The company I work for has been in business for over 8 years, does great work and has exactly 0 reviews in Yahoo and another 0 in google. Not that surprised are you? I know.
But I find this surprising… having signed up with Service Magic only a few months ago, this garage door business has already been reviewed 5 separate times. I started asking why.
I found there are 2 things a small business can copy from Service Magic to get more reviews. The first ask multiple times… or at least once. The second is to make it smoother. You see when a person goes to review a business on Service Magic they are already signed up, so they don’t need to make up a password or download anything or stand on their head. Their in… it’s smooth.
Small businesses often know/ask for their customer’s email addresses, now use it to make it easier for the customer to review you. If they have a yahoo email, they already belong to Yahoo; if they have gmail they already have a Google account. Send them a link to the review site of which you know they already belong – Smooooth.
On the lighter side: I spent my vacation in part reading Seth Godin books, which is why I’m using the term smooth. And I couldn’t help but think his cover photo resembled an athletic african-american.
Now, those of you who know what Mr. Godin looks like think I’m crazy… so I’m going to prove it to you. Here is Seth Godin side by side with David Justice – retired baseball player.
David Justice and Seth Godin Side by Side
Miriam | 06-Aug-08 at 2:18 am | Permalink
Tim -
The graphic is hilarious…and kind of disturbing, too.
Service Magic, huh? I should learn more about this. 5 reviews for a subject as lukewarm as garage doors has impressed me quite a bit.
Enjoyed this post.
Miriam
Local Search Hound | 06-Aug-08 at 10:47 am | Permalink
Miriam, ya I think somebody needs to confiscate my photoshop.
The reviews on service magic are really interesting to me too… they are solicited by service magic and not the customer, so they may be more relevant but to my knowledge are not fed into any other local engine.
So, my job now is to figure out how to “amplify” them. Which I will probably do by adding a link to the reviews from the testimonial page on the site.
Mihmorandum | 5 Steps for 5 Stars: Reputation Management for Small Businesses | Local SEO | 12-Aug-08 at 6:03 pm | Permalink
[...] And finally, here’s a headsmacker: if your customer has an obvious email address, such as @Gmail,com or @Yahoo.com, ask them to review your business using that particular engine. They won’t have to sign up for a new account and they’ll likely already be comfortable with the review interface (Tim Coleman, Convert Offline). [...]
LAHs | 25-Oct-09 at 5:37 pm | Permalink
Contractors, stay well away from Service Magic, they can damage your business and reputation. Don’t believe me? Sign up and you will understand (and be parted from a load of cash) within a month.
P. Meszaros | 18-Nov-09 at 9:09 am | Permalink
My husband and I hired Jimmy Montgomery from SM. He was professional, courtous, completed the job within the time frame provded and the quality of craftsmanship was seen. I will hire Jim again and recommend him to all we know.
M Blacketor | 09-Mar-10 at 8:57 am | Permalink
Service Magic does not work well for home improvement contractors. They charge per lead that has not be qualified and the charge too much. I spent over 350.00 with them and not one job. So I cancelled there service and was going to try something new. The called and bribed and begged me to give them another chance. The gave me 10 free leads. What the did not tell me is that after the 10 leads they would start charging my credit card with informing me. When I caught them on this they were unwilling to credit me only give me more free leads. Why would I want more of something that does not work. So do not trust Service Magic