"There is nothing at all like seeing an email from TripAdvisor with a new review – you hold your breath waiting for it to load," says Rachel Power, owner of the Waterfalls Cafe & Gallery.
"Inevitably, it is a fast exhale of relief when you see the 4- or 5-star rating. It is a feeling of utter sickness, however, when it's not a great review. As a small business owner – particularly a cafe owner – I know that I can't please everyone."
![Rachel Power, owner of the Waterfalls Cafe & Gallery, gets a feeling of "utter sickness" when she reads a negative review.](/web/20170412172137im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/x/i/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvewwv.png/1491450184448.jpg)
A multitude of sites
With a multitude of sites such as Word of Mouth, ProductReview, Feefo and TripAdvisor, along with social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram, customers have many outlets to express feedback on products and services. So are online review sites good for SMEs?
"The importance of the review site for us is that the message gets out there in the right way," says Power, whose cafe is in Tasmania's Mount Field National Park.
![Hard to find founder Erica Stewart embraces online review sites.](/web/20170412172137im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/f/o/d/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvewwv.png/1491450184448.jpg)
Power, who bought the cafe over four years ago, responds to all reviews. "I feel that if they know we are listening ... perhaps they may be a little nicer, more realistic about their expectations and the readers will certainly take the owner's comments into consideration. We all know everyone goes right to the 1-star comments and reads them first."
Listening and connecting
Erica Stewart, owner of online store Hard to Find, thinks review sites are important to a business such as hers.
"I think as a business we need to listen to and connect with our customers and reviews certainly help us gain insights about our customers that we can then action on. We often check in and see what our customers are saying. Being transparent with customers ultimately increases sales for us because they place more trust in what we do."
She says a couple of her customer support staff monitor Feefo on a daily basis and they make sure to get to every negative review, and as many positive reviews as they can.
![Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari owner Tony Coppins carefully monitors review sites.](/web/20170412172137im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/x/i/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvewwv.png/1491450184448.jpg)
Sydney-based Stewart, whose business is on track to turn over $20 million this calendar year, says: "We thank customers for leaving encouraging comments. Particularly when it's about a popular product ... it helps with curation.
"Sometimes someone may have a negative review and it has no basis. Like perhaps an order went missing, but it was at the post office all along. Occasionally, it might be a review that points out a potential issue with the site that we can rectify. Or there might be a commonality in some of the comments that lead us to explore whether building a feature that would improve that user experience is worth doing."
Embrace the review
Kevin Spiteri, entrepreneur and digital marketing expert, says entrepreneurs should embrace customer reviews.
Spiteri, who is the founder and managing director of Menace Group, says customer review sites or platforms provide two main benefits. "The first being feedback, which allows a business to assess where it's performing or underperforming.
As a small business owner - particularly a cafe owner - I know that I can't please everyone.
Rachel Power
"And secondly, these sites tend to rank well in Google, so there is a search engine optimisation benefit to being present, helping your business to be discovered."
Central Coast-based Spiteri says often businesses make the mistake of only replying to negative feedback and ignore the positive. "Businesses should be forever grateful that an individual has taken the time to provide feedback, be it negative or positive."
Building trust
South Australian small business entrepreneur Tony Coppins monitors TripAdvisor, Facebook and Instagram for what is being said about his Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari.
"Review sites are extremely important in this new age of instant reviews. And I think it comes down to trust or a general appreciation for someone who has been out [on our safari], to review their own personal experience rather than you saying something or paying for an ad.
"I think the world now is more review-driven and especially for us. In just four years, we have 300 plus reviews – 290 of them are excellent. It's a very crucial thing that travellers use now.
"It's an instant feedback for people to get a reference from other people who have been on our ocean safari. I think what it comes back to – trusting the brand."
Coppins, who hopes to achieve a 25 per cent increase in turnover on the last financial year, says any feedback that is negative is something they can improve on. "So to be able to see why someone is not happy is a way for us to improve the experience on the ocean safari. We take it as part of the learning curve."
Power, who also owns the Mountain Cafe & Fuel in Maydena, Tasmania, monitors Facebook and Google as well as TripAdvisor. "We do regular searches with search engines like Social Mention, which is actually a way of monitoring social media to see what people are saying about you."
Power says her targets for the Waterfalls Cafe are visitation-based. "In the four years we've been here, I've had one goal and that is to be the most visited national park. We have almost doubled our numbers in four years.
"I want to reach 300,000 visitors [to Mount Field National Park]Â in the next three years. We're currently at 190,000 visitors."
She says it's "absolutely heartbreaking" when people come back with something negative on a review site. "I don't think anyone who doesn't own a business quite understands the effect that it has on someone who invests so much time and effort into just trying to provide a great experience."
Kevin Spiteri's simple steps for SMEs to monitor and manage reviews:
ALERT: The first action is to set up alerts within the social media channel they are using, which will send them an email or a notification on their mobile device to alert them when a review has been made.
BREATHE: Sounds silly but this is critical for business owners who put their heart and soul into what they do. We know that sometimes people would rather take to social media than confront issues in person. Remove the emotion before you take action. Do not engage in debates, do not "bite" when keyboard warriors make comments and never name or shame an individual.
RESPOND:
Step 1: Develop a list of standard responses to both positive and negative feedback. Most people who leave reviews just want to be acknowledged. A simple copy-and-paste list in a word document or notes will help to begin communications.
Step 2: Engage the team. No one person should be responsible for the process. By getting team members involved, it helps spreads the workload. You may wish to put your team on a cycle or a roster outlining when it's their responsibility to respond to a review or comment.
Step 3: The follow-up. Once a person has made contact with you, escalate to the manager, business owner or the most appropriate person in the business who has the authority to take action. This should be done within 24 hours of a customer's response.
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