Demand Force and other similar companies

[sodomojo]

So tell me, what exactly does Demand Force do to get so many reviews? I have a dentist that I work with that has like 140 reviews at Demand Force, but only one elsewhere.

I'll be working on helping him with his reviews, but man, its crazy how many reviews DF has.

On a side note, does anybody know what DF charges?

https://plus.google.com/108664046047369256691/


On a side note, the day after I set up their Google + account and confirmed it, Google merged it with their places account.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Back when I was working with Dentists I worked closely with DemandForce and was considered a marketing partner. In fact I'm still at the top of their recommended consultants page: Demandforce | Consulting Firms and they would also personally refer Dentists to me that had problems with Places. (Back in the Places days.)

I've blogged about DF some. Here's one post with some background. DemandForce Responds to Google Places July Update: Dentists – See Google Review Templates you can Use - Google Places Optimization Blog

Anyway it's interesting because DF's core business and what you pay for IMO has nothing to do with reviews. The core service is recall and reactivation. Patient appt reminders and getting overdue patients back in the chair.

In order to do that it ties into the practice management software, auto emails patients about appts or when they are overdue for cleaning or whatever.

So patient reviews again IMO are just a free value-add service - in that you can set it up to also automatically email patients after their visit and ask them for a review.

Last I knew the service was about 300 a month with a guarantee that the service will more than double in recall/reactivation revenue, what you pay for it.

One the BIGGEST reasons DF Dentists rank so high though is not even the reviews.
DF didn't know this for a long time and I had to repeat it over and over to like 3 people before they even got it. But the way DF is set up, for every review DF gives the practice 1 1/2 - 2 citations. So back in the old days when citations still showed on the Place page a Dentist with 100 DF reviews would usually have 150 - 200 DF citations on the Place page. And back then IMO citations counted a lot more than reviews did. So I believe it was all the citations, more than the reviews, that boosted ranking.

With the blended algo I don't think # of citations counts as much and 3rd party reviews no longer show on the Google page.

But it's always the reviews that are in the limelight and that Dentists want when they consider working with DF. I always told Dentists they should not get DF just for the reviews because Google could change the game tomorrow. I advised them to make a good business decision based on the core service: recall/reactivation and if it made sense and would boost revenue, get it for that and think of reviews as icing on the cake. But in spite of that, most would get DF just to boost reviews.

I should mention I've also had demos of all the things the core software does and have a strong background in a variety of Dental technologies. The software is hot and what it does as a core service is worth the money.

But to get it purely for the review aspect, not sure that's wise. Well actually it depends on the market. In some markets like San Fran there is no way in heck you'll rank one page 1 or even page 2 without DF because most of the Dentists in SF have been using DF for years.

So those are a few of my thoughts about DF, but disclaimer, I have not been very involved with them for awhile and things may have changed.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Actually I just checked page 1 San Francisco Dentist - and DF does not appear to carry nearly the weight it used to.

Cynthia K. Brattesani with over 1300 DF reviews always used to be #1 and now she's C. All of the other SF Dentists used to have over 100 and some 300 DF reviews. Now just a couple have 100+ (low hundreds) but a couple have 0 DF reviews and only 1 G review.

So that kinda shows how the algo has changed and in blended # of reviews and citations don't count as much as they used to.

 

[Mauibob]

Linda's response is spot on. Demandforce is much more than a review company. The truth of the matter is that you would not want to use Demandforce to gather reviews unless you purchase the system for all of it's other features. Here's why.

Would you rather have 1300 reviews on Demandforce or would you rather have 100 reviews on Google and 100 reviews on Yelp and 100 reviews on Citysearch and 100 reviews on RateMDs and 100 reviews on Yahoo!, etc.? I think you know the answer. If you get all of your reviews on only one site, like demandforce, you're missing the big picture.

A great example of the value of having your customer review you in multiple places is to do a Google search for "Appliance Repair 33967" Take a look at how many times Posetek Appliance Service shows up on the front page of results. The reason they show up so many times with star ratings is because they're asking their customers to review them on different websites. This is the key to building a stellar reputation on the Internet. Posetek does not rely on any one site for their reputation.

There are two services I would encourage you to consider if you want to make it easy for your customers to write reviews for you.

Customer Lobby
Customer Lobby charges a one time set-up fee of $199 and $99/month for their business service. They also have a 100% money back guarantee if you're not happy with your results.

Customer lobby makes it very easy for you to acquire reviews on their system. Customers don't have to create a username or password in order to leave a review with customer lobby ... similar to demandforce ... making it easy for them to leave a review. The problem is, you run into the same (get all of your reviews on one website) problem.

Best Local Reviews
The second service is Best Local Reviews. They charge a one time set-up fee of $49 and $49/month for their basic service. Not only do they offer a 100% money back guarantee, but they also have a 300% return on your investment guarantee. Like demandforce, if you don't get a minimum of 3 times the value that your spending with them, they will pay for the system until you do.

Best Local Reviews uses a simple technique to determine if your customers are happy with your service. If they are, they're directed to the sites on the Internet where you want them to leave their review. If they're not happy with your service, they're directed to a page that asks for their feedback, which does not show up on the Internet.

Why Use Customer Lobby?
It's easier for customers to leave reviews on Customer Lobby.

Why Best Local Reviews?
The best local reviews system separates happy customers from unhappy customers and sends only happy customers to the Internet to write their review. These reviews show up on many different review websites at half the price with a better guarantee.

Both companies offer great service.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for weighing in Bob and welcome to the forum!

 

[Mauibob]

Thanks Linda. I am looking forward to learning and sharing.

 

[DemandforceCommunityTeam]

Hi there Sodomodo, Linda, and MauiBob,

We noticed that we were a part of the online conversation here at Catalyst Local eMarketing so our team wanted to weigh in with some facts on Demandforce. Like Linda and Mauibob both said, we are more than just a review company. Our product automates your marketing and communication efforts, raises your profile with local consumers, and leverages your most valuable asset - your online reputation.

Our product makes it easy for businesses to build, extend and protect that asset by gathering reviews from customers and posting them online, automatically. Since we sync with our customers workflow software, we can certify that the reviews are from real customers, even when the review is posted anonymously, by matching a review with an actual visit. This ensures factual data is being submitted. Finally, before reviews are posted, the business has an opportunity to respond in writing, or request removal of a review.

When a review has passed through the Demandforce Public review and comment policy filter, it becomes a "Certified Review". That means consumers and businesses alike can rely on those reviews as being sourced from real consumers of our customers' services. We pride ourselves on the integrity of our Certified Reviews, and believe that they add meaningful data to the online dialog.

Hope this helps answer your questions. Have a nice day!

The Demandforce Community Team

 

[Mauibob]

Hi Demandforce Team:

I've heard nothing but great things about your service. My dentist uses demandforce which has allowed me to leave reviews on your system ... and it's wonderful. Here's my question.

Do the reviews customers leave on demandforce show up on any of these niche sites where people go to look for dentists?

HealthGrades
RateMDs
Dentistreviews
AngiesList
Yelp
Doctoroogle
dentist-ratings.net

I know some of these are smaller websites, but they are targeted to dentists and when I did a Google search for "Dentist Review Websites" these are the results that showed up.

Where do demandforce reviews show up on the Internet?
Do all of the reviews show up ... even bad reviews?
Can a dentist who only wants to take advantage of your review service purchase just that service ... and if so, how much does it cost?

Personal Note:
If I were a dentist, I would want all of the other cool features your service offers. It's hard to beat your guarantee and your great reputation.

 

[sodomojo]

Thanks for replying.

The problem is that dentist think thats all they have to do to get reviews and they don't have reviews anywhere else, hurting their Places listings or the likely hood that customer will visit. After all who is going to visit a dentist with no score on Google as opposed to one with a 30/30 score. In my opinion it would at much more value to the customer if the reviews were distributed to different sites across the internet.

 

[Mauibob]

Hi Sodomojo:

In your opinion, which sites other than Googlese do you think a dentist should/must have reviews on?

How many sites in total do you think they should have reviews on?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well as far as overall review strategy I still think Mike's advice in this post is best: Asking for Reviews (Post Google Apocalypse) | Understanding Google Places & Local Search

Realize it's very hard to get Google reviews to stick these days.

And Google seems to be heavily targeting Dentists. Many can't get any new reviews to show up at all. So I don't think it's wise to suggest they put all their effort into getting Google reviews.

That's why I like Mike's advice. Natural diversified strategy over multiple sites.

Hi Demandforce Team:

Where do demandforce reviews show up on the Internet?
Do all of the reviews show up ... even bad reviews?

Bob I'll take a stab at a couple of your Qs. I think I know the answer but if something has changed DF can pop back in and explain.

As far as I know DF reviews only show up on the DF site. But again they are counted by Google as certified reviews and a link shows on the Dentist's G+ L page.

Reviews are sent to the Dentist 1st I believe so he can review them. But I believe there is a process to keep it fair. So if a patient is just a normal unhappy patient with a normal complaint, he can't just screen it out. But if it's slanderous or just plain untrue there is a process where he can try to avoid that review going public.

 

[sodomojo]

Well, it would make sense that they would spread it out. What happens if tomorrow there is no more DF and they have 140 reviews there? Plus it doesn't help that it doesn't contribute to their Google score. Perception is reality. A company with a 30/30 score on Google is percieved as being better than a company with no score, even if they have 140 DF reviews.

I think a mix of some of the higher authority site is ideal, but it is difficult to get.

Yelp
Insider Pages
Dex
YP
Bing
Yahoo
Google
etc.

 

[DemandforceCommunityTeam]

Hello again,

Here is an idea as to where your reviews are showing up on the internet.

• The Demandforce Business Profile Page: All of your Demandforce reviews will always display on your Demandforce Business Profile Page.
• Facebook: Once you add the Reviews application to your Facebook Business page, your latest 10 Certified Reviews will be displayed.
• Your Website: We provide our customers with the necessary HTML codes.
• City Search: We feed all of your reviews to your City Search Page.
• Google Places: When set up correctly, your Google Places Page will have a link to all of your Demandforce reviews.

Oftentimes, sites such as CitySearch will syndicate out their reviews to even more review sites, so it isn't uncommon to notice your Demandforce reviews showing in other places. These extra sites aren't direct relationships with Demandforce, so we can't guarantee them, but they're definitely an added value to your account.

In the meantime, we are constantly working to create new partnerships to sync your great reviews out to even more places on the web, so always be checking back for updates!

Have a nice weekend,
The DF Community & Online Services Teams

 

[Colan Nielsen]

• Google Places: When set up correctly, your Google Places Page will have a link to all of your Demandforce reviews.

Hi Team,

Great info, thanks a bunch. Can you expand on this? How do you link a Places Page to reviews? Do you put it in the business description?

 

[Linda Buquet]

No there is no way for you to link it Colan. Google algo has to match it up.

So the key with DF is be sure NAP is identical on your DF reputation page. Then also in the DF dashboard you can put a link to your G+ L page. Then Google matches it up and puts the 3rd party link on your G+ Local page, just like they do when they add a link to Yahoo, Kudzu or City Search.

FYI for anyone who is not familiar, here is a link to the Dentist in SF that has 1312 DF Reviews, so you can see what a DemandForce Reputation page looks like.

DF is known primarily because of their strong reputation in Dental, but they also work with Chiropractors, Auto and some other industries now too. The key though is compatibility with the front office management system that handles your appointments. Since they are big in Dentistry they interface with most of the common front office systems for example. So you have to be in an industry they support and have a system that they interface with.