“The Rise of Third‐Party Reviews: How to Make Them Work for You” Energy Upgrade California™
Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Energy Upgrade California™ “The Rise of Third‐Party Reviews: How to Make Them Work for You” Peter Troast, Energy Circle July 22, 2014 1 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Energy Upgrade California™ Home Upgrade Energy Upgrade California offers rebates for saving energy and making homes more comfortable • Tiered incentives drive comprehensive upgrades while allowing entry level installations • Points based Home Upgrade offers up to $3,500 • Modeled savings based Advanced Home Upgrade offers up to $6,500 • Bay‐Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN) is the contact for Home Upgrade projects within 9 Bay‐Area counties Contact Information PG&E Home Upgrade • Build It Green, 510‐285‐6222, info@builditgreenutility.org • www.PGE.com/EnergyUpgradeCA BayREN Home Upgrade • Home Upgrade Advisor, 866‐878‐6008 • www.BayAreaEnergyUpgrade.org 2 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 PG&E’s AC Quality Care Rebate Program AC Quality Care is a rebate program aimed at improving the maintenance and operation of heating/air conditioning in homes. • Homeowners can get up to $700 in incentives for quality care of their HVAC systems. Contact Information AC Quality Care • Build It Green, 510‐306‐2272 (ACQC), acqualitycare@builditgreen.org • www.acqualitycarerebate.com • The program is based on Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s (ACCA) quality maintenance standard: ACCA 4 Quality Maintenance 3 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Upcoming NorCal Collaboration Forum NorCal Collaboration Forum July 30, 2014 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Monthly meeting of Participating Contractors and PG&E and BayREN Home Upgrade implementers. Identifying barriers and collaborating on solutions. To receive forum notices, email Chris Cone at: chris@efficiencyfirstca.org 4 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Upcoming Efficiency First Webinars July 23, 2014 — 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Efficient Operations: The little things home performance companies can do to save time and money. With: Ori Skloot/Advanced Home Energy, Dan Thomsen/Building Doctors, Tom Carroll/Neil Kelly August 7, 2014 — 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Good, Better, Best: Navigating the All Important Kitchen Table Talk. With: Jay Gentry/Con‐Com‐T, Rob Minnick/Minnick’s, John Redmond/Home Energy Solutions of the Triad Visit: www.efficiencyfirst.org/education to register 5 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Upcoming BIG Webinars August 14, 2014 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. FREE With John Tooley, Advanced Energy The First Step of Quality Management: 5S Methodology and tracking problems. Look for e‐blasts with registration information. 6 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 PG&E Regional Forum — Home Upgrade/AC Quality Care August 12, 2014 / 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. San Ramon Valley Conference Center 3301 Crow Canyon Rd ., San Ramon, CA 94583 You are invited to the PG&E Regional Forum for Energy Upgrade Home Upgrade and AC Quality Care Participating Contractors. Featuring updates on program improvements, marketing, training, and education, as well as networking and feedback sessions. EUC Home Upgrade 1‐866‐970‐7348 info@builditgreenutility.org AC Quality Care 1‐510‐306‐ACQC (2272) acqualitycare@builditgreen.org 7 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Our Presenter: Peter Troast • Founder and CEO of Energy Circle, working with hundreds of home performance contractors in 46 states. • Provides services to help contractors excel at marketing and business operations. • Expert in marketing home performance and a leader in the use of social media to drive home performance. • Speaks frequently about marketing for contractors at ACI, RESNET, NESEA, BPI, EGIA, and AIA conferences and events. 8 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Attendee Guide Enter text in Question Pane • Questions may be submitted through the “Questions Pane” on your control panel, at any time during the Webinar. • A Question/Answer session will follow the presentation. • A recording of the Webinar will be available after the event, along with a PDF of the presentation slides. • You can expand or collapse the control panel at any time by clicking on the red/white arrow in the top left corner of the panel. • Please feel free to submit questions. 9 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 The Rise of Third Party Reviews: How to Make Them Work for You Build It Green Webinar Series July 22, 2014 10 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Today’s Outline • The Latest Data •How Consumers Use Reviews •Trends • Recent Changes: Google+, Yelp • Developing a Review Strategy & Process •Which Sites to Prioritize in California • Avoiding Review Filters • Building a System & Next Steps 11 11 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Word of Mouth Is Still King Customer Reviews Are Word of Mouth on Steroids 12 12 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Why the Focus on Reviews? • Nothing better than third party endorsement • Fosters a customer-centric culture • They drive conversion • They drive margin • The new customer mindset--check Reviews first • Key lead driver (search rankings via Google+ Local, Angies/Yelp traffic, diversity = authority) • Some negatives are inevitable--bad experiences more likely to generate a review than great ones. • Dilution is the solution 13 13 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 The Evolving Review Landscape 14 14 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 2013 Annual Survey of 33 leading Local Search Consultants 15 15 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors Review Signals Review Quantity, Review Velocity, Review Diversity 16 16 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 do you read 17 17 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 18 18 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 19 19 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 20 20 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Less than 3.5 stars = danger zone 21 21 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 22 22 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 What Do People Trust? Forrester Research, March 21, 2013 23 23 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Growth of “review” Searches 24 24 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Effect of Reviews Source:http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2007/11/Online_Consumer_Reviews_Impact_Offline_Purchasing_Behavior 25 25 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Reviews: Increasingly Accessible 26 26 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 27 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 28 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 29 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Who Gets the First Click? 30 30 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Review Data in Summary • Consumers/Homeowners Increasingly Relying on Reviews • Remains a Significant Search Ranking Factor • Evidence That Better Reviews = Higher Pricing • Reviews Are Everywhere (First Click?) • Less than 3.5 Star Average Very Dangerous • Not Going Away 31 31 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Online Review Priorities 32 32 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 33 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 34 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 35 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 36 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 37 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Review Priorities in CA (IMHO) 1. Clout of Google, Ranking Factors, Presence in Search 2. Growing fast in Service Biz categories; strong in search; more critical in tone 3. Most relevant to contractor/service sector. Evidence of growing traffic. 4. Feeder for other review sites. 38 38 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 39 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 The Second Tier (if necessary) Why These? They are the most common review sources for the search engines & have greatest impact on local search rankings. Source: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml#reviewengines 40 40 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 But Don’t Forget Facebook 41 41 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Google My Business Review Tool 42 42 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Angie’s List HomeAdvisor Thumbtack Facebook 43 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 44 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 45 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Avoiding the Dreaded Review Filters 46 46 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Listen to Mother Google “Sometimes our algorithms may flag and remove legitimate reviews in our effort to combat abuse. We know this is frustrating when it happens but believe that overall, these measures are helping everyone by ensuring that the reviews appearing on Google are authentic, relevant, and useful.” 47 47 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Avoiding the Filters Generally 1. Steady, regular review pace (velocity) 2. No duplicate reviews (for Google especially) --not on your site --not on other review sites 3. Don’t incentivize reviews (or pay for them, ever) 4. Don’t review yourself 5. No URL’s in Reviews 48 48 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Why Yelp Reviews Get Filtered ■ Are from someone who has only written 1 review ■ Are from someone who has no profile info (profile photo, additional info, link to Facebook, etc.) ■ Are strongly slanted both positively and negatively ■ Short and lacking details ■ From a location other than where the business is located 49 49 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 When You Get that Negative Review (because you will) 50 50 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 51 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Dealing with Negative Reviews 1. Fix the Problem with the Customer 2. Respond to the Review 3. Dilute with Positives 4. Appeal if You Think You Can (rarely works) 52 52 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 53 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Developing a Review Strategy and Process 54 54 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Getting Reviews is HARD 1. Review sites don’t make it easy must be member (Google+, Angies, Yelp) bad user interface design aggressive filters 2. Customers are Time Starved or lazy? or lack computer sophistication? 3. You Have Nothing Else To Do 55 55 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Making Reviews a Business System 1. Commit to a Feedback-centric Culture 2. Determine Your Process When to ask? How to ask? How often to repeat request? 3. Repeat Systematically 4. Leverage the Reviews (but avoid duplication!) 56 56 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Ways to Make it Work • ASK! • Ask when perceived value is highest • Expect one review per customer • Let them choose their review site • If Gmail address, target Google • Younger people more likely to be reviewers • Tune your request: “help us get the word out” • Slow and steady wins the race 57 57 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Some Thoughts on Process • Solicit Everyone • Identify Your Happiest* Customers (Evangelists) • ID Most Likely Evangelist Reviewers •Do you write online reviews? •Younger/computer savvy •Gmail • Repeat the Ask (it’s OK) 58 58 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Some Thoughts on Process Consider Sending a Survey First 59 59 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Net Promoter Score www.netpromoter.com, The Ultimate Question, 60 60 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Wrap Up/Next Steps 1. Assess Your Current Status 2. Develop Priorities Google+ to 5 or more reviews Yelp then others 3. Operationalize Feedback/Review Solicitation 4. Commit to the Long Haul 61 61 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Contact Peter Troast Energy Circle 207.847.3644 ptroast@energycircle.com Twitter: @EnergyCircle LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/petertroast Energy Circle PRO Blog: www.energycircle.com/pro/blog 62 62 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Attendee Guide Enter text in Question Pane • Questions may be submitted through the “Questions Pane” on your control panel, at any time during the Webinar. • A Question/Answer session will follow the presentation. • A recording of the Webinar will be available after the event, along with a PDF of the presentation slides. • You can expand or collapse the control panel at any time by clicking on the red/white arrow in the top left corner of the panel. • Please feel free to submit questions. 63 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Upcoming NorCal Collaboration Forum NorCal Collaboration Forum July 30, 2014 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Monthly meeting of Participating Contractors and PG&E and BayREN Home Upgrade implementers. Identifying barriers and collaborating on solutions. To receive forum notices, email Chris Cone at: chris@efficiencyfirstca.org 64 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Upcoming Efficiency First Webinars July 23, 2014 — 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Efficient Operations: The little things home performance companies can do to save time and money. With: Ori Skloot/Advanced Home Energy, Dan Thomsen/Building Doctors, Tom Carroll/Neil Kelly August 7, 2014 — 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Good, Better, Best: Navigating the All Important Kitchen Table Talk. With: Jay Gentry/Con‐Com‐T, Rob Minnick/Minnick’s, John Redmond/Home Energy Solutions of the Triad Visit: www.efficiencyfirst.org/education to register 65 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 Upcoming BIG Webinars August 14, 2014 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. FREE With John Tooley, Advanced Energy The First Step of Quality Management: 5S Methodology and tracking problems. Look for e‐blasts with registration information. 66 Rise of Third-Party Reviews Peter Troast, Energy Circle 7/22/2014 PG&E Regional Forum — Home Upgrade/AC Quality Care August 12, 2014 / 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. San Ramon Valley Conference Center 3301 Crow Canyon Rd., San Ramon, CA 94583 You are invited to the PG&E Regional Forum for Energy Upgrade Home Upgrade and AC Quality Care Participating Contractors. Featuring updates on program improvements, marketing, training, and education, as well as networking and feedback sessions. EUC Home Upgrade 1‐866‐970‐7348 info@builditgreenutility.org AC Quality Care 1‐510‐306‐ACQC (2272) acqualitycare@builditgreen.org 67
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