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ReviewBoost Q & A's
1. Do you guarantee results?
No and no one can. Google states that they themselves do not control the internet. When it comes to the online arena, it is impossible because of the dynamic changes that occur rapidly. However, we are a month to month subscription service. Our company believes that we need to prove our value every month for you to be our subscribed client. Every business has its own reputation needs and to place a broad generalized guarantee would not be accurate or fair. Results will vary with some business owners seeing results in a few months while others take longer. Similar to a gym guaranteeing a healthier lifestyle, you still need to attend the gym and utilize the tools given. Another example is a cable company can guarantee great programming, but it's up the customer to turn on the TV. Many businesses that have asked for a guarantee are expecting their internet reputation management services to be a one-time solution. However, reputation management is needed for as long as you have a reputation. Maintaining a healthy image is as important as obtaining one.
2. How long does it take to see results?
Every business is different and we can never state a certain time frame. Some businesses can take weeks or months. Major corporations, celebrities, and politicians can take months and years. With our service, nothing more can be done than what we are already doing to heal your reputation as nothing more is available. As soon as a new trend or tool can be used to help your online reputation management, we are the company that provides it first. The internet changes rapidly and because of that maintaining a healthy reputation after you obtain it is just as important. Positive comments of your company can change, be replaced, or even be buried. Continually promoting and pushing the positive of your company is crucial to seeing results.
3. What directories and search engines do you work with?
We constantly refresh the internet aspects we work with and some of them are consistently the same because they are the foundation of a good reputation. There are over 400 highly visible websites that accept reviews; some are industry specific and some location based. We have a working relationship with these groups, this is the reason we want our clients to be a part of the newest trends while experiencing high results. We work with websites that provide great links and rank high in the search results to help bury the negative sites that contain content that damage your reputation.
4. Is there a contract, cancellation fees, termination fees or refunds?
There are no cancellation or termination fees ever. Our clients are on a month to month subscription. To stop service you must email or call our customer service at least 24 hours before your due date. While there are never any refunds, we will work with you to make sure you are more than satisfied with our service. Once we get the order for your account to start Review Boost spends multiple hours and possibly days to prepare our clients layouts and profiles. Adding your businesses content to directories, blogs, and social media sites takes time and our fees do not cover the cost; however, we are confident that your business will be satisfied with our service and will utilize it for years to come.
5. Do you do SEO, advertising or Marketing?
We do not provide specific SEO, advertising and marketing services. We are closer to a public relations company. However, we are a great compliment and addition to an existing advertising campaign online. We help promote and link the positive content about your business which will help off-page SEO considerably. Many businesses ask themselves, "what good is all the SEO marketing if we are losing customers because we have a bad reputation online when customers do find us?" There are some parallels between SEO and reputation management. We use visiting a general doctor versus a specialist as an example. If you had a sore throat you wouldn't go to a knee surgeon to help you. We are specialists in our field and have the most experience. We started this industry and we are clearly different from the pack. Do not be swayed by other companies that offer multiple lines of SEO solutions with reputation management as an added feature. Internet reputation management services done by ReviewBoost is a full time job and should not be taken lightly.
6. How long have you been around? How many customers do you have? What kind of customers do you seek? Can I see an example?
We were incorporated in 2007 and we have been growing ever since with 1000's of customers worldwide. We have all types of businesses and celebrities as our clients. In regards to seeing an example we have a very strict confidentiality contract. We currently hold sensitive information for businesses, celebrities, and doctors (sometimes including their entire database of clients). We cannot share any information that can disclose this data. However, we have some very happy clients that have volunteered to show off our work. Please call us to give you the most relevant example. We are not hesitant to give examples and every business has different demographics and needs. We want to give the best service with real expectations and measurable results.
7. Do you provide your services for products?
Offering reputation management for a specific product is not a service that is viable. We can offer internet reputation management services to businesses that sell products with much greater results that are measurable. An opinion on a product is subjective to someone’s like or dislike. For example we can say that a video game can be liked or disliked, but we can help the company that produces the video game with reputation management.
Additional Links:
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/products/reviews.html
8. Another company claims to do what you do, but they claim that if I don't go with them, then I can get penalized. They also claim that your service will hurt me and that reputation management is bad for businesses, is any of that true?
Absolutely not, unfortunately fear tactics are still a common practice in sales. There are many companies claiming that certified or verified reviews need to be used. The thing is we just don't understand who is verifying them and who's certifying the reviews. We use authentic reviews which are reviews from your customers when they add their review online. Any vendor/solicitor stating that reputation management is bad or that it can hurt the company is confusing to us. We have never come across a business that does not want to have a good reputation. In any format of advertising or promoting information online there are ways to perform negative tactics that can damage your business data online. ReviewBoost follows the steps and integrates the strategies placed by the search engines themselves by proactively publishing useful, positive information about your business to bury and combat the negative.
Additional Links:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/managing-your-reputation-through-search.html
9. Do you offshore or outsource the internet reputation management services you provide?
No, everything we do is in house. This includes everything from sales, business development, client relations, product management, and customer service. Everything is done from our offices in San Diego, CA. Our company prides itself in knowing we offer the highest customer service available. Keeping our services in house allows us to be accountable to your business and available to you when you need us. Your reputation is a critical matter and we cannot afford to cut corners by outsourcing our service. We want to be a part of your company's continued success.
10. Another company claims they do the exact same thing you do, but cheaper. Why should I go with ReviewBoost if I can find the same thing for less money?
We try everyday to stay ahead of the curve with internet technology. When a company claims to do something similar or equal to our service, it is difficult to gauge or even compare because no one does exactly what we do when it comes to internet reputation management. We are constantly updating and improving our service from day to day operations to innovating services for future use. Our review boost service can be very customizable and specific for our clients because all businesses have different needs and demographics. We have businesses that run an alligator farm to some of the most popular casinos in Las Vegas with each business having a specialized need. We are a month to month subscription service and we recommend the best thing to do is to run a side by side comparison and make the best decision for your company. Similar to our clients we have competitors and companies that attempt to duplicate our service. We feel confident in our service because we introduced and created an industry behind our effort and work.
11. Do you remove negative reviews?
As Google has stated publicly no one controls the internet, however our service does more to combat and help remove negative reviews than any other format or program available in existence. ReviewBoost does not claim to remove reviews and no one can. We also do not state that there shouldn't be any negative comments on the internet. We believe that there should be a fair assessment of a business with a balanced view of the businesses internet reputation management. We will fight inappropriate negativity on the internet by promoting positive content. We work with websites, search engines, and directories to combat inappropriate, outdated, or malicious material that has caused an unhealthy image for the business on the internet. About 30% of our time is spent on ORD online reputation defense and management. No one else does more for your review management because nothing else is available.
12. Do you have competitors and who are they?
We strongly believe in healthy competition and there are some similar services available that have emerged as of recent that do certain aspects of what we provide. Please do keep in mind we cover all aspects of internet reputation management and there are multiple companies that we have listed as imposters. Maliciously many have named themselves similar to our company name to confuse business owners into signing up with them. We highly recommended that you do your own research and go with a company you can trust. ReviewBoost shows confidence in being number one by being the first to provide internet reputation management services to local businesses, first to adapt to search engine algorithm changes, and first to show reportable and measurable results. We want business owners to go with a company that has experience with reputation management and not a fly by night company.
13. What is your definition of authentic reviews and what do you mean by syndication?
For us authentic reviews mean a review, rating, or testimonial written by a 1st hand customer/consumer of a business product or service with the ability to have a paper trail and trackable ip address that can prove the originating writer. We email up to 40,000 customers a day for their feedback on a recent experience with a local business. Syndicating is having customers write reviews, bloggers blog, and directories crawling ratings of a company for all internet users to see on search engines like Google. Our reviews are trusted by Google and crawled to display on search results and Google maps for businesses. Other companies allow filtering of reviews by businesses and at times for a paid listing on a website, while ReviewBoost is the most transparent company when it comes to internet reputation management.
14. How do you prove your work and measure results?
One of the most innovative parts of our service is our reporting features. Like the rest of our products, we continuously change how we report our service to your business. Currently, we use a live link that is hosted online with a realtime view of your campaign. It can also be presented in a spreadsheet, screen capture images, or a video analysis. Unlike other vendors for local businesses you can not hide or disguise our work, you can access your internet reputation management 24/7 by simply Googling your business name. We also send you all of your feedback that you have received once a month for you to see honest reviews from your customers so you can better assess best practices and areas of improvement.
15. Do you help with cyber bullies for individuals with your reputation management services?
We actually have another product called cyberbullydefense.com which primarily focuses on that subject and more so for children and teenagers. We do deal with cyber stalkers and bullies for businesses with our reputation management services and have had great success by promoting the positive items of your business. We can overtake the negative that is being pushed by the individual attempting to cause the damage. Most cyber stalkers of a business do their best to remain anonymous. Once we do uncover their identity, they typically tend to back down or move their hatred towards ReviewBoost for finding them out. Individuals that do not attempt to disguise their identity and cause malicious attacks online against a business must be handled with care. Please contact us for a full understanding on how to handle these types’ of reputation attacks.
16. Is there anyone you do not work with or look at as not being a good candidate for reputation management?
We do not work with individuals with certain criminal information online. We also do not work with businesses or SEO companies that spam the internet with non authentic reviews or with associations who violate the terms and conditions of search engines and directories. We do not provide private label or white label services for other reputation management companies. We reserve the right to refuse services to anyone. Having a reputation online is a gift and can provide a great source of new customers; however we are not a tool to mislead consumers.
17. How do reviews from my customers get on the internet and where do they go?
We use a syndication process which means we survey your customers and ask them to leave a review of your company online. It is then promoted for different sites to pick up and display. ReviewBoost promotes your customer reviews on Google and websites than can rank high and help suppress the negativity that may exist about your company. We also use data feeds and API systems for directory websites that publish content online to be crawled throughout the internet. To see a free example, have your customers review your business for free on our directory myreviewboost.com. Reviews on one part of the internet can be crawled and picked by 100's of other sites within days and weeks and reviewboost helps manage and promote the positive of your business.
18. Is your company owned by another company or partnered with another service?
We are not owned by another company. We are self funded and privately owned. We are strategically aligned with affiliate projects that offer vertical products (for e.g. businesstube.com). ReviewBoost is a DBA under Intravas Technologies, a California corporation formed in 2007, and is owned By Guillermo "William" Rivas and Chris Curtis. The original concept was inspired by Brad Merkel with help from Vice President Matt Harless.
19. If I use your service and I get bad reviews, what happens with those ratings? What do you think about bad reviews online?
Once a month we send businesses all their feedback (good, bad, or indifferent). As a 3rd party vendor asking for feedback on behalf of the businesses we receive honest sentiments and some great insights on areas of improvement. Bad reviews can help by addressing any concerns and in turn helps retaining clients. Negative reviews can be a great tool to get insight on best business practices. ReviewBoost can help filter those reviews that are intended to hurt the business or we can send the customer feedback to someone at your business that can help the customer and begin to resolve the issue. Our main focus is to help the reputation of your business and how your reputation is formed by customers in your community. Let the experts be the bridge of communication.
20. What about the FTC, testimonial advertising and all the different rules and regulations with ratings?
We pride ourselves in knowing that we are ethical in our service. We oblige by all regulations and laws with in our industry. One of the most important rules that businesses need to follow is to clearly state when it is a paid testimonial for advertising. That is why our group never recommends or participates in incentives for a review from a customer. Reasons are that you might not get honest feedback, and secondly you do not want to be scrutinized whether the review are fake. We care about the integrity of our industry. Please watch the following video for more information.
Associated Video:
Endorsement Guidelines for Social Media:
21. Does everyone see results? What if reputation management doesn't do anything for me?
All businesses have a reputation online and managing your reputation and being proactive to keep your reputation healthy is a new standard. Just like any other tool it must be utilized to see results. Businesses place the bulk of the work load on our shoulders, however what needs to be done on your end is to survey customers of your business. ReviewBoost shows you results by what is reflected online and by customers finding your business online. Now is the time for your company to convert these customers into repeat clients.
22. What if I use your service and you don't remove any negative reviews?
Our online reputation defense service is a combination of attacking the negativity head on and implementing a strategy to help improve your reputation by promoting the positive about your business and bury negative reviews with positive reviews from your customers. Some businesses see results faster than others. The key is to maintain a positive image online so your reputation management campaign is always a work in progress.
23. Why don't you work with certain websites?
ReviewBoost works with the most popular websites that range from social media, blogs, and directories. We do not work with specific sites because the internet is constantly changing. This gives us an opportunity to help promote your brand throughout the web, making it easier for Google to display the positive about your business.
24. What if I don't have enough money for your services?
For many business owners not having our reputation management services is already costing them money. Potential customers are using the internet to locate your services and if they see your company with no reviews or bad reviews chances are they will go elsewhere. As an example, you might be visiting a new city and you search for steak restaurants in the area. When doing the search you see one restaurant with good reviews, one with bad reviews, and one with no reviews. Which restaurant would you go to? It's the same thing when a customer searches your business online. If Google states that 90% of consumers search for local businesses before visiting them and 80% of those searching read reviews the cost is too great not to have ReviewBoost. If you were to price out our services you would be looking at a minimum of $5,000 a month with many companies requiring a contract while we charge in the hundreds with our monthly subscription service.
25. How easy is it to get a hold of someone at your company for customer service once I sign up?
Our customer service is second to none. Your reputation management campaign will be assigned to two in house reputation management specialists that are available to help you Mon-Fri 8am to 4:30pm PST. Your assigned account managers will contact you via telephone in the following days after starting our service. From there they will email you your monthly reports and customer feedback. Your account managers will also follow up with you monthly with a phone call to update the status of your campaign. Contacting your account manager with any questions is easy and welcomed. Please feel free to follow up with your services anytime.
26. We have the same clientele and they don't look at reviews?
Some businesses might feel this way when they have a steady stream of clients for a specific period of time, however customers are savvy shoppers and they will compare you online to other choices they may have. Some customers will search for your business to simply find your contact information, place an order on your website, or get directions. Whatever the reason may be, you want to be reflected in the best possible light. You don’t want to lose clients from damaging online remarks. Additionally you can be losing more clients than you gain. This is a cause for concern specifically for your retention and if this happens long enough it can be too far along to repair. By having a healthy reputation online you can access all clients equally and not be dependent on customers you feel might not read reviews.
27. Can I do this myself? Do I need to hire a company for reputation management?
Reputation management is something you are already doing by providing customer service to your clients. Managing your online reputation management is where reviewboost comes in to help. Internet reputation management for the local business is a full time job and is not all inclusive. There are many moving parts and it is constantly changing. This will take away yourself or key members of your staff from doing their job, which can make matters worse. In conclusion, we are dedicated specialists that will only focus on your reputation allowing your staff to focus on their jobs. Additionally, our cost is usually lower than having an inexperienced individual in house.
28. I look stellar online and I have a 5 star business. Why would I need ReviewBoost?
Looking good online is great and this tells us your business understands how important a good online reputation is to your bottom line. To maximize your reputation needs, ReviewBoost has three separate packages for businesses that have a healthy reputation. Just like in the physical world, a person can never say they are too healthy and that's why they do not need to exercise. It is also just as important to have good reputation that is maintained. All of the work that it took to obtain an image can be destroyed quickly. We recommend hiring us to sustain your online efforts. Our services promote your reviews throughout the internet, not just on one part. So while you might feel that you look great on one part of the internet, it's important to note that you want that same reputation to be showcased on different areas of the internet where customers might find your information.
29. I don't feel that I have time to collect and ask for reviews. What does ReviewBoost do about this?
Many businesses already ask customers for their email address and we leverage this by surveying on your behalf to take the workload off your shoulders. Having your customer’s emails can be a great tool for many other purposes in your business as well. Review boost can design a simple comment card to hand to customers as well. We find it takes one moment and it shows your customers you care about their patronage. Most businesses that use our service take a second to ask customers for their review at the point of sale.
30. Why do I need to qualify for ReviewBoost service packages like the Omni or Maintain plan?
We want to make your reputation management expectations clear with our company so you can have a successful campaign with us. Starting your business out with our most popular package helps your business get started on the right track. When signing up with our service we want to match your business with the appropriate plan and you can always speak with one of our reputation appraisers to help you find the plan that matches your business.
31. Will ReviewBoost write reviews for my business?
No. ReviewBoost surveys your customers for reviews and promotes the positive content about your company on the internet.
32. My SEO company says they can do the same as you. Do I still need ReviewBoost?
We can appreciate other vendors attempting to help facilitate your business needs. However, internet reputation management is a specialized industry that requires deeper insight than making your website rank on search engines for keywords. Our services have taken years to develop with high levels of training and should not be performed for businesses without a proven method of results and known experience. If not executed properly more harm can come and cause permanent damage. A true and professional SEO firm that understands internet technology would appreciate your business signing up with ReviewBoost, because they understand the importance of a healthy online reputation. It will also help the SEO efforts by converting more online customers which will undoubtedly be a key to a successful online campaign.
33. Will I be questioned if my reviews are real or if I have too many good reviews?
Reviews of your business come from your customers. By hiring ReviewBoost you are maximizing the positive content of your business by promoting your healthy reputation online. We understand your company does not want to suffer any more scrutiny, especially after having a less than favorable online reputation. ReviewBoost is your online cheerleading team. We will strictly focus on the positive of your company. Be confident in your services and we will work to maintain your online reputation.
34. How do I get started? What are the next steps?
After we appraise your reputation, we fill out an order form together that gets submitted to customer service. Almost immediately your new account becomes assigned to your reputation management experts. They will then begin the prep work for your account. This can take anywhere from a day to multiple days. During the prep work, your account manager will contact you to verify certain information about your business and the following steps to your internet reputation management campaign.
35. What about Yelp, Trip Advisor, RateMD's, and other specific sites?
We focus primarily on Google’s universal search results. When Google displays information about your business it pulls from many different sources including video, images, and mainly content. We promote all the aspects on the internet for your business to make it easier for Google to find and display the positive about your business. Customers need to go through Google to access specific sites and most businesses have a concern with a certain site because it ranks and shows on the search results page when the business get Googled. We solve this by promoting the positive sites and links about your business, in turn burying the negative sites associated with your brand. Again, our main focus for your internet reputation management service is for you to be presented in a positive light when a customer searches for your business online. Website directories like Yelp and Trip Advisor do not share reviews with Google, so we do not have a relationship with those groups.
Additional Links:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/tripadvisor-blocks-googles-review-streaming/26178/
http://searchengineland.com/google-maps-updates-review-policy-drops-yelp-reviews-49386
ReviewBoost Editorial
Hello, my name is Brad Merkel and I helped create the idea of ReviewBoost in 2007 in San Diego, CA. One of the main inspirations of the concept was spurred from surveying local business throughout the country and creating a solution to their most common need. What resulted from this was a cost effective one stop shop that has met over 4,000 clients worldwide, all in need of online reputation management. Though we try to be as transparent as possible with both our clients and friends in the media, some controversy and confusion still arises in whether or not we write the reviews or if they are genuinely from our client’s actual customers. Although reviews are only a small portion of all the services provided in our packages, we do want to set the record straight. The reviews we collect start by gathering what our client’s have already obtained from their customers. If the client doesn’t have a system of collecting feedback, we survey their customers by email, phone, text, comment cards, and/or video and recommend they share their experience on their Google place page. All reviews we receive from our clients are documented, categorized, and tagged by where they came from, when we received them, and a variety of other ways of which we classify and store in a massive database. Many of our competitors and media claim false statements about our company because of either ignorance, lack of due diligence, or unfortunately, just to meet their scheming agenda. Despite all of this, we have always and will continue to strive to better our company to meet our client’s needs in the most progressive, effective, and honorable way while continuing to be the preeminent online reputation management team. If another company claims they can do something that sounds too good to be true, we recommend remembering the words of President George Washington, "Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
Brad Merkel
