MSPs, Don't Sleep on Google Reviews

[00:00:02] Welcome to the Powered Services Podcast, your go-to source for all things MSP.

[00:00:10] Each episode, we're diving deep into the world of MSPs, exploring cutting-edge solutions,

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[00:00:36] MSP game to the next level. Now, here's your host, Dan Tomaszewski.

[00:00:45] Greetings, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Powered Services Podcast. Excited

[00:00:50] to have you along. If you were with us last week, we had an awesome episode with Danny Carlson

[00:00:56] talking to us about Chambers of Commerce and how he's leveraging Chambers of Commerce to

[00:01:01] grow his MSP and just get his brand and everything out there. And leading to another subject about our

[00:01:07] brand and really establishing our MSPs is Google Reviews. A lot of people talk about it. A lot of

[00:01:15] people, it's a big part. We're out there in a world where people want to do their due diligence before

[00:01:19] they do business with us and they do their research, and Google Reviews is a big part of that. And I

[00:01:26] thought there'd be no better person to bring on than Trish Cody, co-owner of 12 Points Technologies.

[00:01:33] And she ran a contest and she's got some pretty cool results and what took place from there. So

[00:01:39] I wanted to have her come on and talk to us about running a Google Review contest. And we'll learn

[00:01:46] about all the ins and outs of it in today's episode. So without further ado, Trish, welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:52] Excited to have you with us today. Thank you, Dan. I'm so excited to be here.

[00:01:57] Yeah, let's go through this. So Google Reviews, you know, a lot of people hear about it. They're

[00:02:01] like, yeah, Google, we got to do it. You know, it's important. We all we all know the you know,

[00:02:06] why Google, you know, why the reviews are important. But what, you know, take me through the mindset.

[00:02:12] Why did you and your company? Why did you want to do a Google Review contest? What, what was the

[00:02:19] overall behind it? And what were you looking to kind of get get away from it?

[00:02:23] Yeah, that's kind of a two part of question. So why the reviews and then why the cons, why contest for

[00:02:29] that? So we wanted to get more reviews because at the time that we started the contest, we only had

[00:02:37] three Google reviews and we've been in business for over 20 years. And so that's a little sad.

[00:02:42] Um, and two of those reviews were completely bogus reviews, like not even people we knew,

[00:02:48] you know, just like weird things that people just said, these guys are awful. Um, so what,

[00:02:53] and we couldn't get them off. So what we wanted to do is bury them with positive reviews. The other

[00:02:58] reason we wanted to do it was because, you know, I think we all want to be able to let prospects,

[00:03:04] um, know what our customers are saying about us. And a lot of times, if you are doing referrals,

[00:03:11] your prospects or your customers can kind of get referral fatigue, um, where they're just tired of

[00:03:16] taking those calls, they're happy to do it. But after a while, it's kind of like, look,

[00:03:20] I can't be your Google review bank, like all by my onesie. Right? So we said, all right,

[00:03:25] we need to find a better way to do this. Um, we'd been asking people to do Google reviews. We use, uh,

[00:03:32] crew who for our CSAT and it's right there in the email that goes out that says rank us. And by the

[00:03:37] way, if you really like us, go out to Google and leave us a review. And that was given us crickets.

[00:03:42] We were not getting anything from people would say, yeah, yeah, I'll go do a review. And then

[00:03:46] they just, you know, wouldn't do it just not for any negative reason, just stuff gets away from you.

[00:03:52] So we thought, okay, how can we really motivate folks? And we decided to that maybe a contest.

[00:03:56] Um, I have a friend of mine who throws a lot of events and he's always doing raffles for those

[00:04:01] things. And everybody is always all in on them. He raises tons of money for charity doing that.

[00:04:06] And I thought, well, you know, people seem to like raffles. So let's try a raffle to do that.

[00:04:11] Yeah. So what was the goal? Like you said, you only had three, a couple of them were,

[00:04:15] were not customers, just the wonderful world of Google where people go on and leave, uh,

[00:04:20] leave, you know, different information. Um, so how many Google reviews were you trying to get,

[00:04:26] you know, and then what period of time?

[00:04:28] Yeah, we decided to run it only for 30 days because we wanted to make it, you know,

[00:04:32] put some emergency behind it. So you get this month and that's it. Um, and our goal was to get

[00:04:38] 20, uh, five-star Google reviews in 30 days.

[00:04:41] Wow. Um, all right. That's yeah, that's a good goal.

[00:04:46] Uh, so let's talk about it then. So how did you set the contest up and can you walk us through the

[00:04:52] process? You know, you just told us about, you have a friend that, you know, does really good with

[00:04:57] raffles and things like that. So let's talk us through, there's a lot of, all the people on here

[00:05:02] that listened to this podcast are MSPs and you know, they got their own MSP. So let's take them

[00:05:07] through this process. What did you think about from start? And then let's kind of walk people

[00:05:11] through to the finish line of what that process looked like. And you want to do accomplish this

[00:05:16] in 30 days. It's a pretty aggressive goal. Let's take people through those motions.

[00:05:21] Sure. So, um, we decided first of all, to go with a full size, uh, Yeti cooler that we on wheels

[00:05:28] that we were going to raffle off because we figured, well, let's make it worth their while.

[00:05:31] You know, we're not going to offer them a coffee mug. Right. So we said, let's make it something.

[00:05:36] Um, this was, we ran it in, uh, April, May timeframe. So it was going right into that spring

[00:05:40] summer where people want to go boating, people want to go camping. So we thought what a great,

[00:05:45] what a great prize. So that was the first choice. And then the second choice was how to do it.

[00:05:49] And we decided to run it just like we would run any kind of marketing, um, or pre-sales campaign.

[00:05:55] So we used our inside sales rep, um, to really run that campaign for us. Uh, the first step was

[00:06:02] having our sales rep, um, who, you know, our account relationship manager send out emails,

[00:06:08] uh, to folks, letting them know that this was coming. We created some nice little flyers,

[00:06:13] some great graphics, some, you know, Hey, look, you can win kind of things, uh, to send out.

[00:06:18] And he sent those all out. And then we followed it up with a very structured process of follow-up

[00:06:23] emails, follow-up phone calls, uh, on a schedule. So each day, um, our inside sales rep had activities

[00:06:30] to do. And so we took that customer list. We broke them down into three groups, um, completely

[00:06:35] arbitrary groups, not based on value, not based on anything, not even alphabetical, just arbitrary

[00:06:40] groups. Um, and we just set up a rotation. So on day one, you email this group on day two,

[00:06:46] you email this group on day three, you call this group on day four, you do this. Um, and I gave

[00:06:52] them a very structured plan with scripts to do that. Um, and he continued that throughout the

[00:06:56] course of the 30 days. That's, that's awesome. I mean, you really put the whole plan together.

[00:07:02] And I think that's, you know, how much time did it take you to put the thought process behind,

[00:07:07] like the one group, three groups and the schedules for each activity in the days? Like,

[00:07:12] what would you say was the time commitment from you to put all that together?

[00:07:17] I would say it probably an afternoon, um, really to kind of think about how do we want to do this?

[00:07:22] How do we want to run it to write the scripts? Um, and then also to come up with the rules of play.

[00:07:28] Uh, so, you know, it has to be a five-star review. It has to be accompanied by a comment.

[00:07:32] Um, you can have other employees at your organization also enter. And for every additional

[00:07:39] entry, you get an additional raffle entry, but that also has to be a five-star review has to be,

[00:07:45] um, including a comment and you yourself have to have already done that for any of your employee

[00:07:51] ones to also count. So we just kind of did this whole rule structure. Um, and then creating the

[00:07:56] graphic was probably maybe, I don't know, about an hour at a time. So I, I would say somebody could

[00:08:00] put that together in an afternoon. Yeah. So it's not something that is like, Hey, this is going to

[00:08:06] take up hours and hours and hours of planning. This isn't going to take days and weeks of trying

[00:08:11] to structure it. It's something you can go put your mind to sit down in an afternoon or an evening

[00:08:16] and, uh, just kind of go through, put the rules, the process in place. Um, you put the script in

[00:08:21] place. Did you train your, your caller, like your insights? Did you talk to them through like,

[00:08:27] Hey, look, this is the goal. This is what we're trying to achieve. This isn't like,

[00:08:30] did they know? I mean, obviously I know you've put the scripts together, but did you train them then too?

[00:08:35] Well, I wouldn't say that I trained him. We went through the scripts. I asked him to give me

[00:08:39] any questions if he has any. Um, we made sure that he, and also all of our texts, I think this was

[00:08:45] kind of important. We made sure all of our texts knew. So everybody in the whole company knew this

[00:08:48] contest was going on. Everybody knew to promote it. Everybody knew to say, Hey, by the way, if you

[00:08:52] haven't entered yet, uh, make sure that you get your, get your name in there. Cause we're giving

[00:08:56] away this cooler. So it was really kind of a team effort for everybody in the company working on it.

[00:09:02] No, that's great. So the, the, everybody in the team was behind this and let's talk through some

[00:09:07] of the results. Like what did you find as you guys were calling people? I think I just had a little

[00:09:11] bit of a cutout. Sorry. I'm here. Oh, what? Uh, that's okay. We have technical difficulties.

[00:09:18] We keep it real and just let things keep going, um, on the podcast. So what, uh, what, uh, what,

[00:09:24] what was the results? What did you guys find with your team? And like, what were,

[00:09:28] what were you seeing as you guys started this campaign? Yeah. So it started off actually pretty

[00:09:34] slow the first week and a half. We were like, Oh gosh, are we going to make this? Um, so we changed

[00:09:39] our messaging a little bit for a countdown. Um, instead of just saying, Hey, reminder,

[00:09:43] Hey, reminder, we started including countdowns saying you only have, you know, five more days

[00:09:47] left to do this. You only have 10 more days left to do this. Um, and that really kind of pushed it.

[00:09:51] So by the end of it, we ended up getting 21, um, five-star reviews with comments. Um, some of the

[00:09:58] comments were long and nice. Some of them were just short little things like, Hey, you guys are

[00:10:02] great. Love ya. Um, either way it counted. Uh, so, and we also, I forgot to say earlier in the rules,

[00:10:09] one of the rules was that if you're the winner, you agree, um, to have your picture taken with the

[00:10:14] prize that we can use in our marketing. So we were able to do that. We were able to get the picture

[00:10:19] taken. Um, and everybody was happy. Yeah. Great. So you went from having basically one review

[00:10:25] and you picked up 21 new reviews in less than 30 days. And I mean, that had to help you from a

[00:10:31] Google SEO standpoint. It has to help now for people that are researching and taking a look at the

[00:10:36] company. I mean, it had some pretty significant results for you and, and, and going to help your

[00:10:41] marketing for the further on now down the road into 2025 now. Yeah, absolutely. One of the additional

[00:10:47] things was because we put it right in the rules that we're using this for marketing. Um, we have

[00:10:52] since pulled some of those reviews. They are on a rotation on our website. Um, we use them in emails,

[00:10:58] we use them in various different things. So it's not just about getting on Google, but it's also being

[00:11:02] able to use them in other marketing ways. So let's talk through some of the challenges though. I mean,

[00:11:08] it can't just be all roses on the other side. Was there any challenges that you guys faced as an,

[00:11:13] as an organization when trying to put this contest together and actually running it? I mean, what,

[00:11:19] uh, what were the hurdles? I know you were saying the countdown timers. I heard you say that like

[00:11:23] getting people to actually do things within a certain period. Were there other challenges that you

[00:11:27] ran into? There really weren't other challenges that I was aware of at the time. Um, it's funny

[00:11:34] because after presenting this idea, I did have a couple people come up to me and say, Hey, you know,

[00:11:39] Google doesn't like it when you do that. So what I found out on the back end is it's a really good

[00:11:44] thing that we did not put on our socials. Um, anything about, Hey guys, we're running this

[00:11:49] contest. You could win a cooler if you give us a Google preview because Google does not like pay

[00:11:55] for play, um, when it comes to Google reviews. So that's a caution. Everything has to go. We,

[00:12:00] everything ran directly through our email and through phone. Um, and you know, probably postcards

[00:12:05] would be okay too. If we decided to do that later. Um, but yeah, just not to put it on the

[00:12:11] socials because if Google gets word of it, you could get a little bit of backlash. They could,

[00:12:15] you know, uh, tank your rankings on your reviews for you. So that's really good advice. I mean,

[00:12:23] you don't want to be out there publicizing everybody. Give me a five star, like, give me this,

[00:12:27] but you know, I think that's a really good tip. And from a challenging perspective,

[00:12:31] because someone could get really blasted by promoting it that way. Um, so let's think about

[00:12:37] it for all the MSPs that are out there that, uh, this is really good. And when you've shown the

[00:12:43] results, you've talked about how you did it, you talked about how you trained, you had this stuff

[00:12:47] set up. So now I'm an MSP, I'm considering doing a similar Google review. What is the advice that you

[00:12:55] would give them based on the experience, um, that you went through and, you know, would you do this again?

[00:13:00] And what advice would you give to our listeners? Yeah, um, we'll probably, we'll absolutely do it

[00:13:06] again, probably in the spring again. Um, and probably with the cooler again, that seemed to

[00:13:10] work really, really well. Um, it bagged us, uh, 3,200 and new MRR, um, that we could directly

[00:13:18] attribute because they told us, ah, yeah, we went out and read your reviews and that really,

[00:13:22] you know, helped us make our decisions. So I'd encourage anybody to do it. I would say be

[00:13:27] structured about it. You know, the thing that we did with our inside sales rep, even if you

[00:13:30] don't have an inside sales rep, make somebody responsible for it and give them a structure

[00:13:35] and a plan that they have to follow. Um, I would say about midway through, make sure you're using

[00:13:40] your countdowns, um, and have a time limit and don't make it too long. Don't say, you know,

[00:13:45] we're going to, you know, for this quarter, um, I might even shorten it from 30 days to 15.

[00:13:50] The next time I run it just to really get some more of that urgency, um, and just keep on top of it.

[00:13:55] I, you know, check it every day, um, and have it and have a target, make sure that, you know,

[00:14:00] this is what we want. This is, this is how many we want. This is what we're after.

[00:14:04] Yeah, those it's like some of the best advice. Like this is, uh, this 2015 to 20 minute podcast.

[00:14:10] I mean, you as an MSP now should be able to take in and be able to implement this, uh, in your

[00:14:15] business. And if you're trying to do this and you're struggling, you can reach out to us.

[00:14:19] Uh, we have an entire powered services team, uh, that can help guide and support you. Um, you know,

[00:14:25] in, in trying to help you get the same type of things that Trish is talking about in the results.

[00:14:29] So, uh, there's lots of people that can help you. So if you don't know, you know,

[00:14:33] Trish just gave out a ton of really good ideas and strategy behind this. Um, you should look at 2025.

[00:14:39] Isn't that far off in. We want to make sure that our marketing is effective. We spend all this time,

[00:14:45] money, energy, resources, putting out content. We go out into communities, we go to chambers,

[00:14:50] we have centers of influence. We have all these things. Um, but when people go do their research,

[00:14:56] when we're not around, what are they looking and what are they seeing? And if, if you're in a

[00:15:00] scenario like Trish, where you only had a couple and they just weren't the right ones, the right

[00:15:04] styles or people spammed them in there, you know, what does that say to the prospects that are

[00:15:09] looking and you said you were in business for 21 years? Yeah. Yeah. So I mean,

[00:15:15] really good, credible business been around a long time, but if I went on the digital footprint,

[00:15:20] I just didn't have that idea that you've been around for 21 years with all these reviews showing

[00:15:24] me now I've at least got the customers of 21 years commenting in there to give us that stuff.

[00:15:30] I mean, it really makes a big impact for folks. So, uh, if you're an MSP, you definitely need to

[00:15:35] have this on your radar for 2025, um, and strategize around it. Trish, I'll ask you this. I know you said

[00:15:41] you would do this quarterly. Are you guys doing any other in-between things? I know you say you've

[00:15:46] got like the crew who thing going where, uh, it's a part of like emails. Hey, if you really feel great

[00:15:52] about our services, you know, leave us a review. Are you guys doing anything, you know, more to

[00:15:57] promote around that? And are you getting more, any more organic or do you really feel like it's

[00:16:02] unfortunately more of a push around contest prizes incentives to get them?

[00:16:07] I would say that getting organic Google reviews is really hard because when you're doing business

[00:16:13] with somebody, especially if it's a recurring service, like, like what we provide, um, it's just

[00:16:18] not your first thought to say, Oh, you know what? I'm going to go out and leave a review for these

[00:16:22] folks just because they're so awesome. I might tell you that to your face. Um, but it's just, we just

[00:16:28] don't think to do it. So for me, it's really more of a poll. It's, it's more of a, you know, you have

[00:16:33] to ask for it. Don't necessarily have to run a contest. I mean, we had a very aggressive goal

[00:16:38] and we wanted to just, we wanted to bury those, those negative reviews. Um, but I, you do have

[00:16:44] to ask for it and, and in a proactive way, the passive way of having it on the crew who, um, or in

[00:16:50] the, at the bottom of your emails. I mean, that's good to have. I wouldn't say don't have it, but it's

[00:16:55] not going to get you a lot of reviews. At least it hasn't in, in, in our experience.

[00:17:01] Okay. No, I really appreciate you coming out of the podcast today and talking us through the

[00:17:05] success that you've had with the Google reviews. If you do it next spring, maybe I'll bring you back

[00:17:11] and let's see what the results are, are there. We'd love to hear about it and hear the results

[00:17:16] for the second time through and in going through, but really genuinely appreciate you coming on and

[00:17:20] sharing this. This was an awesome strategy and idea for MSPs that really doesn't take up a ton of time,

[00:17:26] um, to be able to go out there, but has a big impact. And you've already seen the fruit of that

[00:17:31] impact. Um, you know, through some new MRR and, uh, I'm sure there's more to come, but really, again,

[00:17:37] thank you for taking the time with us today. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:17:41] This was fun. All right, everybody, that's it for this episode of the Powered Services podcast. And I

[00:17:46] challenge each and every one of you, what are you doing to move your Google reviews? Go look at it,

[00:17:51] put it on the calendar, put a date, do something around making sure that you're getting more Google

[00:17:55] reviews in your MSP until next time, everybody have a great day. And that's a wrap for today's episode

[00:18:05] of the Powered Services podcast with Dan Tomaszewski. We hope you're leaving with your mind buzzing with

[00:18:12] new ideas and strategies to revolutionize your MSP offerings. Don't forget to subscribe for more

[00:18:18] insights and join us next time as we continue to decode the complexities of managed services.

[00:18:25] Until then, keep powering through and remember the future of MSP is bright and fully charged.

[00:18:34] Thank you for listening and stay connected.