A lot of insurnce agencies I talk to are uneasy about customer reviews that might show up on the public web. The fact is, most business owners are nervous about losing control over customer commentary, but I tend to talk mostly to insurance agents. The local search components of all the major search engines have a place for reviews, and services like Yelp exist pretty much for the purpose of sharing customer reviews. You don’t have to draw your customer’s attention to these review services; sooner or later, they will find them on their own.

Unscrupulous ‘web marketing’ service providers will sometimes post false, negative reviews (or positive reviews on a competitor site they are ‘optimizing’). You should be monitoring your insurance agency’s reviews on these services, as well as those of competitors. Search providers are generally responsive to dealing with false reviews, as long as they can be proven false (e.g., the same ‘reviewer’ providing essentially the same review, to multiple insurance providers across the country, and posting all the reviews around the same time). If reviews are legit, however, or if you cannot prove them to be false, they stay.

The best way to offset negative reviews is by out weighing them with positive reviews. Happily, the evidence seems to indicate that there are a lot more good reviews than bad. Geoff Donaker, COO at Yelp, noted that the ratio of positive to negative reviews is 6:1*. If your agency is delivering real value, let go a little and encourage your customers to spread the word.

*From http://allthings.womma.org/2009/05/18/recap-yelp-presentation/, May 13, 2009

I have long encouraged agents to take control of their online reputation. Monitoring feedback left by others at various online rating and search services is a must. Encouraging positive feedback is even better.

I recently concluded a purchase on eBay (where buyers and sellers are sometimes referred to as the ‘EBay community) and received an email soliciting not just my direct feedback, but also a request to rate my experience via the eBay seller rating function. Here’s the email (names omitted to protect the innocent:

Thank you for your purchase from Business Name Omitted.

We received note that your order has been delivered and would like to verify that you are satisfied with your purchase and our service.

Please reply to this email if there is anything that would keep you from giving us 5 stars on all ratings. We’ll do what it takes to make it right.

If you are satisfied we would highly appreciate it if you would leave us positive feedback with 5 stars on all ratings on eBay. Please use this link: Direct Link to eBay Rating for Seller Omitted.

We have already added positive feedback to your ebay profile. Your feedback can be viewed at:
Direct Link to my eBay Profile and Rating Omitted.

If you have any questions you can either reply to this email or call us at Phone Number Omitted.

Thank you for your business,
Business Name Omitted

Taking a cue from this approach and using a version of this email after every agency sale, renewal, or claim will deliver multiple benefits. First, you will be systematically probing to be sure your customers are happy and will be building stronger relationships (aka, less price sensitivity, more referrals). Second, you will far outstrip your competition in the number positive reviews your agency has at Google Maps (local search), Yahoo Local, Yelp, etc. All you have to do is insert the direct link for rating at those services into your standard email, similar to the example above.