Reviews Are Costing You Customers - Here’s How to Fix It [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 96]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:16:05

Allison Riggs

So one of the most underutilized and undervalued of the big five is reviews. And I will tell you working with hundreds of clients, there are three big things that you need to make sure you're doing with reviews. So you're not missing out on becoming the most trusted voice in your space.

00:00:25:01 - 00:00:35:07

Alex Winter

Welcome back to Endless Customers. I am your host, Alex Winter. And today we are joined by Allison Rigg. She's a coach and trainer here at impact. Alison, welcome back to the show.

00:00:35:09 - 00:00:37:03

Allison Riggs

Hey, Alex. Always a pleasure.

00:00:37:05 - 00:00:41:15

Alex Winter

It's great to talk to you. It's been a minute. I'm so happy to see you. Thanks for taking the time to be on the show today.

00:00:41:15 - 00:00:52:07

Allison Riggs

Yeah, I'm really excited. You know, with the endless customers book coming out and a lot of the new content that we've got cranking out and seeing success with clients already. I always love talking to you.

00:00:52:13 - 00:01:12:16

Alex Winter

I couldn't agree more, and I am. I hope you just dive right in and get right into it, because we got we have a really good topic today. Obviously about endless customers, but specifically we're talking about reviews. And it's a it's a very interesting topic because it's multifaceted. So there's a lot to cover. I think people think reviews are just like, oh, I left a review on on Amazon and I'm done.

00:01:12:16 - 00:01:35:02

Alex Winter

And not like that's not specifically what we're talking about here. It's a it's a component of it, but we're really talking about the big five. And if you know what they ask you answer. And you know, endless customers. You know what the big five is. But really, we want to start to talk about how underrated reviews can actually be and how important it is for companies to start taking them more seriously, especially when we talk about topics like cost and price.

00:01:35:02 - 00:01:39:17

Alex Winter

So can we can we just kind of start to dive in? Where's a good place to start for for all things reviews?

00:01:39:17 - 00:02:11:14

Allison Riggs

Yeah. I think you said it really well, Alex, around a lot of time. It feels like an afterthought about reviews and a lot of different ways with clients. So we talk about the big five and what type of content we should be producing from a review standpoint. But there are also so many other pieces of the review process that we need in order to really give our clients and customers exactly what they need in order to make the best buying decision for themselves.

00:02:11:14 - 00:02:30:17

Allison Riggs

And a big piece of that is the review process, right? And even in our sales process, we forget about how well reviews can work for us and almost against us in a sense. And so there's lots of different things that I want us to dive into today when we're talking about reviews. Right. So let's start off with the big one.

00:02:30:17 - 00:02:32:18

Allison Riggs

You mentioned big five. Let's just dig in there. Right.

00:02:32:18 - 00:02:46:19

Alex Winter

So yeah, because I just I just interject, I feel like the big five reviews tends to be the one that ends up getting the least amount of attention historically, at least from what we've seen in the marketplace and with clients and stuff like that. Why is that? What's what's good there?

00:02:46:20 - 00:03:30:08

Allison Riggs

Yeah, it's not the the flashiest of the big five. But you're you're totally right though. And when I say that it's, it's underrated or it's kind of passed over, it's because we haven't really put the, the value proposition into the type of content that we're creating around reviews. So traditionally when we were building out the big five, when we brought reviews into this process, the biggest piece is we know that one of the biggest trust builders for any type of customer or client, despite industry or geographic region, is a review or an experience from another person who has either gone through the process, your process, or gone through a similar process.

00:03:30:10 - 00:04:02:03

Allison Riggs

That's where reviews of products, services, and even competitors comes into play. And the component that we have to keep in mind is the, bias opinion that we need to bring in when we're creating reviews, because that's the big reason that we trust people that write reviews, right, is because we're believing and seeing that they're writing this review from experience and not with an intention one way or the other behind it.

00:04:02:03 - 00:04:03:14

Allison Riggs

Right? Yeah. Keep doing more, keeps it.

00:04:03:14 - 00:04:05:19

Alex Winter

Real, and totally keeps it real. Yeah.

00:04:05:20 - 00:04:46:13

Allison Riggs

It does. And that's where, you know, when you think about Amazon reviews or really any other types of reviews, right? Read Yelp, Google reviews. Right. We go to those places because we trust those sources and we have to almost flip the switch a little bit in becoming our own trusted source. So when we say becoming that trusted voice in our space, it's not so that people buy products and services from us, it's that consumers truly believe that we are giving them all of the unbiased education and resources that they need to make an educated buying decision.

00:04:46:15 - 00:05:12:23

Allison Riggs

Nobody likes FOMO, nobody likes buyer's remorse, right? So how can we create this type of content that really digs into our expertise in when we say products and services? This can be twofold, right? It can be our products and services. Of course, we want to write about ourselves. We want people to know, right, exactly what it looks like to to work with us and to purchase our products.

00:05:13:03 - 00:05:41:14

Allison Riggs

But there's also the industry side of it, right? There are different types of products and services that can sit within categories that we as consumers need reviews on. Right. So I think about, different types of Hvac models. Right. So we can go into, brand names. We can go into different styles and types of monitors, different types of, what's the word that I'm looking for here?

00:05:41:14 - 00:06:15:03

Allison Riggs

Alex. There's, there's just different there's the different components and categories when you're thinking about making purchases. Right. So cards is a great example. You can have reviews on USB as a whole. Right. But then you can get down into the nitty gritty of the actual models into the manufacturers. And that's the type of content that people need in order to narrow down their searches and narrow down their, different, things that they need to be looking for as well, when they're thinking about these different types of purchases.

00:06:15:03 - 00:06:16:01

Alex Winter

Yeah, I think that's a.

00:06:16:02 - 00:06:18:21

Allison Riggs

Piece of it. Yeah. Like exactly right.

00:06:18:23 - 00:06:33:07

Alex Winter

You use the car example and that's something where like there's two there's two pieces. For me it's like there's two types of, users where like for me, I know what I want. I'm usually the, I'm the guy that goes to the store and I know exactly what I want. I get in, I get out real quick. My wife is the opposite.

00:06:33:07 - 00:06:52:20

Alex Winter

So when we're talking about cars, like, I know all the way down to, like, I want it to be, a V8 manual transmission, this color interior, this coat, like, all the little, like, buttons and gizmos and gadgets that you can filter. I use all those, but if you don't know, you can also start to experiment with those filters to figure out in shape what what it is that you're looking for.

00:06:52:20 - 00:07:03:16

Alex Winter

So like it's twofold when you're using those those types of filters and those reviews to help shape your opinion. And that's how you can become a thought leaders by giving people the ability to do that. That's the key. Yeah.

00:07:03:20 - 00:07:26:14

Allison Riggs

Yeah, exactly. And it's a great a great point that you bring up. Right. Is there has to be when we're writing, whether it's products and services or even about competitors. Right. Because there is a component of us being able to write unbiased content about our competitors, and we can base it off of any information that the public can easily find.

00:07:26:14 - 00:07:57:09

Allison Riggs

Right? So this is whether we've had experience as well. This isn't about beef that you have with different competitors, right? This isn't even about, you know, really great relationships that you've built as well. It genuinely needs to be an unbiased, biased opinion of yourself. Your products and your services are tapping into that content a lot, right? Because we have to show people what a good fit and what a bad fit can be for each of these different products and services.

00:07:57:11 - 00:08:29:02

Allison Riggs

We read reviews to help ourselves self qualify as well. So that's a piece of this puzzle where we not only need to know about the experience, but we want to hear from other people who have had a similar experience in helping us make that decision. Right. So yeah, if we go back to, the car example, right, is there's going to be folks, right where, I have five kids and so I need the extra row in my SUV.

00:08:29:02 - 00:08:45:19

Allison Riggs

Could we get away with possibly not having one? Totally. But I need to know the types of SUVs that help facilitate a family that has five kids with lots of sports, right. The extra trunk room. Right. But then there might be a model that's too big for me, right? I don't need the big giant van. I'm not there yet.

00:08:45:19 - 00:09:12:12

Allison Riggs

Right. The sprinter van. Okay, hold on now. Not ready yet. Right. But there's these types of decisions that we have to give. I know we call it the law of coin, right? For the good in the bad, but there's also the good fit and the bad fit, which is why people rely on reviews so they can put themselves in the shoes of the person that they're reading it from and they can see, is this person similar to me?

00:09:12:14 - 00:09:24:10

Allison Riggs

Are they having a similar experience? Right. Like, are their criteria similar to mine and that's why we trust people who have lived this so that we can see exactly how it will play out.

00:09:24:12 - 00:09:40:01

Alex Winter

I couldn't agree more. And it comes back to the thought leadership piece. When you talk about building trust, where the only way to really build trust is to not force anything. You can't tell people what they want. You can't try to one call close somebody if they don't want to be one, call close. You can't force these issues.

00:09:40:01 - 00:09:56:01

Alex Winter

So the best way that we've seen historically to do this is to meet people where they are and give them the ability to use these self-service, these self-selection tools to to make their own decisions and to to feel like they're not being forced to do anything. Because when you do that, then they think of you as that trusted voice.

00:09:56:01 - 00:10:02:22

Alex Winter

And when they do decide to buy, maybe it's not today, maybe it's a week, maybe it's a month from now, but they're going to come back to you because they trust you.

00:10:03:00 - 00:10:28:18

Allison Riggs

Now, right? And because, yeah, it's not rocket science. And they know that you were really honest and open about who is the right person for this. And then it's totally okay if you're not, because this goes all the way through their experience with your product and service. Right? Is because if we're trying to fit everybody into the same box, they're not all going to have the same experience.

00:10:28:20 - 00:10:51:22

Allison Riggs

So which would you rather have? Would you rather have customers grateful that you wrote a review that helped them understand who's a good fit and who's a bad fit for your product, and they actually disqualified themselves from your sales journey or you have people go through that process, and then they realize at the tail end that they weren't a good fit, and now you've put them in a bad spot, right?

00:10:51:22 - 00:11:18:09

Allison Riggs

Maybe they've wasted time, money, energy, resources, all on a product that wasn't truly a right fit for them and a customer. The company that just puts you into the same box as everybody else, or somebody who genuinely cares about your experience and what you need to purchase or, you know, sign up for so that you can have the best experience long term, not just the short term ones.

00:11:18:10 - 00:11:36:04

Alex Winter

Yeah, it's a no brainer. No brainer. I think everyone would agree. Everyone out there watching and listening would say the same thing. So I have a question here. This is an interesting one. So when a supplier is involved right now, how do you how do you recommend handling that conversation and publishing a transparent review that covers both the pros and the cons?

00:11:36:04 - 00:11:49:13

Alex Winter

Because I feel like everyone wants to talk about all the good stuff, and people tend to shy away from the bad stuff. The same conversation happens when we talk about cost and price. It's like, no, they need to talk to our sales team and then we can convert them on a call that smoking marriage stuff to what you just said.

00:11:49:13 - 00:11:50:23

Alex Winter

It doesn't work. So when we're

00:11:50:23 - 00:11:59:09

Alex Winter

talking about suppliers specifically. What do you recommend for them and what do you coach them on when it comes to pros and cons and how that plays into reviews?

00:11:59:11 - 00:12:14:07

Allison Riggs

Yeah. Well the biggest thing is Alex and your potential consumers go out onto the internet or type into ChatGPT and find out the pros and cons of any product and service, regardless of whether or not you write about it.

00:12:14:09 - 00:12:15:19

Alex Winter

100%.

00:12:15:21 - 00:12:16:09

Allison Riggs

100.

00:12:16:09 - 00:12:20:23

Alex Winter

Percent. Let's not actually, you know, we can't ostrich the situation. You can't stick your head in this.

00:12:21:01 - 00:12:41:13

Allison Riggs

We can't at all. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, this is information that is readily available to the public. Yeah. Okay. Now the difference is, is when we as a a vendor, right, are selling these products or promoting these products, we have to of course, be able to say who's a good fit and who's a not fit.

00:12:41:15 - 00:13:08:00

Allison Riggs

And we have to provide the solutions for it. Right. Maybe that one product isn't right for them, but maybe there's another product within the same brand name that is similar, but they can still purchase. Right? So there is a way to communicate clearly, right. And to be very open and honest about products that work well and don't work well for potential members, right, or potential buyers.

00:13:08:02 - 00:13:27:22

Allison Riggs

And then we can lead them through to another purchasing option. Right? So the biggest thing is just to keep in mind is are they going to find out about it anyway? And if the answer's yes, then why not have a vendor who knows you and your brand well enough to be able to communicate really well about the pros and the cons?

00:13:28:00 - 00:13:55:07

Allison Riggs

Because ultimately they're going to come back to us and they're going to continue to purchase and buy from us. And just as we're going to have bad for the clients, we're going to have great foot clients, right? So as long as we have those, we're actually helping some of these brands. Right? And I tell people this all the time too, it's like if you were a vendor with a supplier and you're not communicating the feedback directly from your consumers to your suppliers, you're doing your suppliers a disservice.

00:13:55:09 - 00:14:14:03

Allison Riggs

You are not helping them actually build better brands, build better products, build better services. At the end of the day, if you're holding that tight to yourself because you don't want to upset them versus truly helping them become better so that they can sell more, that they can have a bigger customer base in the long term.

00:14:14:06 - 00:14:33:02

Alex Winter

Yeah, that's a great point. You're making me think about our our OG customers, our OG clients here at impact, our friends at Yale Appliance and Steve Shine Cove is a perfect example of someone who did exactly that. And at first the manufacturers didn't really like the feedback because a lot of it wasn't positive. But how do you get better and make better products?

00:14:33:04 - 00:14:36:09

Alex Winter

You need to know what's wrong so you can fix the problem.

00:14:36:11 - 00:14:58:04

Allison Riggs

You know you need the first hand experience and you need to provide the solutions. Yes, right. Like there are times where Steve was like, hey, some of these, here are the most reliable and the most unreliable, but here's what you can do. Here are some solutions that you can put into place, and make sure that you really do get the longevity out of your appliances.

00:14:58:10 - 00:15:24:07

Allison Riggs

And this is even where tying into reviews as a whole and not just us writing content, but there is also a reason that we want to encourage all reviews from all of our clients about our products and services. I worked with the client a very long time ago before my endless customers. They ask and answer days and they would take off bad reviews from their Google My Business page.

00:15:24:07 - 00:15:25:20

Alex Winter

They would just delete them.

00:15:25:22 - 00:15:46:03

Allison Riggs

They would just delete them. They would take them off. Right? Because their fear is that people would see some of the bad reviews and they wouldn't want to work with them. Well, one Alex, we are all smart consumers, right? So is there any product or service where you haven't ever seen one bad review ever, and all of the lifetime of that product or service?

00:15:46:05 - 00:15:58:20

Alex Winter

I, I don't think so. And if I ever did see that, I would automatically like I would have my red flag up. That's like, why is this 100% like, something's got to be off here because nothing's ever perfect. So like that instantly put a bad taste in my mouth.

00:15:58:22 - 00:15:59:17

Allison Riggs

Or exactly.

00:15:59:17 - 00:16:01:11

Alex Winter

What we suspect. Yeah, yeah.

00:16:01:13 - 00:16:29:07

Allison Riggs

As my kids would say, that sucks, right? It's. There's something about it that just doesn't sit well or doesn't sit right where there's a 100% perfection. No product is that way. So the better route to go is to encourage all reviews the good, the bad and the ugly. We need to hear it. We need to see it. And when a brand and his companies need to understand it so that we can make better products and better services.

00:16:29:07 - 00:16:55:17

Allison Riggs

At the end of the day, I encourage all of my clients to welcome any negative and bad reviews, and I like when they're public. I like when they're public because if we as a company, truly do want to evolve and become the best that we can be and be the trusted voice in our space, we can take those reviews earned it around, bring it to our service delivery teams, bring it to our operations teams, and make better products and services.

00:16:55:19 - 00:17:19:02

Allison Riggs

We can use that feedback to create better experiences for our customers and our clients. And then we turn around and that public facing negative review. We then get to go back and say, thank you, Alex. We really appreciate this feedback. Now, of course, we're sad that you didn't have the best experience with us, but here's exactly what I want to tell you that we did based on the feedback that you gave us.

00:17:19:07 - 00:17:38:18

Allison Riggs

That's not only going to change your experience if you ever try us again, but hundreds of customers in the future are going to be bettered because of your feedback. And I would love for you to try our product or service again and give me the same feedback so that I can see if what we put into place actually fix the problem that you were experiencing.

00:17:38:18 - 00:17:54:00

Alex Winter

That's powerful. That's really powerful effect. In fact, for me, if I read a review like that, I that would win my business immediately because I feel like in life is the same in business it's not. You don't get judged on the things you do well. You get judged on the things that you do poorly and how you handle those situations.

00:17:54:00 - 00:18:12:10

Alex Winter

And that's that's a perfect example, the psychology of that. So do you. That's a great example. Do you have any other examples maybe of clients that are doing this? Well, I know that this one client was deleting their reviews. Do you have any clients that you've been. Yeah. Don't do that. By the way, do you have any clients that you've been coaching that that have like fully embraced this and are just like their review game is strong in there.

00:18:12:12 - 00:18:18:13

Alex Winter

They have all these comments and interactions and conversations with people that have really helped shape their business in new ways.

00:18:18:15 - 00:18:45:13

Allison Riggs

Yeah. I have a couple of examples. One is in Hvac company out in the northwest, and they are creating really great reviews of different products and services that they're creating a lot of great content. They're writing articles. They're actually making videos as well. Right? Because they're walking you through the products directly with their sales team and their service delivery teams, showing you the good, the bad and the ugly.

00:18:45:15 - 00:19:09:14

Allison Riggs

Right? Then they couple that with a specific landing pages for each of those products and services as well. So we're not just taking the reviews into an article, we're truly making it into an evaluation of the brand as a whole, and they are making sure that they do this for each of their suppliers. So this is just not 1 or 2.

00:19:09:18 - 00:19:38:12

Allison Riggs

This is for everybody. All of their vendors are getting the same equal treatment, because that is the unbiased approach that we need our clients to have is that you don't just find it for one or the other. You're giving the same experience to every single person. So I really love their approach to the reviews of the brands specific, because we're seeing an increase of educated buyers, right, who want to know and learn about specific brands, whether their friend is had one.

00:19:38:12 - 00:20:10:12

Allison Riggs

Right, because they're reading reviews online, right? Their friends had one, their neighbors had one. They've heard about the brand before. They've, you know, seen their ads on television. Now we have a company who's taking that head on and just flat out writing reviews about it. So so that's a really great example. And I would encourage, you know, anyone that works with products and services, especially if you have, like lead aggregators or if you're actually getting direct leads from those brands instead of spending, on those brand pages.

00:20:10:12 - 00:20:42:09

Allison Riggs

Right? So if we're talking about track, let's say train, right? If you are one of the trusted suppliers or a local supplier of train products instead of on the train website, just linking back to your home page, link back to the specific product page or that specific brand page on your website. Right? Then you're giving that experience of I went from the train website over to your website, and it was all about train, and it gave me the good, the bad and the ugly.

00:20:42:09 - 00:20:54:21

Allison Riggs

Told me who was a right fit, told me who was a wrong fit, and I was able to continue that experience and not feel like there was a disconnect or not have to go and search and find for the specific brand names that I was looking for.

00:20:54:21 - 00:20:58:04

Alex Winter

Right? That makes total sense. Very cool.

00:20:58:06 - 00:21:20:20

Allison Riggs

Yeah. Now the other piece too, when we talk about reviews, is I have a client who has a span of stick, number of reviews, and I don't want you to hear me say, oh, I love your client because they have a 4.9 Google Google Star rating on their Google My Business page. What they do have is thousands of reviews.

00:21:20:22 - 00:21:49:10

Allison Riggs

They don't ask only the clients who have great experiences. They ask every client to give them a review. Yeah, they don't shy away from folks telling the public the type of experience that they've had. They do this through automations, right? So after a service request is finished, they have automated emails that go out so that you can directly give a Google review, and they're not incentivizing.

00:21:49:10 - 00:22:06:00

Allison Riggs

I want you all to hear this is you don't want to incentivize folks for giving reviews. You never want somebody to say, oh, well, they gave me $100 to give them a review, because even though we want to feel like that's unbiased, it truly isn't because there's.

00:22:06:00 - 00:22:17:06

Alex Winter

As soon as you said that, I mean, it made me cringe a little bit. It was like, oh, no, that's not if you leave a review, you get entered into a raffle and you can win a free iPad or something like, that's not that's not how it works or it shouldn't be anyways. Yeah, I totally agree.

00:22:17:09 - 00:22:39:23

Allison Riggs

That's not right. So making sure that you don't have any, you know, incentives for getting reviews, but they, they automate it. Right. So there's these emails that go directly out. They even do follow up calls because they truly believed in the review and feedback process. They're doing follow up calls. And yes, of course there's moments for referral.

00:22:40:00 - 00:23:00:05

Allison Riggs

There's moments for other things, but they genuinely want the feedback about their team, about the process, because they are in the business of making themselves better. They have a growth mindset. They don't believe that they've hit the pinnacle just because they're having an absolutely fantastic year. They still know that there are things that they could be doing differently.

00:23:00:07 - 00:23:23:07

Allison Riggs

So they pick up the phone they're calling, they're asking for those Google reviews again, and they reinforce that we're not looking for you to give the everything was great and super wonderful. If it wasn't, of course, we want you to write if you had a fantastic experience, but we don't want you to shy away from everything that you learned in that process.

00:23:23:09 - 00:23:56:17

Allison Riggs

And I love this approach because what they've been hearing are they're learning more content that they should be creating. So it's not even like process adjustments. They're even digging in deeper to find out what other type of content should we be creating, whether it's a written article or whether it's a video, what questions are coming about and then how can they continue to nurture people even after they've worked with them, because they're starting to build these relationships and build trust now they know, okay, you know, it would be really great.

00:23:56:17 - 00:24:12:01

Allison Riggs

We just did this beautiful install on this brand new Hvac unit. Do they know about regular maintenance? Do they know about what happens in springtime when pollen comes through and how often they should be changing their filters? Because that can impact the,

00:24:12:03 - 00:24:12:15

Alex Winter

Like the light.

00:24:12:17 - 00:24:13:09

Allison Riggs

Quality or.

00:24:13:09 - 00:24:14:20

Alex Winter

The quality of the light.

00:24:14:22 - 00:24:36:06

Allison Riggs

The quality of the work that the Hvac unit is putting out for the longevity of it. Right. The lifetime value of it. And so this is where they don't just use this as an opportunity of a transactional. Right. You sold you you're done. See you later. They want to find out and continue to build that relationship and continue to build trust with, the customers that they're working with.

00:24:36:06 - 00:25:00:14

Allison Riggs

Right. Because even if you're an HR company, right, you're still doing repairs. You're not just doing replacements, you're doing repairs as well. You're doing the cleanings. There are other services that your customers are going to need throughout the lifetime of the building. In that home. Right. And so what better way than to get to open honest reviews and learn what we can continue to do with customers?

00:25:00:16 - 00:25:29:13

Alex Winter

I love all that. I everything that you said. It's just like hitting the nail on the head. It's it's so true. And I think it's such a great way to meet customers where they are. I also think to the psychology of it, I look at how many reviews. It's not just the the number, what is it? A 4.2 is a four, but if it's a 4.2 and it has 20 reviews and someone else has a 4.1, but they have 20,000 reviews, you better believe I'm looking at the one with 20,000 reviews first, just because there's there's something to those numbers, it just shows you that they they have a huge customer base, and they have

00:25:29:13 - 00:25:45:01

Alex Winter

a lot of people interacting with the brand, so they clearly doing something right. At least that's how I look at it. Anyways. But so my next question, how you had mentioned Google reviews and Yelp and Amazon and all these different places where you can leave reviews and where customers get a chance to really, interact in that way?

00:25:45:03 - 00:25:55:12

Alex Winter

How does I play into that mix, and what should companies be thinking about? As you know, we keep diving further into this AI realm and how it's starting to take over. Pretty much everything.

00:25:55:14 - 00:26:17:19

Allison Riggs

Yeah. So what we're seeing an increase of is not just answering the questions, but problems and reviews are to that. We're starting to see I really pick up on because it wants the user generated content. Okay. So what that means is, is these AI tools, right. The ChatGPT is the clouds of the world. They're not just searching the website.

00:26:17:21 - 00:26:41:10

Allison Riggs

They are now looking at Google reviews. They're looking at Yelp reviews. They are pulling into aggregate. The customer experiences that people are having. And you'll see that you'll see it where it says customers say this right on the Amazon. If you've recently purchased anything from Amazon, right, they now have that AI summary that takes all of the reviews and pulls a quick summary for you.

00:26:41:10 - 00:27:04:00

Allison Riggs

Of the reviews that are happening. We're going to start to see this increase across all different platforms. I see Yelp, Angie's List, you know, Google my business. Google like all of that is going to start pulling a collection of reviews to try to give you an overview, right? Without you having to read all of those reviews. It's trying to give you a summary.

00:27:04:02 - 00:27:08:19

Allison Riggs

So if one you're not writing reviews on your website, first and foremost you need to be.

00:27:08:22 - 00:27:12:11

Alex Winter

What are you doing? Yeah. If you're not right, what are you doing.

00:27:12:13 - 00:27:33:17

Allison Riggs

If you're not doing it right? I joke around that we've gotta write all of our content. We've got to build sales and marketing strategies for two people, humans and the robots. Okay. And it seems truly silly. And if you've heard me say this, you need to hear it again, because it truly is the way that the world is adapting and the way that our user experiences are being shaped.

00:27:33:19 - 00:27:44:14

Allison Riggs

Right. Because one, you're going to start to get the AI summaries, and that's the first place that people are going at the top of our chrome. It's at the top of.

00:27:44:14 - 00:28:08:17

Allison Riggs

Any of our, AI features in AI tools, even in HubSpot. Right? Like all of this stuff is being built to the top because it's trying to make an easier and simpler process for you so that you're not having to do all the research all on your own. Right. So if we're not writing for the robots and knowing that robots are crawling and looking for this, I know I'm simplifying it, y'all.

00:28:08:17 - 00:28:30:04

Allison Riggs

I'm bringing, just a simple way that for those of you who aren't, like, really into AI, it you really have to see and view that the way that we are shaping how people search for things is we're looking for quick, fast and simple. And that's where the AI overviews come into play, guys, is it is going to start searching and looking.

00:28:30:06 - 00:28:54:21

Allison Riggs

So if you don't have a lot of Google reviews, whether they're good, bad or ugly, you've got to start doing that. Yeah. Right now on the human side, if you're not writing reviews to help people decide on your website one way or the other, you're also doing yourself a disservice. And I know Marcus actually wrote this, his best article, but it pulled up in the reviews of Play More Pools.

00:28:54:23 - 00:29:09:15

Allison Riggs

Then he linked to the review of Play More Pools, and people actually got to see who's a good fit, who is a bad fit, and what is an honest, open experience that they could expect with a different, pool vendor.

00:29:09:15 - 00:29:10:02

Alex Winter

Different pool.

00:29:10:02 - 00:29:10:16

Allison Riggs

Service or.

00:29:10:16 - 00:29:11:02

Alex Winter

Service.

00:29:11:02 - 00:29:36:11

Allison Riggs

Yeah, yeah, manufacturer service, all of that. Right. So the biggest thing with AI is we just have to remember that we are still feeding the machines. We have to be the leaders in the content creation. We have to be the ones making sure that our reviews are being posted. Our content is being posted. I mean, guys, I see a world where, you know, I is pulling in Facebook reviews, right?

00:29:36:11 - 00:30:02:19

Allison Riggs

It's pulling in all of these different reviews, all these different stars from all these different places, because it wants to give the user one experience in one place. So we have to make sure that we are the one voice that is helping shape that through content, through user generated content and reviews, and also making sure that we are encouraging folk to talk about it in all the different places.

00:30:02:21 - 00:30:33:14

Alex Winter

Such a great point that you make about AI and it's it's I know it seems simple, but I think people forget and even you just reminded me, I forget to because I'm in GPT and I'm using all these tools every single day, almost for hours on end. It at times, but we forget that we're feeding the AI so that it can learn and then in return, the AI is feeding us back what we're teaching it, and it's becoming this revolving circle so that at the basis of it all, like that's that's why this is so important and that's why you can't you can't not do reviews.

00:30:33:14 - 00:30:37:18

Alex Winter

You have to do them. I'm going to use a double negative. You can't not do reviews. You got to do it.

00:30:37:20 - 00:30:54:09

Allison Riggs

They can't not do them and you need to do them. The biggest thing I want everyone to hear is you've got to do them in all the different places, all right. So you should be creating your video content short form, long form, all of that. You need to be creating all different types of reviews about products and services, competitors and even yourself.

00:30:54:09 - 00:31:13:16

Allison Riggs

If you don't have an honest review about yourself, you need to be doing that first and foremost, because you can pull all of that data into one place, right? The purpose of creating best of articles was one where we wanted to rank for it, right? And the second part is we wanted to make sure that people had one place that they could go, that we were saving them.

00:31:13:16 - 00:31:33:04

Allison Riggs

Hours of research by just going to one website to learn all of the different best ofs, right? It can be the same way with your reviews. Why not create content that pulls all of your reviews together, or all of the reviews from your competitors, so that your customers and consumers only have one place that they have to look.

00:31:33:06 - 00:31:52:01

Allison Riggs

They don't have to go all over. You're saving them the time and energy, and you're doing it on your website so that you're building trust with them. Use these in the sales process. If people are like, hey, I know even here at impact, we've had people say like, oh, can you give us like a referral? Can you give you give us somebody that we can go and talk to?

00:31:52:03 - 00:32:06:19

Allison Riggs

Why not? Instead of just creating the claims we make videos or the customer journey videos, why not fall into one place? All of the reviews that we have, the good, the bad and the ugly, how we've addressed them and how we really pull them into better business practices.

00:32:06:21 - 00:32:23:21

Alex Winter

I love that. I love that people people want information quickly and it's getting faster and the attention spans are getting shorter. So you got it. You got to give em what they want as quickly and as condensed as possible to and to your point where you're just saying, like that's that does exactly that. I think that's that's such a great look.

00:32:23:23 - 00:32:41:11

Alex Winter

Well, I learned a ton. I hope everyone out there watching, listening is, getting into reviews and taking this a little bit more seriously because it's a really big component of being successful with endless customers. But now it's time for my favorite part of the show. What's the one thing that Alison that you would tell everyone listening and watching right now?

00:32:41:11 - 00:32:47:20

Alex Winter

Like one thing, one sentence that they have to take away from today's conversation that's most critical mission critical for them.

00:32:47:22 - 00:33:00:15

Allison Riggs

Don't shy away from any and all reviews that you can get and give around your products and services and around your industry.

00:33:00:16 - 00:33:13:10

Alex Winter

Allison, great, great conversation today. Thank you so much for all your insights and for sharing some customer stories. I learned a lot and, you definitely got me rethinking AI and reviews in general. I really got some, got some work to do.

00:33:13:12 - 00:33:20:08

Allison Riggs

Yeah, okay. And if people aren't reviewing this podcast, they definitely should. Five stars all around Alex because that's the experience that I've had.

00:33:20:08 - 00:33:34:04

Alex Winter

Well thank you so much. Info about their listening and watching. Go give us some reviews. We always ask for reviews and we also we'd love to hear what people want to want us to talk about on the show. So if there's any pressing topics or questions or issues you're having. Don't be afraid to hit us up. We'd love to talk about it.

00:33:34:04 - 00:33:43:02

Alex Winter

We're not the ostriches over here. We don't stick our heads in the sand. All right with that, Alison, thank you again for your time and for being on the show. We'll definitely have to have you back again soon.

00:33:43:04 - 00:33:44:11

Allison Riggs

Of course. Alex, I'm always ready for you.

00:33:44:13 - 00:33:49:08

Alex Winter

All right? And for what? They're watching and listening. This is endless customers. We'll see you on the next episode.