Over the years I have heard practically every question about our review platform from business owners with some or small knowledge about us. Some raise objections, that are always countered with brief explanations. I thought it be good idea to offer some of them here as a great resource for those new to what we do and how we do it.
“I don’t need reviews, I’m busy enough as it is at the moment.”
Well, you may be busy now but it’s always better to busy all of the time, rather than just in the present. Online reviews generate real time interest in your business and accumulate bookings to create security for months and months – not just for the here and now and the coming weeks. Reviews create new customers – that boosts cashflow, evens out the troughs of quiet times and enables a business to grow.
“I already have great word of mouth.”
That’s brilliant and that’s exactly what we do to but instead of word of mouth that travels from one person to the other, we put your word of mouth online where the audience is increased massively. Word of mouth is just old school reviews – person to person – often people in the circle of family and friends. NoCowboys reviews reach far more people than your analogue word of mouth would. 90 percent of people look for reviews before ever contacting a business. Think on that. If your word of mouth is not online and growing, then it’s doing you limited favours.
“It’s too expensive.”
Short answer – ‘no, it isn’t, it’s a steal’. Longer answer. Ask yourself this. How much is promoting your reputation worth? You would spend more money on takeout coffee for yourself in a year than you would marketing your reputation online with NoCowboys.
Our registration fees are all inclusive, we have no premium or entry level service or offering. Every business owner with the honesty and transparency to put their reputation on the line gets the same dedication and access to our services as another. We have no hidden fees and our annual price is less than what some business owners gladly fork out in Google Adwords in a month.
“I already have reviews – they’re on the job site I’m on.”
Great – but guess what, nobody can see them unless they register with that job site, they’re not visible on Google and that site allows reviews for quoting and work that hasn’t been done.
Thing is – not all reviews are equal. All you need to post a Google review is to get yourself a Gmail account. What that means is that anyone can rate a business, good or bad on Google – either falsely manipulating a reputation with good fake reviews or damaging competitors with fake bad reviews. Oh, if you want to sort that out with Google, be my guest. It’s a convoluted and near impossible task. If you can find a way to talk to someone at Google about it, then the beers are on me.
“I don’t want to annoy my customers by asking them to review my business.”
Simple answer. You won’t be. Consumers feel involved in a business if they are asked to review it and reviews are commonplace. If nine out of ten customers look for reviews before purchasing or hiring, then it’s established that reviews are an essential part of their consumer experience. They will take the time to leave you feedback. Not all customers will – some will forget – but most will. NoCowboys has various ways to ensure review quests are simple – direct link to your ratings page, text requests, and personalised QR codes that can be sent or scanned directly by phone.
“I am afraid what will happen if I get a negative review”
This is a common observation and it makes sense but it ignores the reality of human beings, consumer behaviour and the actual advantages of what we term, a ‘challenging review’. Firstly, challenging reviews are generally only posted as a last resort when a customer feels that their concerns have been ignored or brushed off. In many cases they can be removed if the customer is happy when the situation has been remedied. Think of them as the beginning of a resolution, and not the beginning of a war of words.
You can reply to every review you receive on our site, good or bad, and we encourage you to. The people reading your considered and conciliatory reply to a challenging review will be impressed that you are the sort of business owner who takes the time and makes the effort to remedy issues and concerns.
Consumers do not trust 5 star review scores as much as they trust 4 star ones. Why? Because they understand that perfection is a very high standard and lots of 5 star reviews look suspect. No matter how hard you work or how incredible your service is, without exception you will encounter a difficult customer and those who read reviews understand that and will be converted to a new customer if you reply to a challenging review in the right way. We will happily help you with that.
Lastly, NoCowboys’ right of reply to all reviews puts you in control. As it is only legitimate customers who can leave feedback against your business, our monitoring systems prohibit fake reviews that try to damage your reputation. This is not the same as other platforms where fake reviews are posted and are exceedingly difficult to remove.
