Car Count Daily

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Car Count Daily. My name is Ron Ipach, sometimes known as Captain Car Count because that’s what I do. I help pack your shop with good quality customers every single day.

Now, today, what we’re going to be doing is talking about responding to those online reviews that you’ve been getting. Now, you have been getting good online reviews, right? Right? If not, you need to start because, as I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, people are searching online on their mobile phones and on their desktop computers. That’s the number one thing that they’re looking at is when they’re choosing to do business with a new shop, they’re looking at the reviews, they’re looking at what other people have to say about you. Based on those reviews, they’re making the decisions to come in and buy from you, so it’s important you have a lot of really good reviews.

It’s also important that you respond to every one of those reviews that you get. Now, I’m talking about responding to the good ones, the mediocre ones, and the bad ones. We have to respond to each one of those, so let’s address the bad reviews to begin with.

Look, it’s a fact of life. There are people out there that will moan and complain about everything, and you could have done the best job in the world and they’re still going to write you a scathing review over something that you may or may have never done. We hear those horror stories all the time about people that they get raked over the coals over something that they didn’t even do, or that you don’t even know who the customer was that’s raking you over the coals, and it’s a bad review nonetheless. There could be any number of reasons why. Well, you need to respond to that review.

Now, it’s important that you respond professionally. I’m not talking about ripping that guy a new one, right? We’re not talking about saying what a pain in the butt he was, or that he’s a liar, he’s a scumbag. No, no, no, no. That’s not how you respond professionally to a bad review. Remember, you can get an argument with that person back and forth and other people, other prospective clients are going to be looking at that and looking at your reviews and saying, “Is this a place I want to do business with that he’s having a public argument with somebody online?”

No. Your reviews, when you respond, you’re not responding to that person. You’re responding to potential new clients that are seeing that bad review, and you have to be very professional and say, “Look, we always strive to do the best and, obviously, we failed this time. We’re not quite sure who you are, but please give us a call. I’d like to give you my personal cellphone number so we can discuss this, so we could do whatever it takes to make you happy.”

Your response like that to a bad scathing review makes that guy look like an idiot, okay? That’s really what it does. It makes them look like an idiot, and puts you in a good light. It makes you the professional, and makes it more desirable to do business with you because you handled that in such a professional way. I know it’s difficult. The best thing to do if you get a really crappy review, wait 24 hours until you cool down a little bit, and then write that good, professional review.

The same with the mediocre reviews, the three-star reviews. You respond back and say, “We always strive for a five-star experience and, obviously, we fell a couple of stars short. Please let us know what we can do because we like to bend over backwards to see what we can do to make this a five-star visit next time.” A great response for that.

For the five-star reviews, of course, we always love them, what can you say? Well, you can say, “Hey, thanks. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you for the past five years. We always love doing business with your entire family.” See, what you’re doing is you’re responding to the people that are reading it, that are prospective readers or prospective new clients. They are the ones that are reading that. When you respond, not only is it a social engagement, but it’s another chance to actually sell your service, and sell how awesome you are to the next person that’s considering doing business with you.

Again, good, bad or indifferent, respond to all of them and, keep in mind, you’re selling yourself to the next person coming in the door that’s reading not only the original response, but your response to that comment.

I hope this helps. It’s going to take a little time, but go back and go back as far as you possibly can and respond to every one of these reviews and you’ll see some great results. Okay? That’s going to do it for today.

Hey, let me know what you think. Give me a review. Go down below this video. Let me know what you think, good, bad, indifferent. If you go back, you’ll see I respond to every response that I get. Every comment that I get I respond because I practice what I preach.