The following is from the April 2012 edition of my Buzz Bulletin eNewsletter (subscribe for free here to get monthly stories, tips and strategies for building your business with word of mouth marketing - I promise that I'll never share your email address)...
Online reviews can make or break a business. To guarantee success, companies must monitor their online reviews closely and react quickly.
Recently, I was referred to a doctor who was interested in hiring a public relations firm to create buzz for her medical practice. Immediately, I did a Google search. Just below the doctor's website was a link to a Yelp page with multiple negative reviews from current and former patients.
I always look at Yelp reviews as dispassionately as possible. Disgruntled employees or irrational customers often use opinion websites as a place to lodge unfair or exaggerated grievances. Usually, if a business has 80% to 90% positive reviews, I don't place much stock in the negative ones (unless they are highly specific and come from credible reviewers).
In the case of the referred medical practice, however, a third of the reviews are negative (i.e., one or two stars out of five). Disturbingly, the complaints are quite similar and focus on poor bedside manner and opportunistic billing practices. The unhappy patients are believable since their Yelp profiles indicate that they post more positive reviews than negative reviews.
Instead of hiring a PR firm, the doctor should concentrate on improving her practice. In fact, any business that delivers poor service and/or products should not spend money on PR or any other form of marketing. Money and attention should be used to improve the customer experience which in turn fuels positive word of mouth and sustains long-term profitable growth.
Why? Because word of mouth is more powerful than clever marketing. According to ACNielsen, 78% of people view recommendations from friends and colleagues as more trustworthy than any form of marketing. McKinsey & Company published a report noting that word of mouth is now a "significant influence" on two-thirds of all buying decisions.
Recent purchases confirm these statistics. I bought two protective screens for my iPhone from RadioShack and neither adhered well. While I would never buy from that manufacturer again, I will go back to Radio Shack since the store clerks were friendly and fast in processing my returns.
I went online to find a better solution. Not surprisingly, I found that Amazon had more user reviews than any other website so that's where I purchased my MediaDevil screen protector which had the highest number of positive reviews in its product category.
Since I'm all thumbs when it comes to installing items that require finesse, my wife Ellen, who follows instructions with an admirable focus, applied the screen protector. Despite using great care, she was unable to apply the screen protector without the formation of annoying air bubbles between the protector and the screen.
After turning to YouTube to watch online tutorials from MediaDevil about how to avoid air bubbles (a brilliant use of online video), she applied the second screen protector perfectly and it is working well.
Shortly after installing the screen protector, I received an email from MediaDevil, something I've never gotten from a vendor selling through Amazon, asking whether I was satisfied with the product and encouraging me to post a review. I wrote back with details concerning the installation experience. Within 12 hours, a company representative responded with an apology and a notification that she had just dropped a replacement in the mail from company headquarters in England. Now that's service!
Having just received not one but two replacement screens from MediaDevil (and a couple of delicious English taffies), I have joined the ranks of hundreds by posting an Amazon review of the company's excellent product and stellar service.
While it's nearly impossible to avoid sour reviews entirely, smart companies are adept at turning those lemons into lemonade to galvanize business success.
