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A podcast on construction and economic comedy.
'Nuts and Bolts' is your ultimate guide to navigating and succeeding in the construction industry. We offer critical perspectives on industry trends, marketing, building legislation and more, empowering you to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the curve. As steadfast advocates for women in construction, we're fostering a community that challenges the status quo and champions diversity. Our emphasis on accountability means we not only tackle the industry's challenges but also show you how to transform them into your stepping stones. Join hosts Sue Rogan, a seasoned construction marketer and advocate for women, and Scott Challen, with his robust military and construction background, as they equip you with the knowledge and tools to thrive. With 'Nuts and Bolts', you're not just listening - you're evolving. Let's build the future of construction together.
Welcome to the nuts and bolts podcast.
Speaker 2:On today's episode, I'm here with my good friend, Scotty Challen, and we are discussing everything bad Google reviews and keyboard warriors. We're gonna touch on reputation management, responses to negative reviews, and also how to build a fortified online presence. Let's get stuck in. Nuts and bolts, here we go.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Nuts and Bolts, Where you're deep dive into the evolving trends of the construction world. Your champions for business owners, entrepreneurs, and women making their mark in the industry. Join your hosts, Sue and Scott, as we shape the future of construction one episode at a time.
Speaker 4:Scott Challen from the QHI Group and I'm here with my very good friend Sue Rogan. G'day, Sue.
Speaker 2:G'day, Scotty. How are we?
Speaker 4:I'm excited today. Actually, because this is a topic that I've been really looking forward to this year, and it is our first podcast post Christmas. So apologies to our audience for the delay.
Speaker 2:Yes. We're finally getting our shit together. That's fine.
Speaker 4:It has been a hectic start of the year, hasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yes. Crazy.
Speaker 4:Which kinda leads into this topic today because I think we've all met a keyboard warrior or 2 in our time. Yep. And we certainly see that in our businesses, especially given all the other companies that we deal with, how protecting your online reputation is such an important part of business.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And the problem that we're seeing at the moment is that we're all so connected. We're all connected all the time, 247, and people think that they've got a ride or think that they've got a stance on something, and so they jump on the keyboard no matter what time it is, and then your business takes a hit.
Speaker 4:Yeah. The sad part of that, Sue, is being connected 247. Yep. You disconnect yourself well sometimes.
Speaker 2:I do. Yep. And I've started switching my phone onto do not disturb mode at night, so it's an automatic thing. Now it goes on do not disturb, and I don't receive any notifications at all.
Speaker 4:Because you don't wanna read bad reviews at midnight, do you?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 4:No. So you've written some reviews in your time Mhmm. And you've helped some business with brand management because that's a backbone of what you do in business.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So in your business with Elevate, you work with branding and companies' reputations all the time with regards to how they generate leads and what their presence looks like online. Have you dealt with any that had some significant online negativity that kind of had to help them rectify?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I've got a few cases. One of the ones that comes to the top of my mind straight away is a pet store. A lot of people like to jump on and think that these pets or these puppies just like puppy farms are being farmed, they're not being looked after properly, so that was one that we had to help out. They received a lot of bad reviews, comments.
Speaker 2:You're just a puppy farm. You're this. You're that. You're not taking care of your animals. The animals are stuck in a 1 by one all day long, and they're not being walked and and whatnot.
Speaker 2:That was definitely one
Speaker 4:that comes How important is it to protect your online reputation as a business?
Speaker 2:It's hugely important, hugely, especially, like I said in the intro and at the start, we're in such a connected space at the moment. We still are looking at a lot of word-of-mouth and for our referrals and our business growth and whatnot. So online digitally, it's so important to make sure that you are showing that you are professional and that you have a good online presence, that your brand is reputable, that people wanna deal with you. The other thing we're seeing as well, especially in marketing too, is we're in such a funny climate financially, so people are wanting to make sure that their money is going to a good place, to a good home, that they're spending their money with a good brand or a good business. I know we see a lot of support small business and whatnot.
Speaker 2:So if you're a small business and people are wanting to support you and you don't have a good track record, digitally speaking, with your reputation, then you're gonna take a bit of a hit, unfortunately.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And so when we think about building a fortified online presence and having a strategic approach as a business,
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:What sort of things can people implement into their businesses to make sure that they are doing their best to garner positive feedback from the community and also to deal with complaints that people might have or issues that they might have with their business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. So one of the best ways, I mean, I'm gonna preach this all the way through today is your Google reviews.
Speaker 4:Preach. You preach, girl.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Definitely your Google reviews and Facebook reviews as well, That's what's gonna help you rank well on Google and get you on that first page. So Google reviews is super important and trying to push for them as well. And the other thing I see a lot of is businesses not wanting to ask people for reviews.
Speaker 4:Sure. They don't want the feedback.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. So they get a little bit nervous. I don't know how to ask. I'm a little bit nervous to ask for reviews.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like a two way street where we need to be making sure that we're supporting or providing if it is a bad experience, providing professional feedback or constructive feedback rather than this place is trash. Hey. Listen. The eggs went to my liking if it's a cafe scenario.
Speaker 4:Sure.
Speaker 2:That kind of thing. And as long as it's honest. And then the other thing is that the business owner then comes back and says, I'm so sorry that you had this experience, replies back, and then can also offer some sort of if you would like to come back, we would like to try and to win you back. Please come back, and we'll give you a 20% off, or thank you for your feedback. We'll take this on board, and we'll make sure it's better next time for you.
Speaker 4:So you got poor, stressed out business owner. He's been up till midnight Yeah. Doing his book work, working in the shop all day, and he's, not spent much time with his kids, and he hasn't eaten properly. And then he rolls into his emails just before he falls asleep, and he sees a one star review on Google.
Speaker 2:Because someone ordered sunny side up, and they got
Speaker 4:And and the ads were just a little bit too runny for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Or the steak was wrong or
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or whatnot.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Or if you're a construction and trade business, you had a Tyler on-site today, and he left a cigarette butt in the garden.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Right?
Speaker 4:People take stuff like that really, really seriously.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And especially if you're in a position where your brand that's charging more than the norm, if that's part of your branding that, hey, we charge a little bit more, but we are professional and whatnot, and then there are some
Speaker 4:Well, imagine what the what the cheap guys would have done.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly. You know, so and then there's cigarette butts left, then they're going, well, hang on a second. Hang on a second. We say we spend a little bit more to make sure we got the job done right, and you haven't done that.
Speaker 2:So then they provide that feedback. The worst part is is when they provide the feedback straight away on Google without speaking to the company or the business first. Yeah. So But
Speaker 4:that can be a tactic as well whereby it's just the customer. The customer is probably gonna take the review down. They just wanna be squeaky enough that they Yeah. That that wheel gets the oil Yeah. Quite really quickly because people wanna be validated quickly for their feelings, especially if they're upset.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's a really good segue. Let's also chat about the different levels of reviews and how far people take that. I don't know. You've had good experience.
Speaker 4:So you're a one star, you're a you're an asshole. 2 stars, you're a semi asshole. 3 stars, you're not quite an asshole.
Speaker 2:But sometimes people take it a little bit too far in the fact that they don't stop at Google reviews.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So it becomes and there's cases where I've seen where it's then become a harassment case where they have left a review and then tracked that person down and then, contacted them personally, private messaged them, found where they lived, and done all of that. So there's different levels of reviews and reputation management, and sometimes, unfortunately, people take it too far. Yeah. Yeah. So we can also have a bit of a chat about the options that you have a little bit later.
Speaker 4:It's a dangerous world in that regards where we have so many touch points as a business. I mean, even look at this podcast. We have an Instagram page. We have a TikTok account. We have a Facebook profile.
Speaker 4:And so if you wanted to say something negative about us, you could say something negative across multiple platforms. We don't encourage you to do that, by the way. If you're listening right now, we actually prefer that you give us a 5 star and a thumbs up and say, hey, how much you enjoy the podcast. But if you did decide to do something like that, then there are multiple ways to do that.
Speaker 3:You're listening to Nuts and Bolts podcast with Sue Rogen and Scott Challen.
Speaker 2:Hi, guys. Sue Rogen from Elevate Construction Marketing. We are your digital marketing experts. Elevate Construction Marketing specializes in construction trades and property. We offer digital marketing, social media marketing, videography, photography, and anything that we can get our hands on to help support the construction and building industry.
Speaker 2:I'm super passionate about this. Having a digital marketing person that, specializes in construction means that I understand what's going on in the industry. I've got credibility, and I also understand the advertising requirements. When it comes to the building and construction industry, there are specific advertising requirements that the QVC set out that you need to adhere to, and I will be able to guide you through that. So Sue Rogan, Elevator Construction Marketing, your digital marketing specialist in construction trades and property.
Speaker 4:If you're gonna put yourself out there in the world, especially on platforms like this or even in your business, and it's great as a small business to be nimble enough to be able to market yourself and your personality and what you do well, but you've got to expect that Australians are real tall poppy people where we will chop you down so hard if you stick your head above the pack.
Speaker 2:Speaking of
Speaker 4:natural world kind of attack.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's crazy. I don't know why Australians are like that.
Speaker 4:It's a cultural thing for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Tall poppies is insane. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yep. I think it's because inherently, we don't like narcissism. Mhmm. So we see people that try to stand up above the pack and and be successful and fly high as potentially having narcissistic tendencies. So maybe that's what it's got something to do with that.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But leaving a negative review can also be an indication of being a narcissist as well to some degree. I think there's elements of that that may well fit together.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then also so I guess you would talk about how to respond to negative reviews. So it's
Speaker 4:So don't do what your initial feeling is. Never write the response and hit the send button.
Speaker 2:It's hard not to take it to heart, to your pride and your joy. It's hard not to let that ego chime in. I know how difficult it is. I've had these conversations with clients where they're like, I can't believe you said this. I'm gonna go back and say that.
Speaker 2:I was like, no. Wait a second. Just wait. Yeah. And he's like, nah.
Speaker 4:You're alright.
Speaker 2:You know, he can't say that. That's not true. He's making it out. I didn't do that. And it's like, well, hang on a second.
Speaker 2:Because what you put online is then it's pretty permanent and less efficient.
Speaker 4:People generally have one of 2 responses. It's either fight or flight. Right? That that's what we are as humans. And so it's very, very difficult and takes an element of personal development and training to balance yourself to go, okay.
Speaker 4:I don't need to react either with fight or flight, but stand back and rationally think about this, and what's the right strategic move to make to deal with this situation. Yeah. And so if you're a business owner and you see a negative review come through, and you wanna bash out a reply, write that reply, and and then you put it in your drafts box.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And you wait, and you let the wife or the husband read it, or someone in your office before you hit or the marketing person before you hit that send button. Right? Yeah. How often do you get someone to check the stuff that you've written?
Speaker 2:Not very often, to be honest.
Speaker 4:You're such a calm person, sweetie.
Speaker 2:I am. I am. But I've had it in cases where I'm trying to calm the client down, Especially, like, this particular trades, like, my arborist, you know, like, the arborist and
Speaker 4:the training tree doctor.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So they're just, like, big angry men with chainsaws. I'm, like, hang on a second. We've got, like, chainsaw massacre coming in here. Like, wait.
Speaker 2:Hold up. Don't do too much damage. So not to pick on the arborists. Sorry if you're a tree lopper out there. But, yeah, those types of things where I'm like, well, hang on a second.
Speaker 2:Let's calm down, and let's have a think about this, and what's the actual case. And
Speaker 4:In a society where we value mental health so much and talk a lot about it, this is actually something that could trigger people into a negative mental health spiral too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. 100%.
Speaker 4:If you're stressed about your work and you're stressed about the feedback that you're receiving, if you don't know how to manage it properly, that could be pretty negative.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And especially with everything that's happening in the economy with finances and whatnot.
Speaker 4:In the economy, sir. Everything's roses. Come on. The government keeps telling you every day. It's all fine.
Speaker 4:Nothing to see here. Just jog on. It's all good. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But if that one job was the one that got you through and that's getting you food on the table and a roof over your head, and then someone comes back and says you didn't do great, and it may means that you've gotta now outlay more costs and more staff, then that could just tip you over the edge. So
Speaker 4:Yeah. I know a lot of businesses, though, that will bend over backwards to the point of dumping lots of money to make sure that that customer's happy because and, look, I understand it because I you know, themself as well if I was in that boat. Unfortunately, we don't have too many things that go wrong to that kind of abuse, but I've seen people spend a lot of money to protect themselves, and to make sure that that customer is satisfied almost to the point where the customer then takes a position of power over that person and has them coming back 5 or 6 times to do extra. Yeah. I've seen that happen in the trades before as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And this is the other thing we talk about in small business is making sure that you're backing yourself as in you've got your policies and procedures and terms and contracts set, but then also that you're recording everything. So, for example, in a case that I had was a disgruntled ex I know you're laughing at me. A disgruntled ex client.
Speaker 4:Ex client.
Speaker 2:Ex client. Yeah. Who, Did
Speaker 4:you sack him? No. You sacked himself.
Speaker 2:We didn't say eye to eye.
Speaker 4:So at your height, you don't see eye to eye with anybody, but go on.
Speaker 2:I'll take him anyway. You watch, you know, angry little midget over here.
Speaker 4:Bite you in the belly button.
Speaker 2:5 foot nothing. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I've seen you kick, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then came at me with I didn't do x y z. I didn't fulfill my side of the contract. I didn't do this. So I sent him absolutely everything that I did because I make sure I record everything that I do, all my statistics, everything that I'm doing for my clients.
Speaker 2:And then his position was, well, all your TikToks are about me. So What? Yeah. I know. Imagine dancing to premature ejaculation.
Speaker 2:Okay, mate. You wanna take that one too?
Speaker 4:Sue Sue, is that often a common topic for you?
Speaker 2:So in in that regards, I'm gonna get my solicitor onto you, this and that. I'm like, okay, well, stay calm. I phoned my solicitor just to check, 99.9% sure I was in the right If
Speaker 4:you aren't getting with legal action every week, are you really in business?
Speaker 2:I know. And then she said, no. You're good. You're square. Let them talk to you.
Speaker 2:Just tell them, send your solicitor my way. I didn't hear anything more about it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And we need to remember as well that when people make threats, and like I said before, that fight or flight reaction, is that your instant reaction for me and for you probably is to be defensive. And so you go, oh, well, I need to posture up, and I need to be ready to react. It's often the case, especially when people start saying a triple c or the peak builders licensing body in whatever state it is or something like that. Solicitors, when well, they start talking about lawyers Yeah. That really what they're saying to you is, look, I just want you to listen to me and and respond Yep.
Speaker 4:In kind that you understand my concerns and validate that, and then look for a compromise out of this.
Speaker 2:And that's where it's important to come back with, thank you for letting us know your feedback. We really appreciate it. We'll take it on board. If you'd you know, if it'd like, again, I'll just use the cafe scenario. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you'd like come back, we'll give you a 20% off your next meal, and we hope to keep you as a regular You
Speaker 4:mentioned a really good one before where the business creatively had turned that negative feedback around into something that they threw out as advertising.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah. There was a cafe scenario. I don't know why I'm on the cafe trend today, but just go with me, guys, where the cafe had received a bad review and then put a sign out the front, and it said, come and try the worst coffee ever according to one of our Google reviews, you know, so you can have a bit of a play with it. So, you know, they've gone, okay, well, you know, they got a bad review.
Speaker 2:They're like, okay. Let's put a sign out, and that's brilliant. I love that.
Speaker 4:I think that's fantastic. The best way to use it. That's cool. Embrace it and then leverage it back around. Yeah.
Speaker 4:From personal experience, the first time that my building company got a negative one star Google review was from a client. That lady took particular disliking to me. It was something about me that she just wasn't comfortable with, and I'm not sure what it was because I've had thousands and thousands of clients over the years, and I certainly don't recall anyone being so offended by me. But she took such a dislike to me that every year, she goes back on and she refreshes her one star review just to make sure that we remember how much that she hated me. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I haven't taken that review, like, tried to get it down taken down. It's not in all honesty, there were great lessons from that project. Yeah. And what I did was I wrote a really what I thought was a great reply.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 4:I wrote it three times, actually, because the first time I wrote it, my wife said, not a chance, mate. You put that away and hit the delete button right now. I rewrote it a second time. Yeah. And then she said, no.
Speaker 4:We need to re edit this again and took 3 attempts to get the response right. Posted it. She never responded to the reply. But over the following years and up until this day now, I still get customers that come to me and go, I'm contacting you because of the way you responded Yeah. To that one star review.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And the fact that you rationally pointed out what you had done and gone above and beyond for and worked with her with regards to her, the things that she was concerned about Yeah. Made you look like someone that we would be able to deal with. Because building projects aren't easy. And if someone gets upset, you want to have the ability to compromise and to find a solution for that customer and validate their feelings because they are concerned and they are worried.
Speaker 4:And if you can show that, which is what we did in the reply, that actually turned into 1,000,000 of dollars worth of work.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, that's it. Hey. Everyone knows we've got keyboard warriors out there. Everyone knows that people are Are you
Speaker 4:a keyboard warrior?
Speaker 2:I'm not. No. But you know what? If being in marketing, I think about it all the time. I will be out for dinner and then be like, I might give these guys a review.
Speaker 2:It's not like I'm critiquing them, but it's in the back of my mind to go, okay. They did a really good job. So I'm just gonna make sure I spend 2 seconds and jump on and Yep. Give them a good review. It just helps.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Well, there's a there's a platform called Product Review. Are you familiar with them? Really, really big platform. They have a 1000000 users in Australia.
Speaker 4:Yep. And I got a notification that our one of our business names are being mentioned on that platform and jumped on there and found that someone had written a one star review about one of the businesses because they didn't like the way the person answered the phone. Mhmm. They didn't purchase anything. There was no transaction involved.
Speaker 4:They just didn't like that person's attitude, and they felt the need to write a one star review on this product review platform. I contacted product review and said, look, there's no transaction. There's nothing that's happened here. What should we do about this? And they went, look, if you pay the 5,000 dollars fee to register as a business, we'll let you respond to
Speaker 2:that. Okay.
Speaker 4:And I went, yeah, I'm not giving you guys $5. And they were using our business logo on there as well, and they're generating advertising around that logo. And I said to them, You're using our logo without our permission, It's copyrighted, trademarked. Yeah. And you're not allowing me to respond to this customer on your platform, and then you're extorting me for $5,000 to be able to respond.
Speaker 4:Yep. I said, you better pull my logo down or you'll be hearing from my lawyers in the next week. Yep. Anyway, the logo came down, and the one star review is still there to this day because that lady was not happy with the way someone answered the phone for her.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And there's so many different ways that you can leave reviews. If you're in real estate, you've got Google, you've got Facebook, then there's realestate.com that they can leave reviews.
Speaker 4:Rate my agent.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Rate my agent.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I feel sorry for the real estate guys. I feel sorry for builders too. Obviously, I'm in the building industry, so I'll see it, and you're in construction all. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So if you do something bad, there's a pretty good chance you could end up on a current affair.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4:The ultimate one star review, Tracy Grimshaw gutting you on on channel 9 at nighttime. Yay.
Speaker 2:And then we're filming everything all the time. Everyone's, like, so committed. This is what I said before. And how many things have I sent you where a crane's on fire and falling down?
Speaker 4:Or Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, or the one where we saw the wall collapse. So that's the thing, we're we're seeing this all the time. People are always on their phones
Speaker 4:And it's a really cheap, easy beat up too. Current Affair loves to beat up on a building company and unlicensed subcontractors out stealing from poor grannies.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Like, they love that stuff. That's just like, oh, yeah. We need some more red meat tonight. What do we got? Oh, we got a builder over here that ripped off an old lady for $10.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Run that. Alright. That's how they literally operate and think about it.
Speaker 2:Clickbait. Clickbait.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. Clickbait. And then there's a pile on. I remember there was a company last year that went under.
Speaker 4:It was a reasonably large shed company, and saw the story on a current affair and thought, I'll just jump online and check out what's being said about them. And, like, their Google reviews were almost in a negative rate. They were just once something went bad publicly Yeah. Everybody piled on. It's it's suddenly, it was all there.
Speaker 4:So you really wanna make sure that you are never that company and in that seat to be able to receive that kind of pressure and hate. Yeah. You never rebuild your reputation from that?
Speaker 2:No. And I've seen businesses that have had bad reputations just closed down their Google My Business and open up a new one.
Speaker 4:100%.
Speaker 2:Just close it down. I'm gonna have a new one. Close it down. Open up a new one. So
Speaker 4:We mentioned Metricon last year. Right? When Metricon were canceling all those building contracts and just refunding money to people or paying them $6 to cancel the contract. I remember jumping online and looking at Metricon's reviews then, and they were, like, at a 1.6 or something. It was just despicable.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But then I jumped on recently, they're back up to 4, so I'm not sure if they got everyone to take them down or they just phoenixed into a new Google profile. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, that's it. Hey.
Speaker 4:Same company. Yeah. New reviews.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then what did that do for the building industry too? Like, so many builders I know got tarnished with that same brush. You know?
Speaker 4:We still do. And we see that, like, in comment. If you see someone, and I've been playing around with TikTok lately, Sue. Yes. Playing around with TikTok.
Speaker 4:And if I'm looking at
Speaker 2:Welcome to a different world.
Speaker 4:You dragged me into the dark side. And I must admit, it's like a vortex, and I feel like a supernova that's just being sucked into a black hole right now, mate. If you jump in there and you're looking at anything construction related, you read the comments and you just see that people hate the building industry. They really don't trust builders, and they don't trust what's happened or they see happening out there. I guess cafes, they trade as they are.
Speaker 4:But if you're a Zarafas franchise or something like that and you have a store over at Gold Coast that's doing really bad coffee, you will get tarnished with that, don't you? So if you're part of that brand, that that's a bigger thing.
Speaker 3:This is nuts and bolts with Sue and Scott.
Speaker 4:Scott Chellen from QHI National. If you've been walking outside your front door and thinking that you need a new carport, walking out the back door thinking you need a new deck or a patio, we are your company to call QHI National based in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and a whole bunch of regionals in between. You can contact us. We will do you a fantastic proposal to improve your outdoor lifestyle. It's not too late.
Speaker 4:Save money now. Get in touch with us. So when you're working with a brand or with a company to look at their online reputation, what sort of tools are you using that can help you drill into what people see about them online?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Definitely. There's a lot of tools that you can use. Obviously, you've got Google My Business, GA 4 to look at your reputation and whatnot, read reviews, respond, and whatever. But the tool I mostly recommend and use is a platform called Semrush.
Speaker 2:So it's s e m rush, Semrush. And it's also a really good competitor analysis tool as well. So it can show you it gives you a helicopter view or an overview of your business, where it sits, and it gives you all your traffic and data analytics in there as well. So both paid and organic. It'll also show you where you've been mentioned on other platforms.
Speaker 2:So it'll bring up not only your URL links, which is your website link, on other platforms, but also shows mentions, names, and everything. So, it's a big tool that I use a lot. I have a paid subscription, but there is a free version that you can jump on and just have a bit of a play, and you can also do other things like keyword research
Speaker 4:and
Speaker 2:whatnot too. But Semrush is a really important tool. It's super easy user friendly, and you can go on and do your own analysis and also competitor analysis to see And see
Speaker 4:how you compared other people. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Exactly right. And see where you are, and it it'll actually give you a graph. So for me, I guess I'm more of a visual person. I like to look at pretty pictures, and it'll give you, like, your top five competitors too.
Speaker 2:So What do
Speaker 4:you think the most important reviews platform is to look after?
Speaker 2:Google.
Speaker 4:Definitely Google? Yeah. What about Facebook?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Facebook too, but then Facebook also helps with your SEO, your search engine optimization, where you rank on Google. So those Facebook reviews will pull through on your Google as well. So, yes, definitely Facebook, but Google is the one that's gonna help you rank on the first page or try and rank as high as you can on when someone's looking up your business.
Speaker 4:Do you think enough businesses work to promote themselves with their reviews? No. And their testimonials, really?
Speaker 2:The thing is, and this is where I get a little bit passionate, is Google is such like a Google My Business profile. If you don't have one, you need to get one. Okay. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything, and it's such a good tool.
Speaker 2:It's where you display yourself on maps, on Google Maps. Yeah. Whenever you jump onto Google or onto your maps and you see those little pin drop with the businesses, that's where you display, that's where you show up. And especially, like, if you're in a saturated market, like cafe owners, I'm banging on about cafe owners, But and there's 10 other cafes within a 400 meter vicinity of you. Yep.
Speaker 2:That's where you're gonna have to try and stand out. So top tip, get on top of your Google My Business and get reviews, and I think make sure that you're all on that. But it's free. Like, it's a
Speaker 4:free Google. Google My Business profile, can you turn your reviews on and off? Well, let's just say you decide not to have reviews. Can you do that? No.
Speaker 4:Because with Facebook, you can. You can switch your reviews off.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You can't. But that's more so Google don't want you to so they don't want you to manipulate the system. Yeah. That's where Google will say, we want the reviews to be honest and current and relevant.
Speaker 2:So they won't allow you to switch it off, and that's when you come in and make sure that you reply to any negative reviews and reply to all your positive ones as well.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely, Kaye. Are you preferenced to buying from a business that has reviews as a highlighted area on their website or in their online presence?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. And the other thing is, what we'll do often or I will do is look at the photos. So make sure you get your photos on your Google My Business profile as well. So sometimes if we're going out, hubby and I are going out for a Saturday or a Sunday morning breakfast, and we're like, right, we want bacon. Like, we don't wanna go to some hippie place.
Speaker 2:And we'll look out the cafe areas, and we'll look through the photos
Speaker 4:saying that hippies don't eat bacon soon?
Speaker 2:No. Bacon. No. Fake meat. But we'll look through the photos and go, okay.
Speaker 2:This one looks really good. And sometimes for me, it's been the photo that sold me. I'm like, here's a massive big breakfast because hubby loves his big brekkie, and if I don't feed him, we're the the day. Yeah.
Speaker 4:The day gets off to a really bad start. My wife and I have an arrangement. She's a ridiculously passionate reviewer of things Okay. Whether that be on Google or Facebook or on. TripAdvisor is her platform of choice.
Speaker 4:Okay. If breakfast is lined up, we have a trick now. She's gone through the reviews, she's found the place she wants to eat at. Okay. What's your backup?
Speaker 4:Because what we found during COVID was that we went to so many places that weren't there anymore. Like, they were gone. Their reviews were still online, but they just weren't there. So what's the backup? Or if they were there and they had good reviews, they probably had a line up down the street, so what's plan b?
Speaker 4:Yep. And like your hubby, if I don't get to eat by a certain time, I turn into a screaming tantrum y kid 2 year old bashing my feet on the ground, so, yep, best to get fed.
Speaker 2:Best to get fed. Feed him. Get him up. Get him fed. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Look after him.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So using reviews try and navigate your way around to the places that you might enjoy as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So top tip, jump onto Semrush. Look at where you place. Have a bit of a play with the platform. It's super user friendly.
Speaker 2:Look at where you place competitively.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then use Google to your advantage. Upload updates. You can put offers on there. What I'll do as well is I've got a couple of YouTube tutorials that I've done. So I'm just gonna throw them on our Facebook page, and you guys can learn how to set up and optimize Google My Business Profile.
Speaker 4:So you're using those reviews to build your Google presence and to build your reputation online. You can also take those reviews and turn them into social media posts.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 4:Right? You can screenshot them. You can snapshot it. Yep. Use that and go, another 5 star review for Joe's carpentry.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 4:You know? Or, Sue's Cafe. Yep. Or whatever you're gonna call it. Right?
Speaker 4:Yeah. And what we found as well is we can take those screenshot and actually turn it into a YouTube video, and then put it on YouTube, and then you become more searchable again because you're across multiple platforms. And, so let's face it, Google owned YouTube. So what they wanna do is so, let's face it, Google own YouTube. So what they wanna do is they wanna see you creating content that's relevant across all of their platforms.
Speaker 4:So when you talk about managing a Google profile, absolutely, make a video out of it as well. It might only be 30 seconds of a screenshot of that, but it all adds to the juice, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Repurpose.
Speaker 4:Repurpose. Good job. Yeah. What about asking customers to do testimonials for you on camera?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Good question. I think if it feels right, if the customer is open to it, definitely a 100%. Yeah. Especially, like, reels and videos rank really well.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 2:At the moment, you've just noted. You can turn that into YouTube. You can make it into a YouTube video.
Speaker 4:Oh, you check it on TikTok?
Speaker 2:Check it on TikTok. Tok. Yes. 100%. So any way that you can get reviews, even if you get an audio clip, like, maybe but that's a way that you can use it.
Speaker 4:Yeah. What I don't encourage people to do, and we call this creating sock puppets, is creating fake profiles and then trying to bump yourself up with review ratings that are just just fake. Like, people read through that stuff, and if you get caught doing that, your business is in a world that hurts.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Keep it honest.
Speaker 4:Keep it honest. Keep it real. Keep it legit. Yeah. Keep it light hearted.
Speaker 4:Yep. Have a good time with it. Yeah. Don't be scared of it. No.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I mean, we embrace the technology here, but the technology is also you've gotta pick your battles with it. And I think I mentioned this to you before, so don't go reading that stuff at 10 PM at night just before you go about to go to bed. So choose your time to read your feedback Yep. And pick the best part of the day that gives you the opportunity to be balanced in your emotional approach to it.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You don't wanna lose a night of sleep over it, do you?
Speaker 2:And one of the things I got always get asked is what platform do I need to be on?
Speaker 4:All of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:All of them.
Speaker 2:But if we're gonna rate them, like, Google's right up there.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Please spend some time on Google. That's where they you're gonna be seen. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Definitely. Alright. So, well, protecting your online reputation, I think we covered off with some great points there. Yep. If you guys have got any feedback for us, please, by all means, you'll be seeing the links to this podcast on our Facebook page.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Please feel free to write, write, like, and review. We're definitely not on Google yet, I don't think. I don't know. I don't think we're on YouTube yet
Speaker 2:either. No.
Speaker 4:No. But if you wanna jump on Facebook and leave some positive feedback for us. So if you got any questions about something that we've spoken about today, then write it in the comments. Let us come back to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And definitely, like a plug for us as well. We're looking for podcast guests. If you got something you wanna say, if you're in the construction industry, if you wanna come on and be a guest, please, like, let us know, and we just love to have you on the show.
Speaker 4:We have got a couple of guests lined up, though, for the next couple of episodes, so that's gonna be fun as well but we're also looking for people out there that might have an interesting story to tell. Yeah. So reach out let us know.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well Scotty, thank you again. It's always a pleasure.
Speaker 4:It's always a pleasure too, Sue. Love hanging out. And thank you, Gil. No champagne corks in the forehead for Sue today.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 4:I appreciate it. The ceiling and your carpet are still in good condition. And thanks very much, guys. We'll see you on the next episode of the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 2:Yes. Bye,
Speaker 3:guys. Thanks for joining us today on the nuts and bolts podcast. If you found value in our conversation, make sure you subscribe, rate, and review. We appreciate your support as it helps us reach more of our community. Keep up with us for more insights into the construction industry, and remember, together, we're building the future.
Speaker 3:Until next time.