Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/738894
C h e c k o u t A B M P 's l a t e s t n e w s a n d b l o g p o s t s . Av a i l a b l e a t w w w. a b m p . c o m . 91 REVIEWS CAN HELP YOU EARN AND LEARN Whether positive or negative, client reviews can teach you a lot about what's working and what's not. Use your reviews to learn what clients love about your practice, and make sure you do more of that! Also tune in to frustrations that may be expressed in less- than-perfect reviews and put that feedback to work for your own improvement. While some negative reviews may be illegitimate attacks on a business, its owner, or its employees, the reality is other negative reviews reflect actual frustration on the part of poorly served clients. When this is the case, it's vitally important for business owners to take a long, hard, sober look at how they may need to repair some shortcomings in their customer service practices. Although painful, sometimes constructive criticism can spur us to grow, evolve, and improve our efforts, ultimately resulting in a stronger and more robustly thriving massage therapy practice. Notes 1. BrightLocal.com, "Local Consumer Review Survey," accessed September 2016, www.brightlocal. com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey. 2. Michael Luca, "Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com," working paper, Harvard Business School, September 16, 2011. complaint about the service that a client has received, but rather a mean-spirited personal attack) can become an invitation to the reviewer to engage in a public argument that may very well get ugly. Sometimes, as hard as it may be, it's smarter to contact the reviewer privately or simply turn the other cheek. I have suffered a negative review for my business that was written by a competitor. Frustratingly, the review site has repeatedly refused to remove the review, despite the fact that it very clearly violates their terms of service and content guidelines. The review is a rambling, angry diatribe of disparaging (although irrelevant) complaints and falsities, and was not even based on a visit to my business. After much aggravation and sadness over not being able to get the review site to do the right thing, I have finally come to this consoling conclusion: if a prospective client were to read this review, and it were to resonate with them to the degree that they would decide to avoid my business as a result, then that person is probably not someone I would be willing to welcome into my clientele anyway. I have also been consoled by a theory that has been put forth by many public relations experts, among others: a bad review here or there, mixed in with many more positive reviews, can actually lend legitimacy to the positive reviews. I used to pride myself on the fact that our business had nearly 25 reviews, all of which featured five stars. When I received this one (inappropriate) negative review, I was devastated that my winning streak had been broken. However, I've had social media executives and massage clients alike tell me that, when they view a business's review profile, if they see only five-star reviews, they wonder if they're actually real reviews. A negative review sprinkled into the mix can validate the authenticity of all the reviews, so as long as there are far more positive reviews than negative ones. In other words, bad reviews don't necessarily equal the end of the world. Chris Baccus, senior vice president of digital marketing at Caruso Affiliated in Los Angeles, California, acknowledges that accurately evaluating the credibility of online reviews is tricky for review sites, businesses, and consumers: "Review sites are a mixed bag. It's very difficult to determine the reliability of a source, so most of us look to consensus to determine the quality of a review score and comments. Fortunately, some review sites let you see the full scope of reviews made by someone and this can help determine how credible they are to further build comfort with reviews." MUCH ADO ABOUT RE VIE WS Susan Epperly works with her MT husband, Shane, in their East Austin Clinical Massage Therapy Practice, Tiger Lily Studios, LLC. Susan and Shane (both massage instructors) create a variety of educational products in both digital and physical formats (ebooks, audiobooks, videos, and more) for wellness practitioners. Their products are available for purchase on their website, www.tigerlilystudios.com. Lara's work is amazing. She is highly skilled and her massage is remarkable. I've experienced both her table work and her chair massage —both are exquisite. She has great depth of pressure but is very sensitive in its application. Her home office is beautiful and very relaxing.