Customer Reviewer Profiles (email match)

[askfortransparency]

Hey Local Search Forum,

This question was approved by Joy, who recommended I ask it here.

I have a question for those of you who work in the local business space.

Question: From 0-10, how valuable would it be, to know a customer's reviewer profile data (Google, Yelp ect) as soon as their email address was entered into your CRM.

Let's say, for example, a customer entered their name/email address to get a quote for something.
From their email address, now you have their reviewer profiles (40% match)

Now, before you go to their home or even work with them you have the following data:
- Active or Not

- Writes mostly:
positive reviews
negative reviews
mixed

Then, a tag can be placed within the CRM.
(GAP) - Google Active Positive, or (YAN) - Yelp Active Negative

Why I think it's kind of cool:
- You get to be warned in advance if a customer writes mostly negative reviews (potential red light?) and you can tread a bit more carefully, or pass on their work.
- You get to know if a consumer regularly writes reviews and can make sure to give them a great experience they can share online.

Why I think it's kind of - mehhh
- You should treat all customers the same

If you have any thoughts, pros/cons - etc please feel free to chime in!

Thanks for listening.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@askfortransparency:
I'd give it an 8 out of 10. At the very least, you want more info rather than less. Whether you end up doing anything with that info depends on a few things.

It's not useful information if your organization is large, or if it's a small business that's as disorganized as a larger one. Then there's no follow-up to a discovery like, "OK, it looks this guy writes a whiny Yelp review if he waits longer than 5 minutes, so be sure not to keep him waiting." If nobody can see to that, then that knowledge doesn't help anyone much. You'll need to be nimble enough to change your flight plan based on what your reviewer radar reads.

Every customer should be treated well and fairly, but there's nothing wrong with treating extra-great customers extra great. I wouldn't want my dentist of 15+ years to bump my regular cleaning so he can do the same cleaning for a first-time patient (one who hasn't paid thousands of dollars, referred anyone else to him, or reviewed him). All of my clients can and do expect great work and personal commitment, but my long-time clients have come to count on something that's on a different plane. Treating everyone the same can be a big step down for some. Loyalty needs to factor in, because it should be a two-way street. Loyal customers can go from 5-star material to writing a 2-star review if they feel taken for granted, handed off, treated like a number, etc.

Sometimes perfectly reasonable people and good customers are just bad judges of businesses, and end up with a bad experience that another person might have smelled from miles away. So maybe they shouldn't have picked a certain business, but their gripes are still legitimate. Those people often have good reviews in them somewhere. Getting a good review from that kind of person can be persuasive to other would-be customers, especially if they check out the reviewer's other reviews. For you, the business owner who needs to scrounge more good reviews, the question is simply whether the customer's complaints seem legit on their face. Which is why you want "review history" info on potential customers/reviewers, if you can get it and if you can act on it.

Meanwhile, it's usually no big deal if you get a bad review from someone who never writes good reviews and whose complaints don't seem reasonable to the typical reader. If anything, that can make you look good.

People have different definitions and standards of a great experience. So in learning a little bit about your potential reviewers, you're not trying to decide who gets a bad vs. OK vs. great experience. Rather, you're trying to figure out what person A likes and doesn't like, what person B likes and doesn't like, and so on, and try to make your service check a few more of each person's boxes than if you had no idea who cared about what. You're not rationing customer-service, but rather tailoring it. That requires a measuring tape.

 

[gkraeger]

Depending on the cost I think my clients would find this information useful. Being able to tie reviews to customer email would be helpful.

 

[Joey Abna]

7 out of 10. I think I would use it more for review outreach after the service vs making assumptions before providing the product or service. If the sales funnel has a longer time frame I might use it before the sale.

 

[Tony Wang]

I agree with the others that it would be helpful. Whether it's worthwhile to get this data is another matter, in addition to whether the business is able to use it effectively, as Phil mentioned.

If the business needs to scrape and claw every advantage it can get, may be worth the time it takes. Is there enough demand for someone to build a tool that's affordable enough? Maybe not.

 

[Annika Neudecker]

Speaking from an enterprise perspective, I wouldn't find something like this useful. I don't see how we could action on these kinds of insights in a meaningful way that wouldn't also be unethical. Maybe we could filter bad reviewers out of the pool of people we send review request emails to and send extra ones to the regular good reviewers, but I'd find that pretty shady. At the store level, we don't want our employees treating customers differently because of their review history. We want them to offer review materials to everyone that makes a purchase. This definitely seems like something better suited for smaller businesses, where the person checking the tool would also have direct contact with customers.