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Don’t Pay Yelp and Your Online Reviews Will Sleep With the Fishes

it's mafia, it's extortion, it's Yelp

“To me, it’s mafia. To me it’s a racket. To me, it’s extortion.

To you guys, it’s Yelp.”


This quote comes from an Italian restaurant owner in an upcoming documentary called Billion Dollar Bully.

The documentary is about Yelp’s shady business practices by manipulating and removing reviews for businesses that don’t advertise with them.

Here is a trailer:

Yelp is a shady business
MYM has a client that could be “Exhibit A” for this documentary.

On 2/13/17, I told you about an MYM client who stopped advertising with Yelp, only to mysteriously hemorrhage their five-star reviews on Yelp immediately after.

At that time, they had lost 85 five-star reviews since 1/1/17 (from 648 to 563).

As of today, 6/8/17, they are down to… get ready for this…

81 five-star Yelp reviews.

EIGHTY-ONE.

Yep… Yelp “filtered” (a.k.a. deleted) 482 of this contractor’s five-star reviews in just four months. All because the contractor stopped paying Yelp for advertising.

This, in spite of adding OVER 100 NEW 5-Star Reviews since January 1st…

They SHOULD have been up to about 750 right now.

Instead, they sit at an abysmal 81.

It could be even worse by now—Yelp is still actively removing 5-star reviews at the alarming rate of 1 or 2 per day. Click here to check and see for yourself.

And oh by the way… they still have FIFTY (50) 1-star reviews… THE EXACT SAME NUMBER THEY HAD January 1.

Go figure.

The Italian restaurant owner is right: Yelp is the internet mafia. If you don’t pay, your five-star reviews go away.

Billion Dollar Bully proves that Yelp extorting business owners is nothing new. But I’m bringing up this issue again to show you how widespread the problem is and tell you to use EXTREME caution with Yelp.

If possible, don’t rely on Yelp as your primary (or secondary or tertiary) review source. Because it probably won’t end well for you.

Instead, stick to accumulating reviews on places like Google, Facebook, HomeAdvisor, Yellow Pages, and local review websites. (Basically, any review website that DOESN’T have a documentary dishing dirt about how terrible it is.)

Our Online Reputation Management (ORM) can help you.

With MYM ORM, increasing your positive online reviews on LEGITIMATE review websites—and improving your online reputation overall—is easy.

Here are three major benefits of MYM’s Online Reputation Management:

  1. New Review Soliciting – We shrewdly and respectfully email your customer list that you provide us and direct them to leave you a review.
  2. Subpar Review Interception – If a customer leaves you less than a 3-star review (This number is customizable), it gives them a quick pop up that says, “Hey! Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. We want to make it right. Please call us.” This gives you the chance to take that 2- or 3-star review, and turn it into a 5-star review.
  3. Brand Monitoring – You’ll be alerted every time a new review is published about your company. This is not limited to reviews we generate through the reviews process, but any review across 100+ websites. This makes it easy for you to respond to negative and positive reviews quickly. (To learn how to respond to online reviews, read my last blog post.)

Click here to find out more about MYM’s Online Reputation Management. Also be sure to use the free Review Scanner at the top of the page to generate an instant reputation report of your business.

 

P.S. If you want to learn more about Billion Dollar Bully, visit its Kickstarter page. MYM is in no way affiliated with this documentary; we simply respect the heck out of David standing up to Goliath.

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Why you should always respond to every online review (even good reviews)…

responding to online reviews
I’m dating myself with this story, but oh well.

My oldest son, Sam (24), took driver’s training in 2009.

When the kids in his class would practice driving on the roads, they knew they were supposed to use the turn signal when turning and when changing lanes.

But what about other times?

Did they really have to signal when merging on the highway… or when pulling into a parking spot?

The driving instructor, a no-nonsense kind of guy, always had the same response to the “blinker” question…

“Does it hurt anything? Does it cost anything?”

Point taken.

Now my son still fastidiously signals… pretty much all the time.

Think of this story the next time you ask yourself, “Should I respond to my online reviews?”

Here’s why…

Studies show 92% of people now read online reviews. That makes online reviews one of the most influential aspects of your marketing. Period.

Similarly, most of our clients know they should respond to negative online reviews. It just makes sense: Upset customers need to be dealt with—it’s obvious.

But what about responding to GOOD reviews? Is it really necessary?

“Does it hurt anything? Does it cost anything?”

The truth is, it actually PAYS huge dividends.

Your default position should be to respond to EVERY SINGLE online review.

Yep, all of them.

It’s an easy way to boost SEO. And it can help you drum up more business.

I’ll tell you how in a second.

But first, here is the exact blueprint for responding to good AND bad reviews…

Responding To Good Reviews

  • Thank the customer.
  • Specifically acknowledge what’s in the review; you want people to know it’s actually you and not an automated response. (“I’m happy to hear [insert employee name] provided a great experience for you.”)
  • SEO-ify your response by inserting your company’s name, location, and services. (“At [insert name], we’re proud to be one of [insert location]’s best [insert service].”)
  • Market your company. Mention why you were able to provide a great experience. Then, invite your customer to try another of your services and refer their friends.

What Happens When You Respond To Good Reviews:

1) Prospects find you more friendly and caring, so they’re more likely to hire you;

2) your SEO gets a little boost;

3) you get to market your company and showcase your strengths.

Example of responding to a good review:

responding to bad reviews - service champions

Responding To Bad Reviews

  • Say you’re sorry and express sympathy. (“Hi, [Name]. I’m sorry you had a bad experience.”)
  • Own up to any mistakes, and explain the type of experience you usually provide. (“We’re known for our attention to detail, and we apologize for missing the mark.”)
  • Provide your contact info, so you and the customer can discuss the issue and resolution one on one.
  • Keep it concise. No need to go into too much detail and say something that will make your customer more mad.
  • Do NOT include SEO stuff like business name, location, and services. It’s best if this review doesn’t show up on Google.

What Happens When You Respond To Bad Reviews: 1) The unsatisfied customer may change their negative review to a positive one; 2) the customer—now happy with you—is more likely to refer you or hire you again; 3) prospects see you fix problems, rather than neglect them, and that peace of mind makes them more likely to hire you.

Example of responding to a bad review:

responding to bad reviews - service champions 2

See? Simple.

The company in these examples is Service Champions. Leland, the owner, responds to literally every single review the company gets—good and bad. And they also happen to be the biggest HVAC company in California.

Here’s the thing…

The kids in my son’s drivers training class already knew the answer to the “blinker” question before they asked. They were just being lazy and didn’t want to reach the three inches to flip the turn signal.

The moral of the story: When it comes to responding to online reviews, don’t be like a lazy teenager.

Follow the blueprint I laid out above to squeeze every last drop of marketing juice out of your online reviews.

After all… it doesn’t hurt anything… and it doesn’t cost anything. 😉

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Playing Whack-A-Mole With Your Bad Online Reviews

Do you remember playing that Whack-a-Mole game when you were a kid?

You had a mallet, and you’d bonk any mole that popped its head out of the hole.

playing whack a mole with your bad online reviews
At MYM, we have our own version of Whack-a-Mole. We call it “Whack-a-Review.”

Here are the rules…

  • Your online reputation is the “player.”
  • MYM’s Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the “mallet.”
  • Whenever a negative review about you pops up online, ORM instantly whacks it on the head, potentially forcing it back into the hole it crawled out from.

Our ORM “whacks” bad internet reviews about your company in two ways:

  1. It immediately alerts you to any negative reviews that pop up or already exist on 170+ review websites across the internet. This allows you the opportunity to contact the customer that left the review to fix the situation, or respond to the review directly on the website (here’s the right way to do that).
  2. When customers leave an online review directly from your website, it sends them through a review funnel. If they plan to leave you a negative online review, they are given the opportunity to discuss their experience with you first. This gives you the chance to talk to the customer, fix the problem, and get that customer to either not to post a negative review or change their negative review into a positive one. (Here’s an example of MYM ORM on a client’s website.)

In both instances, you “win the game.”

Not only do you have the ability to prevent reputation-damaging bad reviews from seeing the light of day… but you can also transform the existing ones (ones you may not know even exist) into favorable feedback about your company.

And “Whack-a-Review” is just one of the great features of our Online Reputation Management.

It also builds your online reputation by getting more of your customers to leave good online reviews. By sending your customers through a review funnel on your website, you build a strong online reputation in no time.

For instance, we recently signed up a new ORM client that had a substantial customer list they provided us.

Within the first week, our ORM generated eight new positive customer reviews for the client on Google and Facebook (two of the sites the client wants to target).

The amount of new online reviews you get per week depends on a number of factors, such as the amount of customers you have and how quickly/aggressively you want to build your online reputation.

Truthfully, creating a stout online reputation is like when the Romans built Rome—it won’t get done in a day.

But let’s assume our ORM generates you two to three new positive online reviews per week.
That’s…

  • About 8 to 12 a month…
  • 104 to 156 in one year…
  • 208 to 312 in two years…
  • 520 to 780 in five years.

Considering that studies show 9 out of 10 prospects read online reviews before contacting a contractor, don’t you think having hundreds of positive online reviews will convince people to pick up the phone and call you?

I’d bet my retirement fund on it.

So you can see just how important it is to start building your online reputation NOW.

Visit our ORM page now to find out more about how we can build, manage, and maintain a healthy, robust online reputation for your company.

And if you want to see if there are currently any negative online reviews about your company that need “whacking,” sign up for a free Lead Generation Audit. We’ll sniff them out for you.

Ready those mallets.

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The Invisible Cash-Sucking Parasite That’s Costing You Thousands

contractor reviews

26,380

That’s the number of reviews posted per minute to one of the major online review websites.

Not per week.

Not per day.

Not per hour.

PER MINUTE.

And this is just ONE review website; consumers are leaving thousands of reviews on the 170+ other review websites every minute of every day, too. Who knows how giant the actual number of online reviews posted per minute is across all sites.

The point?

The internet is THE information superhighway, and online reviews fly fast and furious. You’re dead meat you’re not constantly up to date on your online reputation.

If you think I’m joking, consider this…

92% of consumers now read online reviews. And just one to three bad online reviews is enough to deter 67% of those consumers from doing business with a company.

I’m no math whiz, but even I can see how these numbers can completely destroy a company with bad online reviews.

And the worst part is that if you don’t constantly monitor your online reputation, you’ll never know why your sales are tanking, why your appointment book is empty, and why all the leads have dried up.

This is where MYM Online Reputation Management (ORM) swoops in to save the day.

When you utilize our ORM services, we provide you with in-depth weekly reporting covering every single detail of your online reputation.

You’ll know where your online reviews are coming from, your average score, changes to your overall rating, and a whole lot more.

Here’s a look at some of the details in our weekly report:

Reputation Overview

 Reputation Overview

Review Volume And Distribution

 Review Volume And Distribution

Listings Strength
New Reviews

 New Reviews

Total New Reviews
And we don’t just keep our finger on the pulse of your online reputation. We actively bolster it by generating more positive reviews for your company… and potentially preventing negative reviews from ever being posted.

Our ORM leads your customers through a highly effective review funnel, sifting the good reviews from the bad.

The good reviews get posted online; the bad reviews are sent to you, so you have the opportunity to address the unsatisfied customer’s problem BEFORE they submit their review to a third-party review website.

Bottom Line: You could be hemorrhaging thousands of dollars—per day!—if you’re not up to date on your online reputation. (Remember, just one bad review can influence over two-thirds of people considering you.)

With MYM ORM, you get deep insights into your online reputation on a weekly basis. So you not only stop “bleeding green,” you also make more green. MUCH, MUCH more.

Visit our ORM webpage to find out more and get in touch with us about getting set up with our Online Reputation Management.

Be sure to use the free Review Scanner for an instant snapshot of your online reputation’s health.

P.S. You demand to be kept in the loop in every other part of your business—sales, lead flow, budget, production, scheduling, etc.—right? So why neglect your online reputation, which is one of THE most vital factors of your business’s lead generation and revenue?

P.P.S. Next post, I’ll tell you whether buying unsold ad space at a discounted price is ACTUALLY worth it… or whether you’d be better off throwing your money in a pile and lighting it on fire.

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