Reviews are creeping up everywhere

I was checking in online the other day for my trip to Digital Marketing Strategies conference and Continental had placed the following set of tabs at the bottom of my boarding pass.

Here were their suggestions for restaurants, nightlife and things to do. I am not sure how these got loaded in but the fact that these businesses have a review gathering process helps.

I would think your business could benefit from this type of exposure. But if you don’t have reviews you will not make the list. (I wrote about this in a previous article)

One other place I have recently seen how video reviews will impact business. I was shopping on Amazon and at the bottom of my searches was a request for people to submit their “product review” videos.

The more that customers see companies wanting feedback people will give it. Why not be in front of the surge of reviews and ask your customers to send in a video with them using your product or commenting. What a great viral way to show that you engage your customer base.

I think that businesses are afraid to ask for feedback and this is one of the main reasons they do not have a process. Yet they will be the first to use reviews in their personal life to decide on movies, restaurants or hotels.

If you listen to ads on the radio, or just keep looking you will see reviews are dominating ads. “Please let us know how we are doing” “Your feedback is important to us,” Read what our customers are saying “ and the list keeps growing.

Reviews and feedback will propel sales. People are telling you what matters to them. Don’t ignore this feedback or they will go to those who will listen.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing

As I travel and speak to business owners and industry people I have been asked if I could simplify how this “new” customer is shopping. How it affects their interaction and what can they do to improve their sales.

Let me begin by saying that just because I am in digital media, I do not feel how you have been using traditional media in marketing your business in the past is wrong.  What I want you to understand is what that media is doing for you and how you may have to change some of your budget in the future.

The customer of today is over-worked, way too much is on their plate and time is precious. They now rely on technology to help them use their time more efficiently.

What this means to you is that all the traditional media you use drives consumers to the web, not your front door. If you are not on the web in a way where your busines can easily be found you are off the list of places a customer will visit when they are ready to purchase.

This is real and happening right now. The problem with some of you reading this is that you are still selling inventory or services and are successful. Changing tactics may be hard for some of you because times are good. Please understand that if you do not embrace this, your business will be affected.

The affect will not be a drastic drop off, but a slow trickle. What will happen is you will sell a little less and blame it on the economy, you will sell a little less and blame your competition as being lucky. Then one day you wale up and are selling 25-30% less and wondering why. Then you end up increasing spend on traditional and speeding up the process of your demise.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

At a recent automotive dealership workshop I asked the audience who sells Hondas. 6 people raised their hands. I asked them if they would sell me a 2012 civic

They all said yes. So how do I determine whom to buy from since I am no longer figuring out what car to buy? What I need to know from each of them is “Why should I buy from you? “ The thing that they began to understand was that If I can’t find your “Why buy from me” message online, you are off my list.

I can’t find the first one’s website…off the list

Second one’s website is not helpful…off the list

The other 4…1 has no reviews…off the list

The other 3…2 have more reviews than the third…the one with less reviews off the list

Out of other 2…may go to both, may choose one based on videos I found on one of the site.

I am not saying they buy from this one that depends on what happens when I get there but 4 of the 6 are not even given a chance to compete based on what I did or did not find online.

The days of throwing kids into the car and spending Saturday driving to multiple dealerships to talk and test drive are done

For most customers, 2/3 of the buying experience is done online or “on the couch” because as I mentioned, we are busy. My kids got karate, or swimming, or things to do around the house. I don’t have the luxury of time to waste anymore. We are going to pick one place to go because I got a lot to do and technology makes it easy for me to do so

If your website is not optimized, if your Google places is not right, if I don’t see videos of happy people who shopped with you, if I don’t see a video of you telling me why I should shop or service with you then you are off my list and I am on to someone who WILL do this for me.

Money is tight and I need help not homework. I spend time debating about spending $10 on the new Matt Damon movie. I better do research on that restaurant I want to take my wife to because go forbid I spend $100 for a dinner and it stinks. Now I feel ripped off.

Don’t you think that if I am stressing out over $10 for a movie or dinner that I am really going to be stressing out putting down such a large amount of my hard earned money for a product or service you may be offering?

I hope you are understanding that what I am buying from you is the experience of doing business with your company because as we saw, with the example of a car purchase. I can get the car from 6 different places locally, I can get the car from another state, heck someone would ship it across the country.

So what’s the experience you are selling at your business and can I find it clearly and loudly online. The real question to ask is, are you doing enough to get me off my couch and come to your business.

As we continue our conversation about Zero Moment of Truth, where customers research you and your products online, let’s not forget what the First Moment of Truth is: When people contact your business.

I want to focus on what happens when customers get on site and how what happens can affect the sale. To explain my point, at a recent workshop I posed this question to attendees: “ What are some things that customers saw upon coming to a business that negatively affected their willingness to buy?”

A few auto dealers  had multiple stories, from customers having to walk through a messy smoking area to salespeople grouped together right by the door on a Monday morning, sizing up the arriving customers, to messy coffee areas, to – the worst situation in my mind – an incoming customer receiving no greeting for minutes at a time even while the customer can see salespeople standing there looking back at him yet not moving at all.

How unsettling.

So, when they asked me, “What would you recommend?” I responded simply as follows:

How do you respond to poor customer service?

For example, think of a bad customer experience in which you were on the receiving end.

• Let’s say you went to a restaurant and no one greeted you for five minutes yet workers walked right by you. How did you feel?
• Perhaps you were in a department store and could not find anyone to answer your question, so you walked all over the store, still finding no one. What was your impression?
• Maybe you asked someone a question and she ignored you or never returned with an answer. How did you react?
• Or, let’s say everything in a store you visited looked messy and sloppy. Were you happy to do business there?

If this type of behavior bothers you, then why would you allow these things ever to happen at your dealership?

Four things you can implement immediately that will have an impact on improving customer service.

• When you get out of your car each day and head into your business, look around outside and think, This is what my customers will see. Does it give a good impression? If not, fix it.
• When a patron comes in, someone from your business needs to acknowledge that person. Even if the salesperson says, “I will be right there,” people will wait because they will have felt noticed.
• Give people your full attention. Give them your focus. That gives people comfort. They will feel you care about them.
• Make sure all your employees are actively doing something during business hours. Nothing looks worse than people standing round. If anything, it looks desperate. Get your employees on the phones, studying information on product, following up with clients, etcetera.

Creating an environment where people want to spend more time takes only a little effort every day from all employees. If everyone is focused on how the dealership looks, it makes the atmosphere energetic and inviting – and that makes people feel more comfortable and willing to do business with you. Even if they do not buy today, when they are ready to buy, they will come back to you.

Sometimes it is not the sale itself but where the sale takes place that makes the difference.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing.

I was sitting in a meeting when my cell phone rang. I did not recognize the number so I let it go to voicemail. On my drive home I listened to the message. “This message is for Mr. and Mrs. Pasch. This is Amica Insurance…” I perked up and wondered, what is wrong, is my coverage changed, but to my surprise the message continued. “We at Amica would just like to thank you for your business. We appreciate that you have chosen us and just wanted to reach out and thank you. “

That made me smile. In a business where I teach customer service and how to improve their online reputation and get customers to be brand advocates, this stood out and I had to write about it.

Is your business going to that level? Is your business letting your customers know you appreciate them WITHOUT trying to sell them something?

I think the most important thing an owner or employee can remember is what it is like for themselves as consumers. How would they feel if they got great service or if they got a thank you call? And then if someone was right there to ask if they would give him or her some feedback on how they could improve. I think many would do it

So why is there still such a hesitation with businesses to embrace online reviews? I have spoken to many over this past summer on this topic and many say it is due to ownership. Owners don’t believe that reviews are important and sell their products or services.

In some ways I can understand their hesitation right now, because they are still selling products. What they are not looking at are the changes in shopping patterns. There have been many studies released this year documenting the changes in shopping behaviors but still some ignore what is right in front of them.

Many of us are so tied to grinding it out, day to day, that we don’t have time to look at trends. Many of us are afraid to risk change because it is such a competitive market, what if I am wrong and we make a mistake. Again I can understand these concerns but what executives are not doing is looking at how they shop or their families shop right now for products.

I would challenge any business owner to ask their families if they go to a store to buy a product without going online first to look at the product, reviews of the product, where to buy it and even reviews of the seller. I believe that they will see that people use the web to make their decisions easier.

So if we would do that for a movie, or a meal, why would we not do that for the product or service you sell?

Once business embraces the reality that how they go out of their way to treat customers will end up online and then in front of potential customers the better they will be long term in this new economy.

So think of all of the ways you can differentiate your business from competitors.

o   Walk people out to their cars instead of just opening the door if possible

o   Ask them how their experience with your company BUT mean it. don’t just pay lip service

o   Look them in the eye and really say thank you

o   Call them a day after their purchase to make sure all is well

o   Send a handwritten note to a few of your top customers

o   Send a thank you box of candy to someone who referred a new customer

The list could be endless. Remember that being a bit different stands out and drives your customers to brag about you and makes your online reputation stand out in a crowd.

For me-Thank you Amica. You have my business and a big plug online.

Glenn Pasch is the President of Improved Performance Solutions and the current COO of PCG Digital Marketing

Many of you may remember that about a year ago, PCG Digital Marketing coined a term PODScore to help businesses understand how much “brand leakage” happened in a simple search for their name online. (you can find more about PODscore at www.podscore.org) We had a client type their company name into search and then count the number of listings they controlled. The result, through the PODscore formula, gave you a very simple numerical value of how well they dominated page one in search.

Our goal was two fold. First, get businesses to see what is online when they type in their name. Secondly, help them see that the more content they put out online, the more customer reviews they received, the more they were putting information out for their customers to see the more of the page they controlled and the better their PODscore would be.

Why I bring this up is I have been very inspired by reading Jim Lecinski, Winning The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and it made me think of how connected PODScore is in this pursuit. By no way am I saying that PODscore is the same as the zero moment, but it is a piece. PCG has created a free 6 week workshop teaching Automotive Dealers how the Zero Moment of Truth affects their business. (see end of post for link)

Statistics demonstrate that 70%-80%-90% of shoppers begin their search online to research not only WHAT to buy but WHOM to by from. Yet businesses spend less that 20% of their marketing budget online. Does this seem unbalanced?

I am a firm believer in using traditional marketing as a stimulus, but as the authors of ZMOT point out, this stimulus now drives people to the web to research your business or product. In the past it my have driven them to your store so they could rely on you as the expert, but now they can find out more online before they even set foot on your property.

Even though Google continues to rattle the search pages, I think bringing PODscore back to the discussion for businesses will help them understand how important ZMOT is for the future of their business.

Let’s use an example of a person looking for a car and assume they are not a brand loyalist. Even if they are, you can skip the first part and jump to the section dealing with “Where do I find it”.

First the customer decides on their price point. Then they search for vehicles that fit that price point. They will do their research on the vehicle using multiple websites to accomplish this task. Once they decide on what the vehicle is, then they move to the next step. “Where can I find it near me”

Next they type in the brand+dealer+geo-target location (ford dealer nj ). They are presented with options in Google Places.

In many cases you will find a multiple dealers listed with most having few or no customer reviews. Potential customers are looking for verification from your previous customers to help them make their decision. When you have no reviews, the potential customer moves on to another listing and you lose business.

If you dominate the Google Maps with reviews, then they should click through to your website to see what you have to offer. Understand that the more content you have online, the more listings you have in search for customers to see, this is an opportunity to reinforce with the customer that you are the place to shop.

If you are not dominating you give your competition a chance to steal that business away thanks to your advertising.

Winning the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) is something all businesses need to embrace. A quick way to get a jump start on this is by using PODScore to give you a baseline to build from.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing and the hosts of the first Automotive Zero Moment of Truth Study, free beginning this October