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Lessons From the Haley Marketing Reviews Challenge

A couple of months ago, we challenged our team to collect more online reviews. We already had a lot of strong reviews on Google and Facebook, but we wanted to ensure we were keeping our reviews up to date, and we wanted to get reviews for a wider range of services.

So, what did we learn from this process?

1

Asking for reviews does not come naturally to most people. "Hey, could you write a note to tell me how awesome I am?"

Asking for a review or testimonial can feel quite awkward. People may think they are imposing on others or being egotistical. One of the first lessons we learned is that people need help knowing who to contact, how to reach out, and how to tactfully ask for feedback.

What worked for us? Providing a short template that our team could use for their outreach. Here's the script one of our Project Managers wrote (and yes, we were really this direct about our reason for asking!):

Hi Client,

I hope things are going well with your new website!

We are having an internal contest here at Haley Marketing Group to gather testimonials.

When you have a moment, would you please write a brief testimonial about your experience working with Haley Marketing Group? It would take you about 1 minute.

Please just click here https://haleymarketing.reviewability.com/f.FT

Thank you so much!

2

Even people who love you may not respond. "Um, did you get my message about leaving us a review???"

Asking for a review is hard. Asking a second time is even harder. But clients (and candidates) are busy. They may absolutely love you, but still not respond. Some people may miss your initial outreach. Others may struggle to find the right words. And some will put the request to the side to "get to it later."

To maximize your response, you need to follow up. Personally, I found that a quick "did you see my email?" was very effective. So was asking people during phone calls. If you're concerned about people being busy, offer to help. Ask your clients if it would be easier if you wrote an outline of a message they could edit.

3

It's easier for some people to get reviews than others. "So tell me, how many reviews have you collected so far?"

In our office, some people collected lots of testimonials, reviews and even had our clients creating testimonial videos. And others? Nothing.

So, what was the difference?

Truly, I am not 100% sure. We have new people on our team who generated a surprising amount of responses. And others, despite their attempts, had little or no response.

In some instances this was an issue of relationships - who has them and how strong those relationships are. For others it was simply having the willingness to ask. And more often than I would have expected, it was luck of the draw - some clients were just more responsive than others - and you can never guess who will and who will not respond.

4

Getting feedback isn't hard.
But getting a review is. "Hey, thank you. But could you finish what you started
... pretty please???"

No real surprise here. It's relatively easy for clients and candidates to get an email from you, hit reply and share a few kind words.

But leaving a review on Google or Facebook requires more work... and that's why people don't do it.

To maximize online reviews:

  1. Use software to collect the reviews. Our Reputation Management software made it easy to drive people to the website where we wanted them to leave a review.
  2. Follow up. A personal touch goes a long way. If you get a testimonial but not a review, simply call or email your client to say thank you and ask them again to share the review online. Then follow up with a link to the site where you want the review left.
  3. Make it super easy to share feedback online. When you follow up, include the feedback your client had shared. Remind them that it only takes a few seconds to copy and paste online what they already wrote.
  4. Follow up again. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. A little guilt doesn't hurt either! ;)
5

Each client can have multiple relationships within your company. "Um, I just left a review for Fred. Do you need one too?"

Our clients can work with a single person, an individual team or several teams depending on the client and services they need. Because of this, it's all too easy to ask for a review and unknowingly irritate a great client because your request was the third they received that day.

At Haley Marketing, our team made sure to track who was reaching out to each client in order to minimize the risk of an overlap. Our Reputation Management software made this super easy by preventing duplicate requests from being sent to the same client.

Asking for reviews (and other feedback) is a critical part of the service delivery process. Ensure your review process is flawless by using a central tool to track review requests—and keep that software up to date.

6

Clients are awesome! "Wow! Thank you so much!!"

While we certainly were not surprised that our clients had nice things to say (our reputation management software conducts a Net Promoter survey before we ask for a review), we were thrilled with the power of the reviews.

In 60 days, we collected nearly 100 testimonials and online reviews, and we just want to say a big THANK YOU to all our clients. Your kind words exceeded our wildest expectations, and we truly appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you!

Now that we collected all these reviews, what do we do with them?

The good news is there is nothing we have to do. We added a ton of new reviews on Google, which provided a huge boost to SEO and our online reputation. We also added a lot of reviews on Facebook, so wherever clients and prospects find Haley Marketing, they'll see the positive words from other staffing companies about many of our services and our Success Team.

But why just wait for people to find the reviews?

To start, we'll update our website with all the new reviews (using our testimonial manager plugin to categorize and organize them) and add them to our sales collateral.

As our Social Pro clients know, reviews make great social content. So, in addition to using a few of the reviews in this blog post, we will also be converting the reviews to social graphics and videos and use them in our own social sharing on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

2019 Reviews Challenge Examples
(thanks again to all our clients for responding!)

Everyone at Haley Marketing Group that I have had the pleasure dealing with has been nothing but helpful and accommodating to the needs of our company. Our new website design process was quick and easy and communication was open throughout the entire process. We are pleased with our updated, refreshed website!

Anodyne Corporation

Very knowledgeable, thorough and helpful. Answered all of our questions and helped us best understand how to get the best return on our partnership with Haley.

Kristi Gage

Professional folks who know their stuff. Highly recommend.

Berton Pinkham

Wonderful experience! Excellent with communications which has been a downfall with other companies we've worked with. Wonderful selection of products and services. Looking forward to our new project together.

Mary Keil-Welsh

"EXCEPTIONAL" describes Haley Marketing Group. Every experience exceeds expectations. It's their people that make the difference... Haley Marketing is truly a trusted partner.

Andrew Stein

Great company to work with, top notch professional results.

Joe Salvucci

I work with our Haley team to manage email and blog communications. They've provided well written and creative content to share with our clients and candidates. The team is positive, friendly, and helpful. We've had a great experience with our Haley team so far and look forward to the future.

Lauren Hunter-Parrish

Wonderful group of people with good follow through and a great set of tools to help you in the staffing industry.

FirstOption WorkForce Solutions

Our experience working with Haley Marketing Group has been awesome. They are attentive and listen to what we are trying to accomplish. We have been pleased the entire time we have been with them!

Rachelle Winter

Haley is great to work with. They provide relevant content for our website that has helped us significantly and organically grow our presence in searches.

John Bohannon

Phenomenal experience. Everyone is friendly, client focused, professional and quick to respond. Haley Marketing has a knowledgeable staff who were able to deliver for us. We are very happy with the results. I highly recommend considering their services.

David Conners

Haley Marketing has been great to work with. Quality work, great support and service, and always looking to add value.

Mike Dunagan

I highly recommend Haley Marketing for your staffing marketing efforts. They are well organized and their service is impeccable.

Wendy Benning Swanson

Haley Marketing is our marketing department. They help us find candidates and clients through multiple marketing channels. Haley has been a partner that we depend on for years.

Nat Carmack

Haley Marketing truly understands the needs of their staffing industry clients! They provide a vast array of insightful solutions to help with wonderful staff that care about their clients.

Sara Pierson

Easy to work with, very knowledgeable of the industry and always attentive to our questions and concerns.

Mark N Natasha Smith

Haley is responsive to our needs and helps us create great content for social media!

Chris Cummings

I have been working with HMG for a few years now and the service provided is always customized to our changing needs. The strategies are well thought out with timely delivery and easily adjusted when needed.

Anne Guyotte