Reviews & Reputation Management

I don’t get why local business owners still treat online reviews like some mysterious black box. Last week I talked to a restaurant owner who spent three hours reading through his reviews, trying to figure out why his ratings dropped. Three hours. Of reading the same complaints over and over. You know what took me […]

Let’s get something straight. While you’re refreshing your bank account hoping for magic money to appear, your competitors are stealing your customers. Not with better service. Not with lower prices. But because they know what people are saying about them online. Every week I watch business owners torpedo their own success because they think review

I’ll let you in on something most marketing agencies won’t tell you. All those testimonials plastered on your website? Nobody reads them. Those five-star reviews you worked so hard to get? People scroll right past them. But last week, I watched a local bakery accidentally stumble into marketing gold. They posted a simple photo of

I got a call last week that made me want to throw my laptop out the window. Local restaurant owner, great food, packed every weekend. But online? Crickets. “I’ve got 82 reviews,” he said. “People love us. But nobody knows because they’re all trapped in Google.” This happens every day. Business owners collect reviews like

Every local business owner I know thinks they’re managing their online reviews. They’re not. They’re playing digital whack-a-mole while their competition steals customers. I spent last week watching business owners frantically log into Google, then Yelp, then Facebook, then TripAdvisor, trying to keep track of what people were saying about them. One plumber told me

I’m tired of watching local businesses throw money at Facebook ads that nobody clicks. Or worse, spending weekends writing blog posts about “5 Tips for Better Service” that get exactly three views. All from their mom. Meanwhile, some coffee shop down the street has lines around the block because customers won’t shut up about them

While enjoying my pizza slice at a local joint, I heard the pizza shop owner brag about his five-star average on Google. Forty-seven reviews, all perfect. Except when I looked, the last response from the business was three years ago. To a complaint about cold food. The owner’s response? “We pride ourselves on quality service.”

You know what pisses the hell out of me? Local businesses spending thousands on stock photos while their customers are taking better pictures for free. I’m talking about the dentist using the same smiling-model-with-perfect-teeth photo as seventeen other dentists in town. The mechanic with that generic “professional holding a wrench” shot. The restaurant showing pristine

Social media testimonials are the new word-of-mouth. Except now your neighbor’s rave review about your pizza joint reaches 500 people instead of just the guy next door. Most local businesses are still stuck begging for Google reviews while completely ignoring the goldmine of customer love happening on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. They’re focused on gaming

You’re reading reviews at 2 AM again. I know because I used to do the same thing. Staring at that one-star review wondering if Karen from Tuesday is going to tank your entire business. Here’s the thing: Karen doesn’t matter. What matters is what you say back. Because while Karen’s bitching about her lukewarm coffee,