Join me and online review and business reputation management guru, Mark Spencer from Consumer Fusion as we discuss reputation management best practices for franchise, multi-site, and small business.

We address:
- The impact of your online reputation on your business
- How do Google reviews tie into your organic search traffic
- What's the best way to respond to negative reviews (Google reviews, Facebook Reviews, Yelp Reviews, etc.)
- What should you look for in negative reviews that can help you get them removed
- How to monitor your online reputation effectively

Want to read the transcript? Of course... here you go.

Dave Hansen (00:01):
Hey Mark, thanks so much for joining us. Hey, guys, this is Dave Hansen from ClientTether, and this is our first podcast video casts with, Mark over at... In fact, Mark, I don't want to introduce you. You introduce yourself, you'll do a much better job of it. Please.
Mark Spencer (00:17):
Hello, my name's Mark Spencer. I'm with Consumer Fusion. Consumer Fusion is an all-in-one reputation management, solution along with, some local search and, local listings along with some organic social media. So thanks for having me Dave. I appreciate you having me on for your inaugural, podcast.
Dave Hansen (00:36):
My pleasure. You guys are a good partner and I love your content. Every time we talk I learn new stuff and that's why I thought I've got to have Mark or Brynn - one of the two of you join me cause you're kind of experts and have a lot to share. And I love that you guys are willing to share like your social posts, things like that. Often, I'll read it and say, Oh, I didn't know that and I'll share it to my network. So thanks for being great content contributors.
Mark Spencer (00:58):
Thank you. I appreciate you sharing them.
Dave Hansen (01:01):
Yeah. Well, and so one of the things you didn't say that I'll, add as well is you guys also do negative review removal. We'll talk more about that. But that's kind of an interesting topic today. A lot of people have a lot more time on their hands. I mean, before we jump too far into anything, do you mind maybe sharing a little bit about what are some of the trends you're seeing in reputation in the industry right now? Things that people ought to be aware of.
Mark Spencer (01:24):
Yeah. The thing is, is here at consumer fusion, we're not here to make a bad company look good and we're not here to remove negative reviews that belong there. Um, but we see a trend of third party experiences. Um, especially with Covid-19 going on right now. , we see a lot of tattle tellers, a lot of people, , seeing that non-essential businesses are out there, not staying at home and then taking pictures and then uploading those and tagging that business and writing a negative Yelp or Google review. And so with that, we see we're trying to hold these brands and help them get through these, these challenging times so to speak as we roll these out.
Dave Hansen (02:01):
Yeah, that's interesting. I guess now we have an answer to one of my questions, which is what are all these people doing with all their extra time? But I guess that's a, that's part of it. And I think fans. Hey, well tell me a little bit about, I thought it'd be fun to start, with just an experience you've had with the crazy or like a funny, , negative review, removal of reputation experience. You guys have tons of these aren't bad, but what are some of the, what's something you've seen recently that was, was really interesting?
Mark Spencer (02:27):
, there's a few crazy ones. Oh. Um, consumer fusion. Shoot, we've been around just under 10 years. Um, and how we started was brand. You mentioned Brynn, she's the founder and CEO. So it's a woman owned company. Um, my dad's a retired dentist and one of his ex employees went online to his Google business page and wrote, um, saying that he doesn't pay his employees and it was just a bad firing. And my dad took it like it was okay and she didn't. So she went online and said, Hey, he doesn't pay his employees. And there's a lot of patients, , that saw that and he lost some patients because of it. So Brynn, who was, we were dating at the time said, Hey, let's look into it. So she read the terms and conditions of that, of Google. And one of those terms and conditions, and we'll touch base a little bit on later, is you can't write about your ex-employer.
Mark Spencer (03:15):
Um, that is one of the terms and conditions and Google, Yelp, Facebook, they don't have the manpower to police the reviews. And so we went out and we disputed it. Um, disputing has changed over the last 10 years. But, , she went into disputed it and it finally came down and ding, ding, ding. Um, my dad was part of a rotary club, , with plastic surgeons and lawyers. And that leads me right into a couple crazy, um, first time things that we've seen in regards to the negatives that we've been able to remove, um, in the medical field. , first one was, , there's a lot of pill poppers out in this world. Opiates are becoming a pretty big thing right now. And it's, it's a, it's a tough subject for a lot of people and pill poppy because that's what the doctors do is they just give them, Hey, this will help you out.
Mark Spencer (03:58):
Well, some of the medical doctors that we do work with, with reputation management, they get hit hard because they turn people away, , without prescribing them oxycodone or whatever. And then they get home, they get frustrated, they're already irritable and they, they go off and write. But the most memorable, memorable one that we've come across was, , a multiunit franchisee pizza place. , I don't wanna name names. Um, but it was not on their end. Um, but it was a Google post with a picture and it was a picture of a pizza pizza with a pubic pubic hairs sprinkled on the pizza, um, and, , in the cash. And it was like, Hey, I received this pizza. And then their second picture was after they ate a couple pieces of pizza, didn't know that Cuba care was there. They took a picture. Um, there was a picture of a penis that was written in Sharpie underneath the pizza says, you ate, you saw the picture of that.
Mark Spencer (04:50):
So then they started looking at the pizza and found it. Well, long story short, this was all drawn up. We found out that it was a bunch of drunk people that actually, um, wrote this and they were just looking for some free pizza, but we were able to remove it. It was a troll type of a review, and that's what we see trending. But it was, we've seen it all. , we've seen some crazy stuff that once again, we're here to keep reviews honest and help those small businesses and large corporations maintain a good online presence. So the houses, it's crazy.
Dave Hansen (05:20):
Wow. Yeah. People would go to no end for a free pizza, like five bucks. You know, like if you want to go get a Dominos or something. So ...hard times, I guess. So, yeah, I need to reroute those funds. , we, we've got, um, and you know, just, you know, and, and this, in this podcast and video, we're not, we're not condoning or condemning, you know, beer or pizza. I said these are okay to is neutral stuff, but, , the, , I wanted to ask you a little bit about, about reputation. You know, that's a very specific niche you guys are, and we'll come back to negative reviews, but tell us, talk to us a little bit about best practices and monitoring your reputation. So I mean, and, and, and also, you know, meaning good and negative, like what are some best practices that people should be paying attention to?
Mark Spencer (06:08):
Definitely address the negatives. And there are times that you can remove negatives. Um, I want to respond to the negative reviews. Um, the most important thing when a review comes across, whether it's both positive and negative, is making sure you have a business owner's response in a timely matter. Um, so with best business practice, I recommend never get emotional with your responses if it's a negative. And we at consumer fusion, we do have a platform that notifies you via text and email when you get any review, let alone if it's three stars or below. Um, but you want to pounce on that. And I mean, I'm by pounce on that is, , 90% of consumers read the business owner's response. And so it's important that you don't turn a negative into a double negative. And, , but you also want to go in there, devalue it, but reach out and let the, let the potential consumer that sees that negative to see that, Hey, they're reaching out, they're trying to rectify the situation, they're to giving phone numbers and emails and they're trying to reach out to make it.
Mark Spencer (07:03):
Right. So, , with that, I say the best thing to do is make sure you respond to reviews, both positive and negative. And I was talking negative. Let's talk positive. I mean, don't you say thank you when someone thanks you and says happy birthday day, you know, on social media. Will you say, Hey, thanks. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate that having a great day. Do you want to do the same thing with your positive reviews and responding to positive reviews, acknowledging that these people take the time out of their day to write you a good review. You want to respond to it. And so there are platforms out there that can monitor your reputation. Um, , but ours is a little different because we're actually doing the manual work to be an all in one solution, which is , removing negative content that doesn't belong there. Customized our owner's responses and then the monitoring part of it. But there's a, there's a lot of , practices. So I recommend a monitoring service, um, and the third party to respond to that. You don't get emotional on the reviews.
Dave Hansen (07:59):
Yeah. And let's say you're a small business. Like I don't have budget to hire any sort of a service. I know some are fairly inexpensive too, but I mean, worst case they should have some sort of a process where they're, you know, a cou