Tricking the System Never Works

Tricking the System Never Works

Guest Blogger: Erika Feinberg, President, RevuKangaroo & Leadership Jams

Did you know there are call centers in India that specialize in writing and posting 5-Star reviews for companies right here in our community?  Could you imagine hundreds of total strangers in a different country clicking away leaving you stellar reviews?  Your third party reputation management company might be using these tactics without you even knowing it.  (No service provider is going to want to confess to it!)

Public review platforms like Yelp, Google and Facebook are catching on to the third-party reputation management specialists’ shady tactics and stripping ALL the accumulated reviews from those companies because they’re going about it the wrong way.

You’re better off getting those reviews the good old-fashioned way; through quality training programs and asking for reviews. You’ll also want to leverage outstanding reputation management software to ask for reviews, and to control and monitor what is being said about you and your team members.

Tricking the system might seem brilliant, but it never works in the long run.

Leaders like Richard Branson and Warren Buffet would agree that if you want to be a lucrative market-leader, act like one and care about your people, your consumers, and service-excellence…and success will follow you around.

I’ll summarize three major factors for success as a place to start:

1. Treat your team (and family) like a village or tribe. EVERYONE needs to do their job, be communicative and participate in your collective success. EVERYONE…from accounting to dispatch. One bad seed or one weak link DOES ruin it all! If you’re “tolerating” someone, either get them re-trained or hire someone you can depend on to lift the team higher. Life is too short.
   1. Get reviews and referrals from your service providers like UPS, I.T. guys…EVERYONE SHOULD BE ASKED FOR REVIEWS.
   2. Remember your suppliers care about your growth too! Train your staff to be positive and professional when dealing with suppliers.  These are precious relationships and referral sources.
2. Clarify roles and expectations in writing, ESPECIALLY with family members. They’re people too. Review the expectations once a month with everyone as a group so everyone knows what their role is.  Be clear with what you expect from each and every person on staff.
   1. You then need to give them permission to delegate to one another according to what each person is responsible for.
   2. Teach them how to delegate and work as a team respectfully and clearly.
3. Teach your team “candid camera” techniques for dealing with high-stress situations and tough interpersonal situations. Ironically, when people expect high stress but have the mindset of being the hero, they experience better days and feel a sense of accomplishment. Provide training and tools to diffuse and solve high-stress issues. When training and tools are not provided, this just creates negativity and terrible days, every day.  Let’s face it: you’re in a “high-stress-things-go-wrong-business.”  You need to be the heroes, or you’re going to be exhausted, and hate your job!
   1. Pretend you’re on candid camera! Sounds weird, but if you pretend you’re being watched and the issue you’re dealing with is a joke on you, you’re more likely to diffuse it, stay calm and solve it like a hero!

Erika Feinberg is President of RevuKangaroo and Leadership Jams, Nation’s #1 rated reputation marketing and training system for Home Services. Reach out to connect www.Linkedin.com/in/erikafeinberg. Please don’t hesitate to Ask@RevuKangaroo.com if you have any questions about any of this above. We love to help companies grow as healthily as possible…through reputation management & leadership training.