Reputation management local client problem + outline

I'm planning on offering online reputation management services. Its going to be a slight variation of 7878's method. I want to offer text message reviews submissions. I remember reading it on this thread.

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ng/423845-business-reputation-management.html

Simply, we provide the owner with handouts that suggest leaving a review by going to companyreview.com or by texting in the review and having review posters drip feed them over various different sites. Or they can just write a review on the back of the handout and drop it off at the counter on the way out.

Like other review systems if its a bad review we screen/siphon them off to an email submit or just not post them to the web.

At the same time we ask for text message marketing permission and email marketing permission so the local business can start building a list.

Ok now to my question: I'm about to pitch a taxi stand and they have a rather unique problem. If you search "company taxi" the first pages are filled with bad yelp reviews, but if you search Company Transportation (the actual name of the business) the yelp reviews are no where to be found.

I havent talk the owners yet but i would imagine they want to keep their name "Company Transportation" and build positive reviews on that business, but they already have an established yelp page with the word Taxi in it and its being slammed with bad reviews. And i know they want to do something about that as well.

Do i tell them we should focus on neutralizing the negative reviews with encouraging positive reviews, or do I suggest we start building a positive review base with "Company Transportation" which is the actual name of the business. Or maybe someone else can suggest another creative solution.

$_$_$_$_$ said:

dont focus on collecting the reviews, focus on getting the customers to leave the reviews themselves.

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thanks for the reply but you really didnt answer my question.

I am focusing on getting the customers to review, but im also siphoning off the bad reviews while building a local list so the business can offer coupons and promotions. While offering real-time bad review submissions via text messages to the owner so he can track his employees and manage crises much faster. And in real time.

Maybe i wasnt clear: The yelp reviews are under "Company Taxi" but the business is "Company Transportation". Im not sure how to approach this problem.

As someone who has driven a taxi for a living, let me offer you some input. The very first thing you need to know is the company's business model. Specifically, how does the taxi company make its money.

The most common way (in the United States) is to lease the taxis to "independent contractors." This is to your disadvantage. The reason being that the taxi company gets paid no matter what.

What you're looking for is for the taxi company to split the revenue with its drivers. This business model ensures that both the company and the drivers have a vested interest in one another. As such, the reputation of the taxi company matters a whole lot.

Find out that information first. Truth be told, if the drivers lease their taxis for some flat dollar amount, the taxi company could care less about their reputation. Their income doesn't rely on it.

The next problem is that taxi drivers have no motivation to encourage a customer to leave any kind of review. There's nothing in it for them - they do all the work but do not gain monetarily for asking a customer to leave a review.

In addition, the interaction between the taxi company and the customer is minimal at best. So there doesn't provide much of an opportunity for the company to encourage a customer to leave a review.

I'll summarize like this. When it comes to taxi companies, there really is no such thing as a bad taxi company. There are simply good drivers and bad drivers. The only caveat to that would be the customer service representative that answers the phone and the mechanical condition of the taxi.

Hope that gives you a more in depth view of what you're potentially up against. It sucks, but it's just the nature of that industry.

Limo services and other car services that cater to a more affluent clientele though... well, that's where your energy would be better focused.

Thank you for the reply. Luckily, this taxi company does split the revenue with the drives. 50/50 with the drivers having to pay for their own gas. They also have really horrible reviews online, something like 20 1 star reviews and they have about 10 locations that all paint a similar picture.
Thanks for your input.

You should be able to figure that out from this thread alone. In addition, did you try Googling it?

apexbeat said:

Thank you for the reply. Luckily, this taxi company does split the revenue with the drives. 50/50 with the drivers having to pay for their own gas. They also have really horrible reviews online, something like 20 1 star reviews and they have about 10 locations that all paint a similar picture.
Thanks for your input.

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Well good... at least it will be in the best interest of the taxi company to listen to you. Emphasize increased revenue for sure. Good luck.

It's likely that people are searching for either transportation or taxi and not both. If people are searching for Company Taxi the focus on that. If your goal is to really help them then you should focus on the real problem, not the easy solution.

In reality, if you're cold calling them, there is a good chance they already know, or don't know and don't care. In order to succeed in cold calling you need to spend less time focusing on this one business and work in volume. Find people with negative reviews and try to call 10-20 per hour. Spending hours preparing a cold call presentation is going to be very discouraging very quickly.

You're stuck in analysis-paralysis right now, you have got to turn that into action where you're actually on the phone or stuffing envelopes.

If I remember right, if the business joins yelp, don't they display a more balanced set of reviews instead of focusing on the bad reviews that they normally do?

I agree it's blackmail, but isn't that yelps business model?

Yes, typically if a business pays yelp, their good reviews show up. If you don't pay yelp, your bad reviews show up.

BHopkins said:

It's likely that people are searching for either transportation or taxi and not both. If people are searching for Company Taxi the focus on that. If your goal is to really help them then you should focus on the real problem, not the easy solution.

In reality, if you're cold calling them, there is a good chance they already know, or don't know and don't care. In order to succeed in cold calling you need to spend less time focusing on this one business and work in volume. Find people with negative reviews and try to call 10-20 per hour. Spending hours preparing a cold call presentation is going to be very discouraging very quickly.

You're stuck in analysis-paralysis right now, you have got to turn that into action where you're actually on the phone or stuffing envelopes.

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good suggestions in this post, and yes u are right, i tend to get stuck in analysis-paralysis. I already have a meeting with them in the bag, i know a few managers that will set something up as soon as my presentation is ready.

yes yelp is bias unless you pay them. which is good for me because it will get my foot in the door because of the perceived reputation problem. I plan to use google + local and other reviews sites and not put a lot of emphasis on yelp. Its more of SEO problem than anything. Get their site and a few others to out rank yelp in google and bury the bad reviews. Or pay yelp.