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Google Review Gating: Why It Matters for Your Funeral Home
Caden Rhoton • November 18, 2019
As a funeral home owner or the owner of any small business for that matter, it’s essential to pay attention to your Google My Business profile and ratings. Improving your rating profile is a great way to stand out from the competition and win more at-need business.
If you’re new or unfamiliar with Google’s policies when it comes to generating reviews for your business, take some time to understand what Google’s policies are and make sure that your funeral home
complies.
The topic we’ll address here is known as “Review Gating.” Review gating is the process of filtering candidates before asking them to leave a review. Often this is done by sending all customers an email template and asking them if they had a positive or negative experience. If they indicate a positive experience, they are asked to leave a review on Google, but if they indicate a negative experience, they are prompted to leave private feedback and never have the option to leave a review publicly.
The exact language Google uses to prevent review gating is: “Don’t discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.”
Combating gating is vital for review sites like Google because the reviews on their website are only worth something to their users if they trust them. If businesses are only asking those who they know will leave a positive review, consumers begin to lose trust in the reviews because of the biased nature of the approach. Some review sites, like Yelp, for example, don’t allow businesses to request reviews from customers proactively.
Google allows businesses to ask for reviews, as long as they comply with its policy and content guidelines. Allowing review solicitation might explain how Google has quickly become the world’s top review website, surpassing sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor in terms of where consumers choose to read and write online reviews.
There are a few different ways to interpret and implement compliance with the gating policy, but the most popular practice is to ask everyone regardless of their level of satisfaction and whether or not you think they’ll leave a positive or negative review.
Don’t be afraid of a potential negative review, studies have shown that in some cases, the way a company responds to a negative review can be better for the business than if the review had been positive in the first place.
Consumers today are smart and recognize that not every customer will be completely satisfied all the time. Some even look for reasons to become upset. But the way a business responds to negative reviews shows what type of business you are and gives a peek into what it is like to do business with you. As a general rule, always “strive for five” (stars), but don’t be discouraged if you receive a review, and it’s less than 5-stars.
At Domani, we take pride in the relationships that we help build and strengthen with your families through text messaging and the results and increases in Google reviews we’ve seen for our partners across the country. The overwhelming majority (90%+) of the reviews we’ve generated for funeral homes are 5-stars. This success is because of the high level of attention and care that our partnered funeral homes provide families at the time of need.
We also are keeping a close eye on Google’s terms of service and making sure to stay in complete compliance.
The more you know about the importance of Google reviews and how they can help your funeral home, the more you will be able to stand out from the competition and increase your at-need call volume.
To learn more about Domanicare, the funeral profession’s first, and highest-performing text message aftercare program, schedule a free demo.
Funeral Home Articles
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