 500 companies, universities, medical, mid-sized companies. She also works directly with entrepreneurs. Her extensive experience with online community management, and social media helps brands engage deeply with their target market.
Marilyn hosts the Woman-to-Woman podcast series on iTunes, sponsored Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and personal growth gurus like Jack Canfield, founder of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, have invited her to speak on their stages.
Marilyn’s bestselling book, “Who’s Your Gladys?” – co-authored with Lori Jo Vest – was published by AMACOM, NY in 2009 and is now available in paperback and as an e-book. Suttle and Vest also created the online course Customer Service Roadmap to allow their training to be more efficiently conducted by companies throughout the world.
Hosted by Gina Carr…
Gina Carr is a sought after speaker and business growth consultant who works with business leaders who want to grow their business by getting more great reviews, and fewer bad ones. Gina hasan MBA from the Harvard Business School and an engineering degree from Georgia Tech. She is known as “The Tribe Builder” because she helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans.
She is the co-author of Klout Matters: How to Engage Customers, Boost Your Digital Influence & Raise Your Klout Score for Success. Gina was again named one of the “Top 50 Over 50” Marketing Thought Leaders by Brand Quarterly (2014 & 2015) and Who’s Who Among Women in Ecommerce by WE Magazine (2014).
Join Gina and Marilyn on March 9 at 3:30 pm ET US by subscribing to the Blab at
Category Archives: Tribe Building
How to Get More Great Reviews … And Fewer Bad Ones!
For most service businesses today – restaurants, hotels, professional services – online reviews are more important than ever. In fact, I think that online reviews are the lifeblood of your business. Online reviews are important for product sales, also. However, this article will focus on service businesses, not products.
If you have a lot of good ones, your business is likely pretty healthy. If you don’t, I’m betting your business is feeling a lot of pain – the kind of pain that lack of new customers brings. Ouch!
Personally, I use online review sites frequently to make decisions. On a recent “around the world” trip, I used them to select hotels and restaurants. The difference between having an “excellent” versus and “outstanding” review on TripAdvisor was often the tiebreaker in my decisions.
And, as I have only lived in my current home city of Orlando for a few years, I still need to find new service professionals – doctors, attorneys, dentists, and such. I have found the online reviews to be most helpful.
Do you really know the process that a new customer goes through to get to you these days? Even the strongest referrals are often accompanied by an extensive Google search. For many businesses, the online review sites – HealthGrades, DocZoc, TripAdvisor, Yelp – show prominently in the search results – sometimes even before the actual business website.
If your business has several bad reviews, it is likely to be passed over for another business that doesn’t have bad reviews – or, that has several good reviews to counter the bad ones. Most people will overlook a few bad reviews if there are a lot of good ones to counter the complaints.
In fact, a recent article posted in the Harvard Business Review asserts: “many companies need to dramatically shift their marketing strategies to account for the rising power exerted on future customers by the opinions of existing customers.”
Over the years, my agency has helped clients with digital marketing, website development, social media marketing, SEO, and other forms of marketing. I believe that online reviews are the most important factor in a buyer’s decision making process today.
So, how do you get more great reviews and fewer bad ones? Now, THAT is the million dollar question.
Here are some proactive strategies that are working well today.
1. Make it easy for customers to complain by putting comment cards inside your establishment. Include a drop box where the cards can be dropped. And, turn it into a post card with prepaid postage so that it can be mailed. Adding the opportunity for anonymity makes it safe for a customer to voice concerns.
2. Put a “How are we doing?” input area on your website where people can submit anonymous comments. Don’t require an email or name, make it optional. Some people just like to vent. Better for them to do it on your site than a public review site or social media.
3. Collect emails so that you can send email followup messages requesting feedback. If you have a restaurant, put a “signup for goodies” card on the table or in the check holder. If you have a store, place a signup list at the checkout area or place a card inside their bags. Another great way to get emails and feedback is to post a link for a survey on the cash register. Businesses can increase participation by entering respondents names into a drawing for something valuable.
4. Collect phone numbers so that you can call people for feedback and encourage people with good feedback to please post on review sites.
5. Based on the feedback, follow up appropriately. If the feedback was good, provide links that would make it easy for them to share their comments with review sites. If the feedback was not good, provide a way for them to share more via an online form or a phone call.
People want to be heard. The more that you can provide them a way to share their frustrations and remedy the problems, the less likely they are to slam you on review sites.
Even if things went very wrong, how the problem is handled can make all the difference. In fact, customers who complain can become very loyal customers – if the problem is handled well.
Getting good reviews can be expensive in terms of the amount of labor and effort required. Some aspects of getting reviews can be automated so that it minimizes staff effort.
If you’d like to know more about how to get more good reviews and fewer bad reviews, visit www.GetMoreGreatReviews.com to view a quick video.
Gina Carr works with business leaders who want to get more great reviews and fewer bad ones. She has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an engineering degree from Georgia Tech. Gina enjoys traveling the globe to share the latest business growth strategies with business owners and managers. She can be reached at gina@ginacarr.com or 1-678-653-0115. Schedule a free strategy session today to learn easy ways for you to get more great reviews … and, more great customers! ww.ginacarr.com/strategy-session
Great Tribe Builder: Ginni Rommety, CEO of IBM, Powerful Communicator
A particular paragraph caught my eye this morning and helped me understand why Ginni Rommety, the CEO of IBM, is on of the most powerful and influential tribe builders on the planet: she has great communication skills.
In the following paragraph, my friend Tereza Nemessanyi explains how Rommety left a simple voice mail that allayed PricewaterhouseCoopers employee concerns right after PwC was purchased by IBM in 2002.
“She also reached out to all PwC employees personally. The morning the acquisition was announced, they arrived to the blinking red light of a voicemail notification on their phones. “Got to admit feelings were mixed,” wrote Tereza Nemessanyi, then a principal consultant at PwC, on her blog. “As a creative type, I was nervous of what I knew as a very rigid culture.” The following two-minute message welcomed her personally to IBM, assured her that IBM would retain the best elements of the PwC culture, and most important, got her excited. “Jeez, that woman leaves some seriously good voicemail,” wrote Nemessanyi, who tells me she was tempted to move to IBM but ended up staying with PwC’s parent.”
By reaching out to the PwC employees early, directly, and effectively (even “got her excited”), Rommety helped get the PwC employees integrated into the IBM culture. She earned a lot of respect and made a critical step toward bringing several thousand PwC employees into her loyal tribe of raving fans.
How about you? What simple step can you take today to communicate with your tribe and build loyalty?
Read the entire article here:
IBM’s Ginni Rometty looks ahead
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Smart Tribe Builders Don’t Scream
Great tribe builders know that one of the keys to building a powerful tribe is to have happy team members. News flash: screaming does not engender happiness or loyalty.
I know first-hand from my entrepreneurial experiences of having offices full of people how important it is for everyone – especially “the boss” – to keep emotions in check. I also know how difficult it can be. That is why I wanted to share this article from the Wall Street Journal with you.
The article, Dealing with a Boss Who Yells, explains some of the pitfalls of having a “screamer” as a boss and some of the best ways of dealing with this type of person.
Missing from the article is the fact that the number one reason cited by many people who leave a job is that they had problems with their boss.* As the saying goes: “Employees don’t quit their companies, they quit their bosses.”
Major takeaways from this article:
Pitfalls of Screaming:
- Employee effectiveness is significantly diminished when yelling takes place.
- Managers don’t yell for fear of becoming the “star of a co-worker’s cellphone videotape gone viral.” (I hadn’t thought of that one!)
How to Deal avoid Screaming:
- Hold short, frequent meetings with employees having problems, instead of letting the anger build into a “nuclear bomb.”
- Wait 24 hours before responding to a difficult situation. (I call that “parking the issue” and have found that to be a very effective means for resolving conflict.)
What solutions have you employed to deal with a screaming boss – or to keep yourself from being one?
To read the full article in the Wall Street Journal, click here: When the Boss is a Screamer
*According to a survey recently completed by Greg Smith of Chart Your Course International, “thirty-five percent of the respondents answered yes to the question, Was the attitude of your direct supervisor/manager the primary factor in your quitting a previous job?”
Source: Top Ten Reasons Why People Quit Their Jobs