Like 92% of the population, I read online reviews about something before I consider buying it.

This especially goes for big-ticket items like remodels, vacations, and vehicles.

So when I wanted to take my wife to a Cancun resort last year, I went to TripAdvisor to scope the online reviews of the different establishments.

Now…

When I plan vacations like this, I only consider resorts with at least an 80% (four out of five stars) rating. I’m spending a big chunk of change, and I want my money’s worth.

So I found a beach-side resort that ticked all the boxes I wanted: fun stuff to do, exotic location, all-inclusive, and the necessary rating I require (it had four stars with over 2,000 reviews).

I booked the resort two months in advance and went on my merry way.

Flash-Forward Two Months…

We arrive at the lush tropical resort, ready to relax and have fun.

But turns out that, within those two months in which I booked the trip and when we arrived, the resort began a MAJOR construction project.

In the words of Homer Simpson… D’OH!

Instead of being greeted by the soothing sounds of ocean waves crashing onto the beach, we were met with the obnoxious, ear-splitting cacophony of jackhammers crunching into concrete.

Instead of breathing in the salty sea air, I sucked up two lungful’s worth of construction dust every time I inhaled.

Instead of opening the window shades in my room to experience the beautiful tropical view, I had a construction worker’s butt crack staring back at me.

Twice.

By the end of the trip, I looked something like this:

The point?

If I had looked at the resort’s reviews within those two months, I would have seen a ton of new reviews complaining about the construction. And I would have canceled and booked a different resort. But I didn’t.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

Here’s what YOU can learn from my excruciating excursion.

Like the vacation industry, home improvement is a fluid business. CURRENT reviews are critical.

When I looked at the resort’s TripAdvisor page yesterday, the reviews painted an entirely different picture from when I booked it over a year ago.

Sure, some people are still giving it good reviews (they must have been far, far away from the construction site). But many of them now mention the STILL ongoing construction as a turn-off.

This leads me to a few questions for you…

Are there any companies you compete against that were good last year… or the year before… that are now terrible? And would their reviews tell that story?

Odds are, you do.

And trust me when I say people ALWAYS put more stock into current reviews than old ones.

If prospects see that a contractor has negative recent reviews, they’re going to look for someone else—period. Those shiny five-star reviews from one or two years ago won’t help.

But if you have a bunch of great reviews consistently pouring in, it can work wonders for your business.

That’s where ORM comes in.

With ORM, the good reviews pour in fast and furious… while helping to prevent any negative ones from being posted for all the World Wide Web to see.

Find out more on our ORM webpage. (Also, make sure you use our free Online Review Scanner for an instant snapshot of your online reputation across multiple review websites.)

P.S. Okay, our Cancun trip wasn’t ALL bad. Besides the resort construction, it was actually pretty great. We visited the Mayan ruins in the ancient city of Coba and did a cenote tour of the local underground caves and lakes. I don’t have the pictures on my computer, but here are a few photos I found online of the Coba ruins we saw:

Mayan Pyramid

Mayan Lighthouse

Stone Pyramid

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On an emotional level, your wife’s diamond engagement ring is priceless.

But if we’re talking strictly in terms of money, it’s basically worth bupkis.

In fact, the second you walked out of the jewelers with your wife’s engagement ring—smiling from ear to ear and with your wallet a few thousand dollars lighter—it’s worth immediately plummeted more than two-thirds of what you just paid!

That’s because, contrary to popular belief, diamonds aren’t very valuable.

Diamond sales were actually struggling prior to the 1940s. Before then, giving diamond engagement rings wasn’t even much of a thing.

So, how did diamonds go from worthless hunks of clear carbon to the ultimate (and ultra-expensive) expression of love?

Well, part of it has to do with diamond companies ruthlessly controlling and monopolizing African diamond mines. But that’s another story to be told by someone else. (Try NPR or something.)

I want to focus on another part of what made diamond sales boom in the ‘40s: a slick, social-proof-heavy marketing campaign orchestrated by Da Beers.

Glue your eyeballs to every word of this story because it’s a masterclass in social proof marketing.

In 1938, Da Beers hired N.W. Ayer advertising agency. Within just a few years, N.W. Ayer turned diamonds into a status symbol and an item that you absolutely could NOT do without if you were going to propose to your gal.

For the guy, buying a big ol’ rock to stick on your lady’s finger was a way to measure your success.

For the lady, receiving a big ol’ rock from your man was not only an expression of his love for you, but also a metric for social status. The bigger the diamond, the more “elite” you were.

To get to the point where the public perceived diamonds as 100% mandatory for marriage, N.W. Ayer performed an all-out social proof blitzkrieg.

The agency got movie stars to wear diamonds. Radio hosts to bring in fashion designers to talk about diamonds. Magazines and newspapers to run stories and photos about which celebrities were wearing diamonds.

Everywhere people turned, they ran face-first into stories about how amazing diamonds were and “important people” wearing them.

The campaign worked insanely well. Diamond sales increased 55% in the first three years—smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression!—and the cost of diamonds skyrocketed.

All because of a social proof-heavy marketing campaign.

When everyone is saying diamonds are awesome, it’s hard to disagree.  

Today, over 80% of women receive diamond engagement rings when their men propose.

It goes to show that if enough people are eating the pie, everyone else wants a piece.

That’s why online reviews are absolutely crucial for contractors; you cannot and will not thrive without them.

The numbers offer irrefutable proof:

• 9 out of 10 people read online reviews before deciding whether to call a contractor.
• Just a one-star increase on sites like Yelp boost profits 5% to 9%.
• 86% of people hesitate to buy from businesses with negative online reviews.

This all adds up to one thing: You either live or die by your online reputation.

And if you want to live a luxurious life glowing online reviews can provide, MYM Online Reputation Management can help.

Our ORM builds, controls, and maintains a robust online reputation for your company by:

• Monitoring customer reviews across 170+ review websites

• Converting happy customers into glowing, sales-producing online reviews

• Stopping negative reviews BEFORE they happen

• Turning positive reviews into automated SEO-friendly web and social media content

• Providing regular comprehensive reporting regarding the “health” and status of your online reputation

Trust me—ORM is as vital to a healthy online reputation as a diamond ring is to a healthy marriage (and a happy wife).

Find out more on the official MYM ORM page.

P.S. You know that whole “spend two months’ salary on a diamond ring” rule of thumb? That was made up by Da Beers, too. After they saw success with a “spend one month’s salary” campaign, they bumped it up to two months. Because, why not?!

We’re continuing our conversation about referrals and the bonus you get for referring us to remarkable business owners like you.

Do you know a contractor business owner who doesn’t quite get digital marketing?

Their website exists, but that’s about all you can say about it.

Maybe they’ve also dabbled in PPC and SEO, but it went badly.

And Online Reputation Management? They don’t have a clue how easy it is for someone to seriously damage their business online, even if what they are saying is completely unfair.

Someone needs to tell this business owner friend that not mastering digital marketing is already hurting their business and it’s about to get worse.

A whole lot worse.

Like tied to the railroad tracks worse. The digital marketing freight train is rumbling toward them and it’s only picking up speed. Worst of all, that’s their competition sitting in the front of the choo-choo with the engineer hat on and smiling.

Help them get off those tracks. They’ll thank you.

And so will MYM. If they sign-up, you get 3 months of SEO Premium for free. That’s a $3,750 value. No fine print*.

Send me an email and type “I have a referral for you. Please give me a call” and give us the best number to reach you.

A member of my team will call and I promise this will take a minuscule amount of your time… especially when you consider the value of the free SEO Premium service.

*seriously. no fine print!

Imagine you just completed a project for a client.

They compliment you on your work and tell you how great you are.

Now, what’s your reaction?

Probably to acknowledge the compliment and say “thank you,” right?

It would be rude not to.

So why don’t you respond to your clients who leave you good reviews on the internet?

Not only is it polite, but it’s also a great way to squeeze some extra mileage out of your online reviews.

Basically every major review website—Yelp, Facebook, Google Reviews, etc.—gives you the ability to respond to your customers’ reviews.

Regrettably, most companies use this feature only to respond to bad reviews.

Don’t get me wrong.

Responding to negative reviews is very important (more on that in a second). But responding to positive reviews also provides massive benefits.

For example:

1. It shows you have a real person at your company keeping up with the feedback you’re getting (which shows you care).
2. Inserting a keyword (service you provide + the city) into your response can help your SEO.
3. Your responses are indexed by Google, thus helping you land higher in search results.

My good buddies at Service Champions respond to practically all of their positive reviews. In fact, the owner responds himself.

Take a look…

As you can see, your response doesn’t have to be long or involved. An acknowledgement of the review along with a “thank you” works well.

If you’re swamped, you could even have someone at your company write your responses for you and quickly review them before your employee posts them.

The process is oh-so easy… and oh-so beneficial.

But what about responding to negative reviews? Does that help?

You bet your backside it does.

Studies show that 95% of unsatisfied customers will return to a business that resolves the issue quickly and efficiently.

NINETY-FIVE PERCENT!

Let me use Service Champions as an example again.

As I’ve told you before, they convert practically all of their one-star reviews into five-star reviews on Yelp by jumping on the problem AS SOON AS the review is posted.

They usually start this process by calling the customer the same or next day that customer posts the review. The company also responds to the review on Yelp itself.

(It’s optimal to both call and respond to the review, as you want to reach the customer as quickly as you can.)

Plus, responding to a negative review directly on the website mitigates some of the damage that review can cause. It shows prospects you go above and beyond with your customer service by being willing to fix issues and make people happy.

Here’s an example. It’s a response to a customer who left a three-star review because their credit card was accidentally charged a month after they canceled their membership with the company:

People will look at Service Champions’ response and say, “Okay, they goofed, owned up to it, and want to make it right. How refreshing. They seem like a great company.”

Bottom Line: Whether you’re responding to negative or positive reviews, a few words go a LONG way.

P.S. In my next post I’ll show you a simple little picture someone took with a smartphone that sold for $40,000… and show you exactly how to do the same.