Customer Reviews

[UsedTireShop]

I was wondering how to get customers to give reviews. It seems that upset customers are quick to leave a negative reviews. Happy customers never seem to give any reviews.

 

Although we try very hard we cannot make every single customer happy.

 

Any ideas on how to get more favorable reviews?

[Mario]

You can offer the customer a promotion/discount/carwash if they leave you a review. A negative review is in the nature of being reviewed. An unhappy customer is normally going to be vocal then a satisfied customer.

 

Any customer with 1/5 of a brain is going to know that somebody with 100% positive reviews are screening their reviews on their website, google, yelp etc... Most people I have talked to do not take reviews/testimonals seriously because of this.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Mario

[Joe Marconi]

It is true that some people, in the heat of anger, will post a negative review. I often wonder how many of those people took time to resolve the issue, rather than to post something negative.

 

Consumers are getting smarter, and negative reviews don't hold as much weight as we fear. But, in reality, no one wants a bad review.

 

I would not suggest asking for review, but give people opportunity to give feedback. For example, A CRM company like MechanicNet and Demand Force, sends out email and post card thank you's. These thank you's will politely ask the customer to review your shop. This will generate a stream of great reviews. The problem is that these reviews don't show up on Google or Yelp or Angie's List. What we do is call or email these people and thank them for taking the time post the review, and then ask them if it would be ok to post that review on Google, etc.

 

Another way to stimulate great reviews? Create such an amazing experience for the customer that the customer walks away feeling compelled to tell the world.

 

I am curious to hear from other shop owners on this topic.

[Shopcat]

Joe has a great point. When I am the customer I expect a good experience, so when it happens It's not note worthy. The reviews come from either awesome or terrible experiences. Have you ever had such a great buying experience you had to tell someone? That is the compelling experience that turns a customer into an advocate. CRM companies will generate lots of reviews. I has always been a fact that this is a bad news, or no news type of business. Folks expect to have a good experience, the challenge to our industry is to make it a great experience they feel compelled to share with everyone.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Shopcat

[Elon Block]

Here's something to consider.

Regardless of whether we like it or not... a review is feedback.

Think about it... we used to have to pay for a mystery shopper program,

in order to get feedback on how the customer felt about the service.

Now, with the internet, we get that feedback for free.

For this to be valuable... we need to be willing to be open to feedback.

Just like with the mystery shopper report, an online review is an
opportunity to look at what's going on in our business. From an objective
customer viewpoint.

 

Less than favorable feedback indicates something isn't working smoothly
or properly in the business.

If there's a pattern to the nature of the reviews, that's good news for us
because we can now focus on it and fix it.

It always has to do with the 3P's: our Product, our People, and/or our
Processes (our people are using - or not using, whichever the case).

We can either curse or ignore the review or we can explore what
can be improved upon so that our business does better.

As for getting reviews...
Getting reviews is a marketing angle.

If we're doing a good job, we don't need that kind of marketing or
any other kind to have a booked calendar and full bays.

Think about it. You only need a small segment of loyal customers
spending all their money with you to maintain their vehicle -
year in and year out - to have a thriving and profitable business.
http://newsroom.aaa.com/2014/05/owning-and-operating-your-vehicle-just-got-a-little-cheaper-aaas-2014-your-driving-costs-study/

What that means is... if the average customer spends $750 per year
for vehicle repairs and maintenance, those people are getting their
vehicles fixed somewhere.

Why not at your shop? When you calculate that out... you need
less than 1,500 customers to have a million dollar a year business,
(or whatever your goal is for 2015).

Give customers what they want and you will easily own your share
of your market.

Simply put... here's what customers want...

They want to be treated fairly and with respect. And they want
a shop they can trust to take good care of them.

The bottom-line is...
The shop that has systems in place to consistently provide that experience -
both in the bays and at the counter - will have no trouble meeting
their financial goals - regardless of the weather, the economy or
any other outside forces.

[UsedTireShop]

Thanks for the valuable input Elon. 2015 is my big year for change. I WILL be the go to shop in my area.

 

Jeff

[Shopcat]

Elon is right. The 3 P's are important. The product, people and processes. Marcus Lemonis preaches this on every episode of The Profit on CNBC. We not only have to fix the car right, we must create a buying experience the customer loves. Here are the big 3 that are primary to a positive buying experience for your customer.

 

1. Fixed right the first time

2. Done at or under the estimate

3. Done on time or sooner

 

These primary things depend on the 3 P's. Fixing the car is PART of the process. If the car is fixed right, but the customer is not happy, its all for nothing, because the car is not your customer. We are in the customer service business, it just so happens we fix cars.

[Elon Block]

Marcus, Michael Gerber and many others teach business principles that emphasize

focusing all of your attention on Product, People and Processes, as the only way
to really create a profitable business that runs on auto-pilot.
So, picking a Product line you believe in... is only part of the equation.

Having Processes your People can use to sell those Products and perform those services...
is the rest of what's required to have a wildly successful and profitable business.

Look at it this way... your techs use Processes to service a vehicle properly.

If you want predictable sales and profit numbers, your sales people need Processes
for selling service and tires effectively and consistently.

Processes also make managing your shop super easy.

For example, if you walked through the shop and noticed an employee using an
old Coats tire machine to change a performance tire mounted on an alloy rim...
you would stop immediately and show him how to do it correctly before he damages something.

Ignoring this behavior is going to cost you money.

The same principle applies to managing what happens at the counter.

Because there is a direct connection between what happens at your counter - and whether
you have a shop with full bays - or you have empty bays.

The old school methods of selling service no longer work because today's consumers -
in today's economy - no longer respond to anything that is salesy or pushy.

So, whatever sales process your people use has to be customer-friendly and yet,
strategically walk your customer through the sale... so they give you the approval to do the work.

It also needs to be a step-by-step, standardized Process your people can actually do - even if
they are not smooth talking sales people.

In other words, you need to make sure the Process can be learned and used by "normal" People.

Because without a structured, effective sales method your employees can actually see themselves using...

They will fall back into the more comfortable order-taking routine.

I don't have to tell you that when that happens, you are missing legitimate selling opportunities to
really service the customer and fill your bays with profitable jobs.

[GermanCArDEpot.com]

No brainer get demand force we have over 1500 online reviews.Yelp google yahoo Angieslist Demand force can help you run promos to get great reviews some bad ones to but that ok . Call your rep . Thanks Olle

[mmotley]

I'm not sold on online reviews yet. I just posted on another thread about how the used car lot down the road has 2 out 3 reviews as 1 star (one is a girl claiming she was hit on and had stuff stolen out of her car while on a test drive, the other says the car lot guys will come still parts off your car at night after they sold it to you). The car lot hasn't gone bankrupt and people still go there.

 

Everybody probably has some negative reviews, everybody probably has some 5 star reviews... Doesn't really seem to make a difference from what I can tell. Advertise right, invest in shop appearance and tools/equipment, focus on customer service, and the rest will take care of itself.

 

I think of apartment complexes and restaurants when I think of how much weight online reviews carry. Every apartment complex out there pretty much has bad reviews (loud neighbors, roaches, water leaks, etc) and every restaurant has bad reviews about a waiter/waitress with a bad attitude, cold food, or whatever.

 

In the end, I would say asking for an online review is about as far as I would go. At most, offer a $5 discount. We use tablets here and I set up shortcuts on the home screen for Facebook log in and Google log in (as soon as you log in, you are instantly directed to the respective review sites). All we have to do is hand the customer the tablet, let them log in and leave a review.

 

Feel free to PM on how to set up the shortcuts on a tablet for your review sites, it takes just a few minutes and is free!

Edited December 30, 2014 by mmotley

[mspecperformance]

For my market online reviews are immensely important. Once you have a great online reputation you can see how many people walk in and comment on how great your reviews are and that being a major driving force.

[mspecperformance]

I'm not sold on online reviews yet. I just posted on another thread about how the used car lot down the road has 2 out 3 reviews as 1 star (one is a girl claiming she was hit on and had stuff stolen out of her car while on a test drive, the other says the car lot guys will come still parts off your car at night after they sold it to you). The car lot hasn't gone bankrupt and people still go there.

 

Everybody probably has some negative reviews, everybody probably has some 5 star reviews... Doesn't really seem to make a difference from what I can tell. Advertise right, invest in shop appearance and tools/equipment, focus on customer service, and the rest will take care of itself.

 

I think of apartment complexes and restaurants when I think of how much weight online reviews carry. Every apartment complex out there pretty much has bad reviews (loud neighbors, roaches, water leaks, etc) and every restaurant has bad reviews about a waiter/waitress with a bad attitude, cold food, or whatever.

 

In the end, I would say asking for an online review is about as far as I would go. At most, offer a $5 discount. We use tablets here and I set up shortcuts on the home screen for Facebook log in and Google log in (as soon as you log in, you are instantly directed to the respective review sites). All we have to do is hand the customer the tablet, let them log in and leave a review.

 

Feel free to PM on how to set up the shortcuts on a tablet for your review sites, it takes just a few minutes and is free!

 

 

FYI. Review sites such as yelp and google track where the reviews are made from. Therefore if all reviews are made from the same IP they will not register.

[Elon Block]

Hi everyone, hope everyone is finishing up their first quarter of 2015 strong!

I get lots of questions about what to do with reviews. Common questions are:
Do I really need to respond to the positive reviews?
How do I handle the negative ones?

In an effort to provide some tips, I put together an article with some recommended

best practices: The Love/Hate Relationship With Reviews

Let me know if you have any questions.

[KMS]

You always have to take the good with the bad when it comes to reviews. How else do you work on your flaws? There is a such thing as good criticism. Yes, some reviews can be absolutely ridiculous. Always comment on all of them if possible. Customers will be amazed to get a thank you. They will appreciate it greatly.

[mspecperformance]

Negative comments will always leave out what the customer did wrong of course.

[KMS]

Negative comments will always leave out what the customer did wrong of course.

 

Of course they do. This is why all the reviews need a response.

[mmotley]

We just started emailing customer surveys in hopes that we can find out where we can improve, which in turn, should lead to less negative reviews. I'm not expecting to eliminate ALL of the negative reviews and I know it doesn't help with any negative reviews already left. I hope it at least gives us a little more insight on how we can do our best and avoid these situations.

Edited March 25, 2015 by mmotley

[AJFA]

We use Sure Critic as part of the Mitchell Manager programs: http://www.surecritic.com/reviews/aj-foreign-auto

 

Even the not so nice reviews are meaningful, usually means we did not explain things very well!

 

The ones that kill me are the ones where they say we did a great job but they couldn't give us a 5 star review because they never give anyone 5 stars!!

 

I think they have a complex, just like I do .

Dave

[Elon Block]

We use Sure Critic as part of the Mitchell Manager programs: http://www.surecritic.com/reviews/aj-foreign-auto

 

Even the not so nice reviews are meaningful, usually means we did not explain things very well!

 

The ones that kill me are the ones where they say we did a great job but they couldn't give us a 5 star review because they never give anyone 5 stars!!

 

I think they have a complex, just like I do .

Dave

Dave,

 

Yes, it's been my experience that most negative reviews mean something wasn't explained very well.

 

A sales tip is to have the service advisor ask the customer, at an appropriate time in the sales process:

"Do you have any questions about what we've talked about so far?"

 

That question is a real money-maker because usually the customer will have questions. And this

gives the customer permission to voice their concerns, questions, confusion, whatever.

 

The benefit is they are more likely to agree to have the work done because they will feel confident

in themselves in being able to make a decsion. (No one wants to make a bad, uneducated decision.)

[KMS]

I agree with that. Always ask if a customer understands the estimate and/or repairs completely. This helps everything go smoothy.

[Hands On]

We use mechanicsnet now instead of demandforce. Same program, $100 less per month, and mechanicsnet is not selling your database like demandforce is.

[mmotley]

We use mechanicsnet now instead of demandforce. Same program, $100 less per month, and mechanicsnet is not selling your database like demandforce is.

That's a pretty serious accusation, selling your database... Any way to back that claim up?

[mspecperformance]

demandforce is terrible. I had a terrible experience with that company in the past. They have made strides to change things guy but I don't believe much has changed.

[xrac]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[xrac]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Jeff]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Southards]

I send Thank You cards, write a note related to the service we provided. I thank them for 1) CHOOSING US and 2) TRUSTING US. Both of those are the key reason we're all still in business. I had two rubber stamps made, one in blue in saying "Review us on Google, Southard Tire and Auto". The other rubber stamp in red reads "Review us on Yelp, Southard Tire and Auto". I stamp both of these somewhere on the inside of the card and include our business card. My Yelp's are good, Google isn't so good as it seems to be tricky to do for some reason. I am also a TireRack.com installer, I REALLY encourage my customers to leave reviews there, the ones on there have driven A LOT of new business my way, for tire installs, alignments and many other mechanical repairs and services. I get a lot of thoughtful responses because of these cards. Highly recommend it!!

[FROGFINDER]

You have to give customers something good to talk about. I used free hand car washes that looked like a detail service, $2 bill's with a business card with $20.00 off next service under fuel door, Flowers to the ladies, free hot wheels cars to the kids , sent birthday cards and Christmas cards. We got a lot of hand written letters and referrals.

 

PS. rather than ask my customers to leave feedback when they check out i always thank them for their feedback and referrals up front.

Edited September 20, 2016 by FROGFINDER