Replay - Get the Most Reviews & the Most From Them

0:02 Hello and welcome to Electropreneur Secrets, the Electrician Podcast. I'm your host, clay Neumeier. With me, as always, my esteemed co-host and business partner, joseph the sales bot, lucani. Joseph, how are you doing? It is beyond beautiful today. I'm loving the time we get to spend together and I've really been having an awesome time. Once again, this one's coming live out of New York, from a nice little studio. You want to give a shout out for them. I do Finch Studio in Newburgh. These guys have been treating us amazing. We had a great service. We had a great service experience. So if you need your recording done, you know where to go. All right, we're here with you guys five days a week. Live in the specific group. If you're not there yet, please do attend and recommend this to a friend.

0:48 All electricians should be able to learn and grow from this free value that we're giving every day of the week. We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service, and today is no exception, as we discuss, really, how important reviews are, how to get the most and how to get the most from them. So let's begin with this why are reviews so important? Do you think, joseph so? this is a big world that we live in. No matter where you are, there's a lot of mistrust. There's a lot of reasons why someone doesn't call you right. The main reason you want to review is it's a testimony from someone that the customer believes is a credible source, whether they know them personally or they're a leader in the community, or you just have enough people saying hey, I'm in this town and I use Serviceable Electrical and I think they're great.

1:38 Or even a like problem. We trust people that have like situations like we've talked about before, relatable stories, which we're going to tie that back in later. Yeah, so the thing is is very rarely when anyone ever calls you like let's go through a common objection. We usually ask in our process so how did you hear about us? And some people say, oh, we just found you on Google. Okay, well, probably the question went in there. But you can just simply ask well, what about the site? What about the ad? Made you like it? Well, actually, I saw you had great reviews. It's almost always the second statement, because people don't call you by opening an old-fashioned yellow book and throwing a dart on it and saying, oh, these guys, that's who we're going to call and can we agree on the value in that second question, the follow-up question, and getting the detailed information, or why are you choosing me?

2:26 What about the ad? Did you like? Was there anything particular that called your attention? I mean, there's thousands of electricians you could have called. Why did you choose us? And they'll tell you. But the thing is is usually you're gonna hear that they were influenced by someone outside of your own circle. Hey, I heard a review. I saw a review. I saw a review. I saw a testimonial. My neighbor recommended me. Someone told me I saw your trucks. These reviews are really, really helpful because if they explained hey, I had this problem, I received this level of service. This problem has been gone and I'm fully satisfied. That's a safe bet, in my opinion. I'm probably going to call that company too. A hundred percent, especially if you've got three, four, five, a hundred people saying the same thing.

3:10 Who cares? The more people are saying it, the better, right? Yep, it's important stuff and likely. If you're listening to this and you're not new to this world, you likely already agree man, we're right there with you. So how do we get more of them becomes a big question, right there with you. So how do we get more of them becomes a big question. If you're listening to this, you're likely. What we hear quite often is 20 to 30% actually come through and leave that review. But getting people to take action is hard. So let's explain, walk us through this process a little bit. How do we do this. So I'm going to walk you through what the typical contractor does and then we're going to change what we do right, or describe what we do as the change. So typically, and you may identify with this process hey, were you happy with the service we performed?

3:52 Yes, we were very happy, great. Well, would you be willing to leave us a review? Sure, not a problem. Great, what's your email address? I'll send it to you. I sent it. It's this Okay, great, I'll send it over to you. Crickets, you don't hear a thing. There's a reason. There's actually a psychological reasons why this happening? Any ideas? The reason is is because within 48 hours technically it's 78, but I personally 48 hours you're going to have a situation where people lose their commitment to a situation Meaning, if they say yes, I'm going to have a situation where people lose their commitment to a situation Meaning, if they say, yes, I'm going to give you a review. The problem is already solved. It's no longer top of mind for them.

4:33 The panel's working again, the lights are back on and life doesn't stop for anyone. So what is their reason to take time out of their busy schedule? They don't even have time for their kids and they're going to take time for you. The electrician that they just met once Tag me in when you're ready, Go for it, dude. All right, this is something that we've actually. We call our sales process the client satisfaction process. But when you read this, which you can't read now, especially if you're just listening imagine this word satisfaction is actually a compound word, and what does it mean? Satisfaction? means satisfied action. When someone is happy enough with your service, they take action on it, thus creating the service loop, Despite the common belief being just satisfactory.

5:19 Just expectations were set. We met them. Now they owe us. That's not the way it works. That's just fair exchange. This client satisfied action changes our whole perspective and that's why we love that word so much. But we're trying to perform at a high enough level, provide an abundant enough amount of value in this exchange that they're actually going to go out of their way to serve us in return. Does that sound like it's easy to do? No, it's not, but it's okay because we can make it easy Alone, unprocessed, without a goal, without a direction. It's not going to be easy, but luckily we have the answer, because we've already run the play and we can figure out what needs to work. I'll tell you the things that we did in my own business, as well as things that we encourage everyone else to do as well.

6:01 So we're in a situation Imagine you're in that same customer. We're going to hit the rewind button Instead of asking hey, did you like our service? Great, I'll email you something. I'm going to ask you to change something. Imagine you were able to have a software or an app or a program that could say I have all the links that are already plugged in that a customer could go to the list, your Angie's List, your Facebook, your Google, your website all those locations could have URLs stored. Then, when the customer says, yes, I would leave you a review, you simply turn your iPad out and go. Here you go. And now what do they have to do? They've already agreed to say yes, I'm going to give you a review.

6:44 At the very least, the laziest person would say five stars. Here you go, no comments. Would that still be better than nothing? It would be yeah. Yeah, so if every single customer is at the very least doing that, you're finding there's something actually very interesting happening as well. Clay, if I were to ask you if you were satisfied with something let's say I'm your plumber, right, and I came by and I took care of a situation for you and I said are you happy with my service? You said yes and I handed you my tablet. What are the odds you're going to give me less than a four-star review If I'm standing right looking at you right now even a four-star would make me be like what happened, like what did I do?

7:25 So you'll find that just by following the action up after asking a question why were you satisfied? Do you feel like this met or exceeded your goals? Yes, I'm very happy. Great. Would you be willing to leave us a review if I were able to make it easy for you to do so? Sure, of course. Here you go. Just made it easy Right then, and there it's right. Here it's easy. If you don't want to use software, which we're going to talk about as well, there are other ways of going about it. But the benefit is, and the way, if you're going to really kind of think outside the box, if you want to leave a review for your own business, would you know how to do it? Would you really know where to go to put your five-star review on every visible place in your business?

8:09 The odds are you don't, and I'm not trying to say that insultingly. I'm trying to say that from our own personal perspective. I didn't know where all my business URLs were. Yeah, and then even being able to do it with the 18 hats you're already wearing is a whole other story, exactly. So the purpose of this is this we used an app and just going to stitch the name, if that's okay, yeah, do it. Yeah, there was an app I use called Review Buzz. It was a really fun app that I worked with. It did cost money every month, but I found it was worth it, because what it did is it saved all the URLs for the client so that when they wanted to make it easy, it was all in one store location. They simply just had to log into that particular account and they could leave you the review.

8:50 Or they also had an additional feature where you could save one and then you could post on their behalf. So you could post on your page, you could post your win walls. So either way, as long as you're getting a five-star review, you're in the clear. Make it easy for your client and they will reward you for that effort. Yeah, and let's be honest, review Buzz isn't free. No, it's not free, but convenience sells. And right now you've got an issue because as you pass someone a link, a Google link, to give you the famous Google five-star review, what happens if they don't have a Gmail account? They just don't do it, they can't do it. But even if they make an account, that's a whole other action, like step it up.

9:33 No thanks, right yeah. Because the thing is is that if you're, if you are not drastically motivated to put this review up at any roadblock I mean literally any minor inconvenience to your time your phone could die. Instead of walking over to plug it into the charger, they'll just be like I'll get to it and they don't, because if we get past 48 hours, they will not take action on it. Here's an example of that slight tangent. But in e-commerce, 75% of all shopping carts get abandoned due to a minor inconvenience. That little bit of friction. The same reason we don't charge credit card processing fees on top of our bills right, we don't need any more hindrance.

10:14 We don't need any more obstacles. What we need is less effort and sacrifice on their part, and that's why we're here doing this. While they're with us, they're think about it. There's no easier way for us to help them. Leave us a review. I, personally, I'm going to reframe this and say you're doing a disservice if you don't pass the tablet over. And I've heard the objections from you guys before not all of you, of course, but a couple who have said you know what. I don't like to force them to do things. I don't want to push them to do things. I don't want to be pushy, I don't want to be salesy for my review. I got some arguments against that and the proof has shown, like 80 to 100 percent, how many reviews you could be cashing in on.

10:58 80 to 100 percent of the reviews you asked for, you could be getting not 20 to 30. You're right. You're really right now. If you wouldn't mind asking what was that thing we were just gonna say a couple seconds ago, I lost it. Oh my god okay, but let's talk about this underlying principle a little bit more, then. How come it's so hard to get people to take action? That's why we made this podcast. Oh my god. Yeah, it's so hard to get people to take action. That's why we made this podcast. Oh my God yeah, it's so hard to get people to take action on it If the most minor thing throws you. Actually I now remember what I was going to say Okay, some people say that you're pushing someone to do something that's not in their best interest. Right, I don't want to force people, I don't want to be a salesperson, but theoretically and also in a literal sense, you're putting a mental burden on them because it becomes the law of open cycles.

11:41 They know that they're supposed to send out a review. They know that the link has been received. Now I can tell you from a personal example I had work done in my house and someone told me to write a five-star review and I liked the work that they did. I'm not upset with them at all. But the problem was is they said will you write me a review? I'm like yeah, and he's like all right, I'll get around to sending you a link. And he sent me a link three weeks later and the thing was I had to actually ask him for a link at one point and then a week later he sent it and I still haven't sent the review because it just took time to do and I know that I could just log on and do it right now, but it burns at you mentally. This was well over two years ago.

12:22 At this point I'm still thinking about writing this guy the review. If you can literally tell someone here, it's easy, you just do it now and it's done. They tell someone here, it's easy, you just do it now and it's done. They don't have to carry a mental load, they can put it down, because how many unspoken mental loads are we carrying every day? How many microtransactions have we made? If you have one less microtransaction, you're putting on your customer. That is actually doing them a service. You're not actually pushing anything on them. You're saving them from something. Yeah, 100%. They say that buyer's remorse happens in the first 72 hours and that ties in directly with what you said earlier about really trying to get to this right away because their care for this situation is fading.

13:05 Yeah, if you ever had someone ghost, you nod your head right now. Right, you know, I know I've've had it. We deal with it every day. Right, it's more important. It really is your priority to not get in a situation where you can be ghosted in every situation. We should be taking the action now that allows us to have that follow up action after I completely and that follow-up action we need to get to is getting the review isn't the end of this cycle. What needs to happen next? So after you've gotten the review, you need to thank them. Now let me explain why. Imagine you've taken the time out of your day.

13:45 You were like. I had a great relationship with this person. We're very satisfied. I want to make sure everyone knows about it and you write a glowing review. You've done all the things right. Five stars John was great. I loved everything he did. Crickets what does that say about how much they care about your review and what does it say about why they even asked you for the review in the first place? Was it just a? cash grab? Not much. So the thing is, the first step that you take when someone posts a review is thank them Individually, respond. Even better, use their first name when you're doing it. Michelle, thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure working with you and your family, and we're so grateful that you chose us to install your living room chandelier.

14:27 I wish you years and years of satisfaction and a reminder that we offer a lifetime craftsmanship guarantee Just being able to stitch something that you do, as well as saying who you served and how you serve them and how happy you are to have done so. When people read the reviews, they can say that's me. And now not only are you thanking the person and keeping them in your tribe, but you're also setting up in a way where other people can benefit from that review and complete the loop to bring them back into your fold. Yeah, not to mention. It's my understanding that this also impacts your SEO. It's more organic marketing for your brand they're addressing that you helped solve explains in detail with keywords, what you were able to help them with.

15:12 Even if that didn't impact seo, it definitely impacts the minds of others again. They're looking for like situations. But being that it does and you have the opportunity to then reply, wouldn't it be better to put in even a bit of detail and a bit of effort into this thing again, repeating the subject and having that information there in your thank you and not just a two word thank you or thank you? We appreciate you, thank you. Thumbs up? No, there's, if you can target it. And you can also make sure that the review is not for you at all. The review is for them and for everyone who will be reading it further. So the more detail you can put in how you serve them, what you did and why you do what you do, you will become relatable to every person who reads that, and that is what's going to inspire the action of pick up the phone and call you.

16:05 That's how a good review works, yeah, and guess what? There's a vanity metric around reviews, just like there is around revenue. Right, a lot of revenue doesn't mean a great business. That's a whole other podcast in itself. Nor does a lot of reviews. At some point. That number is just a massive number. It doesn't matter if Mr Sparky already has 3000 in your area. What I look for personally when I'm looking for reviews and many people share this is I want at least a certain amount. I want to see it in the double digits and I want to see well-articulated reviews that may or may not speak to the exact situation that I'm already having myself, actually something I want to stitch to. Quality over quantity is all I was getting at there.

16:47 Go ahead. No, you're perfect. I absolutely love that there. Go ahead. No, you're perfect. I absolutely love that you inspired me to say something, because, as you were going through it, I realized I remember there was a situation where I was working with another company years ago and they had some of the best reviews in Orange County. It was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of five-star reviews, yet people still hated working with this company, and what we found out was that, though these reviews were great, and what we found out was that, though these reviews were great, they were able to filter them. Now the question is is that some people say that one-star reviews are terrible for your business? I actually think that having a healthy amount of bad reviews actually makes you have a huge rate of believability, because if you have 500 five-star reviews and not a single person said anything other than that, what do you suspect they're doing?

17:35 to their reviews. Well, it seems like they're not real. They're doctoring them. So if you have, let's say, 98 five-stars and two one-stars, I would actually call you over someone who had 200 five-star reviews, Because at the very least, I know that it's a believable amount of experience. So all reviews have value in the right proportions. Don't be turned off when you get a one-star. If anything, that's you saying when someone else reads this, we're gonna be believable and you know what? Touching on that, there's opportunities in how we respond to problems, and that's something that I seek as well. So those lower ones, and how that management, how that company responds to it.

18:18 It's very important to me as a consumer. Now, I know you're on to something there. We're going to be mindful of the time as well and craft up a couple of action items here. You ready for that. Yeah, I'm ready, I'll stop the zip, all right, all right. So as an action item right off the bat, I would like to throw up there that you need to improve this review process, and the reason I can say that so directly is because 80 percent of us really don't have a process at all, other than maybe it's in our CRM in the follow up email. Right, try and put this at the end of your sales process while you're there, or your installation process while the install crew is there. Make sure that when you're finalizing these in-person engagements with that customer, that you've got this written into your process.

19:00 Would you say that's fair to have there? I think it's 100,000% fair. All right, what's next? The all-star action is a fun one, you can tell. I'm very excited. I get animated Clay picked up on it and was like Joe, you're going to cap it. We're going to talk about the superstar actions. This is what it is. The superstar action is actually how you're going to reply to your negative reviews, because there are two kinds of people. There's those who count the five stars and there's those who hunt for. I want to see the worst reviews. Let me see what's going on there. You want to appeal to both people, because how you reply to a negative review is going to explain how you treat your customers when they're dissatisfied with your level of service. So imagine you got a negative review, being able to say John, I completely understand that you had a negative experience.

19:46 You had an unsatisfactory experience here at Service Super Electrical. We believe that we cannot collect until we've truly left you above and beyond satisfied. As a result, what we're willing to do is we're going to come back out to your home and we are going to insist that we've done everything possible to ensure that you had the best experience, and if you did not, we will do everything in our power to correct it. Could you imagine seeing that on a one-star review, I'd probably be questioning the guy who wrote it and be like, wait a second, like if the company's this good, was this guy just slinging mud against the wall? Exactly. So I'd say your superstar action is don't just see opportunity in your five stars, see opportunity in every review, because those reviews are going to be read.

20:28 Make sure that whoever's reading it is reading the message you want them to see. Absolutely, guys. And check out ReviewBuzz Was it right? Reviewbuzz? Yep, those apps will really help you. Yes, there's a cost, but, as we said, it's a worthy cost. Convenience sells and that makes it all too convenient for you and your customers. To help you bridge this gap, we're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. Today, I know we just did that again, and we're here with you five days a week. If you want to get on the inside with our VIP inside track, guys, join us in our Facebook electricpreneur group. I'm your host, clay Neumeier. This is Joseph Lucani. We'll see you again next time, looking forward to it.