Take a look in the mirror.
Darryl | Hygiene Advisor

Google your business name. It only takes a few seconds.

It’s a bit like when you first use Google Earth, looking yourself up is weirdly compelling. But searching for your own business might reveal some very interesting perspectives about how your customers, or even potential clients, see you.

Google Reviews.

I know, online reviews are something a lot of businesses roll their eyes about. There are hundreds of stories out there about people threatening dishonest bad reviews if businesses don’t give them special free treatment, and we all know how the one disappointed customer is more likely to leave a review than the thousands of satisfied clients you maintain a good relationship with. However, although many people take them with a pinch of salt now, they’re still a major part of what potential customers will see when looking you up online while balancing the arguments for and against using your business. They definitely matter.

An interesting pattern we’ve noticed around businesses in the cleaning industry is how many of the reviews are left by ex-staff. Dissatisfied employees tend to leave some of the most damning reviews, as well, as they are often fuelled by months of frustration and disputes with their superiors, whereas a dissatisfied customer is likely to have had less extended and emotionally charged grievances. An unhappy employee leaving a review is also a serious negative mark against a company providing cleaning services – if their staff are unhappy and badly treated, what quality of job can you really expect from them? Does it mean management are likely to be careless in their handling of contracts as well as staff? Questions like that in the minds of potential clients are going to be massively off-putting.

Now it may well be that reviews like that are left by employees who were dismissed entirely legitimately and have no significant cause for complaint. However, now the review is out there, there’s nothing that can be done to remove it, but it can be diluted. Asking happy staff and satisfied customers to leave reviews online will help to balance out the view people get of your company, and a few positive reviews hold a lot of weight, as it’s known how much less likely people are to leave positive comments.

It’s likely that 95% of your staff and customers are quite happy with your company. Potential clients or employees need to see that, so they don’t get unfairly put off. Make sure they know.

Read more about improving employee retention and satisfaction