Positive Reviews Have Massive Impact

Hi, my name is Mike Smith and I’m a negative reviewer… but I know I need to change.

I’m not a restaurant snob, I swear…

A few years ago, my wife took me to killer steakhouse near our house. It had become a yearly tradition that we were so looking forward to. As usual, we made the reservations a month in advance and requested a nice table. We’ve always loved coming here because the atmosphere inside the restaurant feels like you’re in the move “A Christmas Carol.”

Upon arriving, we were asked to wait 30 minutes and ended up being sat in wicker chairs in a temporary astro turf-floored tent that the restaurant had constructed to accommodate the high demand. When we asked what happened to our “nice table” request, we were told that we would have to wait another 30 minutes if we wanted anything inside the restaurant… #smh

So guess what I did? I posted an honest but bad review on a popular review site and I also sent an email to the GM.

Guess what happened? …Nothing.

The restaurant never sent me any type of note or response and 2 years later, they still have the crappy tent outside, with astro turf and wicker furniture. Many people have also told me that they too, think this place is going down hill. #disappointed

Are you like me?

Until that experience, my old habit was that I rarely posted reviews on websites but when I did, it was because I had a really bad experience somewhere. I posted reviews to get atonement. After some contemplation, and after going through the experience of building our own review site , I think that my strategy was flawed.

The lesson I learned: In general, companies with crappy service or bad management aren’t going to miraculously “see the light” and have a “change of heart” after some bad reviews. Even if there are a bunch, the reviews aren’t going to spur anyone to do anything.

No duh…

We all actually already know this, right? How many people change because someone told them to? In management (and parenting), I’ve been trained (and believe), that the most effective way to mold behavior is:

1. Modeling the exact behavior you want the other person to do.
2. Give continual positive feedback on the things the person is doing well (i.e. “Catch ’em doing good”). This makes people naturally want to repeat those good behaviors.
3. Help them subtly understand the negative affects the bad behavior is having on them and then, help them self-discover strategies to change it. The second you see them make an attempt to change, immediately apply heavy doses of step 2.

My wife, a Speech Pathologist has been trained extensively in this technique. In her field, it’s part of what’s called “Behavioral Modification,” or “Applied Behavior Analysis.” It’s widely known as the most effective way to create change with patients. I think this same human change tactic can also be applied to companies, since they are merely a grouping of people… and I think review sites are a perfect way to apply it.

I’m not saying we should stop leaving negative reviews. I think negative reviews are necessary but I just don’t think they are the kingpin to change. We should absolutely document bad experiences so that other potential clients/customers can “know before they go” but let’s stop expecting the perpetrators to change anything.

I do think, however, that people like myself should leave more positive reviews (than negative), because frequent positive reinforcement IS the kingpin to instigating change.

Strategy in Action

Here is why. If we take the time to post frequent positive reviews on great companies, those companies end up with hundreds of positive reviews and they will go right to the top of a review site. This will obviously create a snowball sales effect and even better, these companies will do MORE of the good behaviors, that we’ve reinforced. We’ll get even more of what we want!

In addition, companies getting low ratings will start getting hurt in the pocket book, (which will get their attention in a way they can feel). ONLY THEN, will these poorly performing companies research and self-discover how they can improve their reviews… At that point, it will be “their idea,” which is the only way they will ever truly change.

Not only will some of the poor companies change… but they will try to model the good behaving companies. And when they do, they will get immediate positive feedback, which will motivate them to repeat these good behaviors even more.

So what do we do?

So, in a nutshell, when it comes to review sites, I say that writing positive reviews is much more impactful than the opposite. Even though we’re often fuming over a negative experience with a company, if we truly want to improve our future experience with that company and others, we should go out of our way to post positive reviews more than negative reviews.

Otherwise, we’re just whining and moaning into thin air… for nothing.

About the Author
Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards and in 2011, he was honored as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. Follow Mike on LinkedIn, Twitter or SpiceWorks.