Quick Win + Pro Tip: Google Your Company + Reviews

Jordan initially didn’t understand why I was telling him to look at his company’s reviews. After all, he had extremely positive, long-term relationships with most of his clients. I told him it would only take a minute, so he pulled up his Google listing. Low and behold, among the 10 reviews he had, one was for two stars.

“I’d never engage with this company again. Constantly micromanaging and they didn’t even pay me on time!”

Jordan recognized the name – disgruntled audio tech who had worked with them on exactly one show.

“That’s not even a client!” he rubbed his eyes. “And he’s only telling half the story. He was constantly on his phone, so we told him it had to be out of sight the entire day. After the show, he sent his invoice but didn’t give us his bank transfer details, so we had no way of paying him and he didn’t respond to anything until the invoice was past due.”

“Aren’t you glad you googled your reviews?” I asked Jordan, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

“Not really. It’s not like I can do anything about it.”

That’s where Jordan was wrong. Sites with ratings, like Google, GlassDoor, Yelp, and BBB understand that malicious and fictitious reviews do happen, which is why they have an appeal process. In the meantime, he could respond to the comment and tell the story from his side so people understood what really happened. Not to mention, he could ask other clients and freelancers to rate his company to counteract the low star rating.

Unfortunately, bad reviews, often unearned bad reviews, are inevitable. I say this, not to scare you, but to show you that knowledge is power. There are plenty of ways to fix or at least lessen the impact of negative reviews, but you can’t do damage control if you aren’t aware of the damage in the first place.

In Jordan’s case, he wasn’t able to get the review removed, but he reached out to clients and was able to get enough 5-star reviews that the impact to his average was minimal.

He also realized how many live event clients and contacts he’d never received reviews from because he never asked.

I often hear clients say that it’s awkward to ask for reviews, but if you have a script in place and make it part of your post-show process, it gets much easier.

Below is a template for a review request you might send after an event to encourage your customers to leave a positive rating and reviews.

Hi [NAME],

Thanks again for partnering with [YOUR COMPANY NAME]. We really enjoyed producing your event on [DATE] at [VENUE].

If you had as good a time working together as we did, we’d love for you to take a minute to leave us a rating and review on one or all of the following platforms:

- Google [INSERT LINK]
- Yelp [INSERT LINK]
- BBB [INSERT LINK]
- Facebook [INSERT LINK]

If there’s anything else we can help you with in the future, please reach out. We’re ready to talk about planning your next event any time.

Thanks,
[NAME]

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