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How much of a difference do Google reviews make to your business?

D

Deleted85763

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I disagree. I think most people these days realise there are loons out there that give 1 star reviews when it's not deserved. It's easy to drown the odd whack job review out with a tonne of great reviews.
That's assuming you also have a tonne of great reviews.

Most people do not know how to accurately judge reviews. Me included but I have gotten better. A few months ago I bought a product with thousands of mostly 4 and 5 star reviews. The product was actually junk. It was designed poorly and broke within weeks. I learned that all the reviewers, who were actual buyers, were given a free substantial gift immediately after purchase to review the product. It didn't have to be a good review but most people felt obligated in this instance to leave a good review.
 
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D

Deleted85763

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The only thing obvious about this is how ridiculous that statement is.

In fact, I've found more often than not, phone calls go up when a 5 star business gets its first bad review.

My theory is the a bad review makes the other good reviews suddenly seem more credible.

There are industries in my town where the top ranked companies are a 3.8 on Google. But these companies are still in business and people still call them.
The current research is showing that one single bad review causes a loss of 22% of potential customers. More than 1 bad review will lose 50% of potential customers. 86% of people will hesitate if they see bad reviews. People seek out bad reviews to see what the worst downside is. That makes sense. Bad reviews can make a company more credible but not from trusted websites. Bad reviews can work well for a business, but not in gaining new customers who see the review. Negative reviews cam tell them what they are possibly doing wrong.
 

DoingDeals

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Well, if you're like me what I said I'll look up the negative 1-star reviews first, take for instance Amazon.com I wanted to buy a gym bag & it has 7-9 customers saying it falls apart. I wouldn't consider buying it to need the hassle of returning, just look for another one. Another example powerstrips that catch on fire, even if it's just 5 out of thousands of reviews I'd rather not risk it burning the house down. This also helps me figure out if the other customers are writing fake reviews.
 
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You'll never know what customers you lost, because they're not buying one.
 

Paul David

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The only thing obvious about this is how ridiculous that statement is.

In fact, I've found more often than not, phone calls go up when a 5 star business gets its first bad review.

My theory is the a bad review makes the other good reviews suddenly seem more credible.

There are industries in my town where the top ranked companies are a 3.8 on Google. But these companies are still in business and people still call them.
correct!
 
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Paul David

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Well, if you're like me what I said I'll look up the negative 1-star reviews first, take for instance Amazon.com I wanted to buy a gym bag & it has 7-9 customers saying it falls apart. I wouldn't consider buying it to need the hassle of returning, just look for another one. Another example powerstrips that catch on fire, even if it's just 5 out of thousands of reviews I'd rather not risk it burning the house down. This also helps me figure out if the other customers are writing fake reviews.
by the way Amazon reviews are a totally different ball game to Google. From my experience most people know to take Amazon reviews with a pinch of salt!
 

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That's assuming you also have a tonne of great reviews.

Most people do not know how to accurately judge reviews. Me included but I have gotten better. A few months ago I bought a product with thousands of mostly 4 and 5 star reviews. The product was actually junk. It was designed poorly and broke within weeks. I learned that all the reviewers, who were actual buyers, were given a free substantial gift immediately after purchase to review the product. It didn't have to be a good review but most people felt obligated in this instance to leave a good review.
I'm talking about Google Maps reviews. GMB reviews, not amazon reviews.
 

DoingDeals

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Yeah, I've read through the Amazon FBA stuff, most of them are bought, constantly changing & pay customers $20 to remove their negative comments. Just figured I would point out another perspective.


I don't know if anyone picked up on it the Yelp reviews of itself are terrible always under 2.5-stars. No one trusts them either it's a joke, but since they merged with iPhone's Apple Maps you kind of have to look out for them as a business owner.


They will actually offer to remove the bad reviews & restore the filtered out good reviews, if you pay them upwards $300 per month or whatever.


Google is the number one concern.


Sorry, I didn't mean to deviate off the topic.
 
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DoingDeals

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I also want to talk about mass momentum, if there's a lot of customers up front giving 5-stars making more of them believe it like mind control, they will leave you more good reviews. You have to do this in the early stages when you start a company.
It's like what you charge is how people will view the value of products & services actually, expensive Starbucks coffee for example or a personal trainer charging $5,000-6,000 to celebrities is better than the $30-50 an hour ones when they're showing the same moves & workout routines exactly, essentially.
 
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Deleted85763

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by the way Amazon reviews are a totally different ball game to Google. From my experience most people know to take Amazon reviews with a pinch of salt!
Almost all people do not know how to read reviews anywhere to accurately judge the product or service. I heard a well regarded doctor say they were going to purchase a food product online because it had really good reviews!
 

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"One bad review amongst a lot of good ones definitely DOES NOT affect you"

One review, depending on what is said, can definitely affect you. I did research on a company and they had all good reviews except a couple of negative ones. One of those reviews said to check news articles about the company from years ago. I did. It took a bit of doing but I found them. There is no way I would ever buy from that company. The good reviews may have been fake or maybe the company learned from their mistakes. Even then I would not take the risk. There are other companies that provide the same service.
Well yeah, if you have bad news articles out there about you then no duh.
 
D

Deleted85763

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This is actually a potential fastlane opportunity. I thought of it the other day when buying a safe. I found one on Amazon that had a 4.9 star rating, but before buying I checked to see if The Lockpicking Lawyer had reviewed it... and he had! It was rubbish. The 4.9 stars were won by delivering quick etc. The opportunity that I saw (But am not interested in pursuing myself) is to create a review platform that professionals in the field of that product can review. Eventually you could have it as an add-on for Amazon, Alibaba, Ebay etc (So you can see customer reviews as well as professional reviews). You could also have the option for businesses to register that they want their product reviewed, and get paired up with a suitable pro. There is something like it already, but not very developed in my opinion.
That's a good idea. But how do you ensure the professionals are being honest and not being paid by the manufacturer?
 
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runnaboi

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That's a good idea. But how do you ensure the professionals are being honest and not being paid by the manufacturer?
Like I said above, I haven't actually gone through all the scenarios as it was just an idea that popped in to my head. But it doesn't align with my medium/long term plan.
But lots (not all) of the pros have a reputation to keep. Using the first example I gave, I cant image the Lock Picking Lawyer being one that could be paid off for a positive review - his reputation is that he can quickly pick most locks. You could also maybe arrange it so that the manufacturer doesn't actually know who will review it, and pay is based on the reach the pros have or something like that. Just a random idea though!
 

fridge

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I'm in the pressure washing business and these google reviews are HUGE. Obviously every business is different, but pressure washing we need a LOT of customers in order to get above 5 figures revenue. I figure it costs me about $20-$35 to acquire a new customer, and I've gotten a few off my google reviews alone, though I LOVE yard signs.
What I've personally done is offered a small discount in exchange for a google review after the work is completed. I'm VERY sensitive about the language I use when offering a customer this and I don't do this with every customer (usually the ones that I think are easy going), and I always stress I only want the review AFTER the work is done, AFTER we've done a walk-around of the cleaned surface, and they're satisified. Not satisified? Okay, I'll go ahead and re-wash the areas you don't like, we'll do another walk around, then I'll bill you and on a $450 wash I'll take $30-$40 (usually 10% off) and show you how to do the google review right then and there.
 

DoingDeals

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The other problem is Google displays other review websites for restaurants like Uber, Doordash & TripAdvisor.

Lowe's, Home Depot or Best Buy have their own review systems, which I use to base my decisions too.


Wendy's currently has a 1-star Facebook rating.

They use the information Google cached it's under "Reviews from the web".

I've never seen this for any other type of industry or the large chain corporations & fast food for some reason.
 
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DoingDeals

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Edit: Hotels display Priceline & TripAdvisor under the reviews tab, as well.

If you see Google saying 5-stars & Yelp 3.5 it's affects my decision making process & weight on each other a conundrum.
 

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