Last week my “check brake” light came on in my Mini Cooper, so I brought it to the dealership to get inspected. The price the dealership quoted me was excessively over the cost of goods and hourly rate I assume a car mechanic to make, so I opted to search elsewhere for a better bargain. I decided to take a blind leap of faith and call the MIDAS man–mistakenly without first looking at their online reviews. The guy I spoke with was very nice, and he quoted me a much better rate than that of the dealership (as expected). Before I accepted this offer, I did some online digging to hear what others experienced. Sure enough, the reviews were horrible.
Out of kindness, I called the MIDAS guy back and told him about the reviews. You would be surprised how many business owners never look at what customers are saying about them online! I nicely informed him that I was no longer interested in dropping by with my car for the repair work. The MIDAS guy, who was also the newly appointed manager of this store location, told me that he has only been there for 3 months and he is working hard to fix the service quality and address the reviews (I guess he read them). He also said that he cannot blame me for being cautious. What shocked me is what he said next. He said “That it was hard to stop anyone from writing bad material and that he alone cannot please everyone all the time.” Though I believe that you cannot please everyone all the time, should you at least make it your mission to try? This is an easy cop out on MIDAS guy’s behalf. Secondly, he also forgot that many people will also write about their good experiences too. In fact, if you check the very same website where the bad reviews were posted, you will also find a broad range of positive reviews.
So MIDAS guy’s core issue is solving the following question: How do you turn such a public forum of bad reviews around? Mike’s argument was that his “corporate store ratings” have improved, however the problem with this is the public facing reviews are the ones that are deterring new business. You need to get the “corporate store ratings” somewhere where people will see them. The “corporate store ratings” don’t mean anything to new customers seeking out business online. Plus keep in mind, even the smallest reputation damage for an auto repair business is made exponentially greater due to the preexisting stigma that auto repair shops come with.
I want MIDAS guy to turn things around. Let me give you a few ideas that will help the MIDAS guy (or anyone experiencing similar issues). Once someone has completed service at your store, give them a $0.02 note card that asks them to share their experience online (at Yelp!, Google Reviews, Angie’s List, any of them). In fact, since you have a big hole to dig out of, I would even consider giving your customers an incentive to do so. Offer them something like a free oil change! Here is the hook. In order to redeem the free oil change, upon return, you must provide MIDAS guy with your Yelp! or Google or other user name upon requesting the service, therefore MIDAS guy can verify their actual review submission. MIDAS guy, in order to keep from people gaming the system, you’ll most likely need to keep a database of reviews to make sure people aren’t double redeeming on the same profile name.
The net impact should be good for your business. Those that redeem the 2nd service are most likely the people who were happy about the 1st service. Those that were unhappy are likely to not come back and redeem the free offer. By promoting “good reviews” the happy people will be greater motivated to write a positive review, which will in turn dilute all of the bad ratings that are currently in place. Once you have the ship right again, you can ween off the freebies as you have fixed your ailing customer service problem.
Consider the several free oil changes you offer the cost that you have to incur for removing the store’s stigma. Remember, the world has changed, and people can talk broadly about their experiences. The positive (and occasionally the exceptional) experiences need to rise to the top. Sometimes to get the ball rolling, you have the grease the wheels.
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