Google Reviews

xrac · January 23, 2018

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Alex · January 24, 2018

It's worth a shot to report it and dispute.

xrac · January 24, 2018

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Alex · January 24, 2018

5 minutes ago, xrac said:

I have on this and another but haven't heard a thing as yet. Alex, do you have any idea how long it takes for Google to respond or do they respond.

As fast as 24 hours in some cases if it's a policy violation. Google recommends responding to the review as a message back to the customer, if you haven't done that already.

Google may have not seen the review as a policy violation in which case it's difficult to remove.

AlohaAutoLasVegas · January 24, 2018

Just follow the ADVICE YOU gave a few weeks ago to another shop owner about her problems with social media.Not to misunderstand you but,,you gave good advice to her.You should practice what you preach...just sayin....

AndersonAuto · January 24, 2018

How's this for a nice one star review? This was posted to my shop facebook page 7 weeks ago.

Carlos:
Anderson automotive over charge knowing people will pay since they have no other choice an need their cars running asap. AUTO CLINIC in Olathe ks does everything better making sure the customers are dealt with respect and compassion!!

My response:
Carlos, I'm sorry you feel this way. I was a bit confused by your review, so I looked up the records of your last visit, and listened to the phone calls associated with it. You asked about having your brakes looked at, and also a transmission flush. You called back a couple of days later and asked about just the transmission flush labor, with you supplying the fluid. You were given a price for the flush labor and flush chemicals, which you obviously agreed to as you brought your car in a couple days later. We flushed the transmission with your fluid and changed the engine oil as you requested for exactly the price you were quoted over the phone before you came into the shop. Since a transmission flush isn't the sort of service needed to get a car back on the road, and the price you were quoted and price you paid were exactly the same, I'm sure you can understand my confusion.

And then today he's in my shop spending $2700 on his Volkswagen.

AlohaAutoLasVegas · January 25, 2018

Personally I wouldn't do any repairs for Carlos,no matter what the repairs costs.Someone like that isn't worth the $2700.00 dollars.He did you dirty once he can do it again.@AndersonAuto

AndersonAuto · January 25, 2018

I don't disagree, but my guys were unaware of, or didn't remember me telling them about, his review from 7 weeks ago. I only knew he came back in because I saw his name pop up on the caller ID when he called with a question after picking up his car. When his name came up I mumbled something along the lines of "what does that M-Fer want?" My manager gave me a confused look and told me he just spent almost three grand today.

xrac · January 25, 2018

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xrac · January 25, 2018

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AlohaAutoLasVegas · January 25, 2018

Was that Volkswagen even worth putting $2700.00 dollars of repairs into? LOL..do you realize that everything that goes wrong with Carlos' car from now on (because he paid $2700.00 dollars) will be your fault no matter if it's something you didn't touch? I'm sure you heard that ole sayin "ever since you repaired my car,now it's........." There should be a review website (and if there is I wanna know) that business owners can post reviews on our unsatisfactory expectations on customers...business emphasis on "Customer Experience"........Imagine that???... LOL.... We as shop owners are the ones "experiencing the customers " whining when their not happy with prices of repairs or whatever it may be..

AlohaAutoLasVegas · January 25, 2018

@xrac Why would you want to win those kind of people over??

AndersonAuto · January 25, 2018

11 hours ago, AlohaAutoLasVegas said:

Was that Volkswagen even worth putting $2700.00 dollars of repairs into? LOL..do you realize that everything that goes wrong with Carlos' car from now on (because he paid $2700.00 dollars) will be your fault no matter if it's something you didn't touch? I'm sure you heard that ole sayin "ever since you repaired my car,now it's........." There should be a review website (and if there is I wanna know) that business owners can post reviews on our unsatisfactory expectations on customers...business emphasis on "Customer Experience"........Imagine that???... LOL.... We as shop owners are the ones "experiencing the customers " whining when their not happy with prices of repairs or whatever it may be..

Of course I understand the implications of working on his car. But if you read my earlier post, I didn't know he was in the shop at all until he had already picked up his car.

ncautoshop · January 27, 2018

I think a few lower reviews actually helps by confirming that the reviews aren't fake. Just bury them with good reviews. I'd suggest a campaign asking customers for reviews one week after completion .

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

gandgautorepair · January 28, 2018

I have also had bad Google reviews from people who I can't find the person or the situation. I filed with Google but nothing ever happened, never got any kind of response from Google. I replied that we didn't have that customer in our data base, that we follow up on every single customer (which we do with Myshopmanager), and we had no knowledge or complaint about a situation like this. All I could do. I had a string of them at one time, seemed like an attack. In the comment I also pointed to our other review sites like SureCritic. Google+ and Google reviews are a PIA but not much we can do about it. We adjusted to get more Google reviews to try and dilute the weird reviews.

xrac · January 28, 2018

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Hands On · January 28, 2018

I dance on thin icer around these types. Once in a while a car makes it into my shop that has no business being there. Once I realize the mistake they made I top of all of their fluids make sure all drain plugs are tight and let it go for free. I usually apologize for not being able to get to the vehicle in time and refer them to a local budget shop. If they were real rude along the way I maintain composure and rerfer them to the thieving shop down the street.

We do have one fake review on our yelp page. I used it as an opportunity to disprove every thing they said by talking about all we do right.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Hands On

gandgautorepair · January 28, 2018

Yes, I include in my response to those bad reviews all the things we do, things that are our values, and hope for the best. I have actually had people come in and say that they chose us because of reading a few bad reviews, it added credibility to our many hundreds of good reviews.

alfredauto · February 5, 2018

I ran an online Ebay business for over a decade, random assortment of stuff I sold. No matter what, I could bet 1 in 50 will complain about something, 1 in 100 will really complain and cause anxiety, 1 in 1,000 will leave a negative and death threats no matter what. No different in the repair shop.

3PuttFever · February 7, 2018

I've lost sleep over people's lies and words online. Late last year I heard a religious speaker on my radio when driving home talking about how there will ALWAYS be some people against me. As long as I know I'm doing honest work and my best I can't let the negative people bring me down. I've decided that I'm not going to battle people on Google or Facebook any longer. If we screwed up we own it and fix it. If we didn't we work with them and find as close to a win/win as possible. If they ONLY want to damage my business reputation I will apologize for their negative experience, briefly mention that I don't see it the same way, but I'd be happy to work with you in-person to resolve. They NEVER call or return to resolve because ALL they wanted to do was to let everyone know how unhappy they are.

xrac · February 7, 2018

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Hands On · February 7, 2018

44 minutes ago, xrac said:

I am willing to fight fire with fire and would be happy to leave a five star review if you PM me. If the moderators or anyone else think this post is out of line just remove it or tell me and I will remove it.

I think that is a real bad idea. Keep in mind anyone can view these forums and sign up, there are plenty of non garage owners here. Also, this kind of thing is what some people worry about. Just my opinion.

Alex · February 8, 2018

4 hours ago, Hands On said:

Keep in mind anyone can view these forums and sign up, there are plenty of non garage owners here. Also, this kind of thing is what some people worry about. Just my opinion.

I'm not sure what the original post was about or in reference to, but thought I would use this as an opportunity to chime in on what @Hands On mentioned. To not logged in visitors, we only show the first post in each topic. You must be registered and logged in to view all posts within topics. It is difficult to screen everyone that registers but we try to do a good job when when we see something out of the ordinary or are notified by other members. Members should ideally be shop owners, techs who are looking to be shop owners, sponsors, industry writers/publishers and staff mostly with some exceptions.

Now if anyone wants a private forum/closed off forum, lets say by invite only, you can easily do this by starting your own group and adding a forum to it. The forums can be open or completely off limits to others and by invite only. You may want to discuss topics that you don't want open to everyone, this is where creating your own group and adding a forum to it would come in. For more info, please see this topic 😁:

AlohaAutoLasVegas · February 8, 2018

Why are you shop owners so conserned about a few bad reviews when you have more positive reviews than negative reviews??..We as shop owners will never be able to satisfy all of our customers..If you feel you did their repairs as quoted and agreed too then what's the problem..Complainers will complain...Haters will hate....Unhappy people will never be happy...Its probably easier to get bad reviews then good reviews butt,as shop owners we need to treat our customers the same way we would want to be treated as if we were them.Just think about it,would you as a shop owner be willing to pay for that repair you just quoted for your customer if it was your car?..example,,Brake flush.. $100.00..coolant flush $150.00..p/s flush $100.00... Or whatever those flushes cost...or what ever the repair is,, My question is to you shop owners is did you do any of those same flushes on your personal vehicles? And would you pay for those services at the prices you charge?....My point is,give customers what they need at a fair price and treat them if you were in their position...you don't want to be overcharged for something so don't do it to someone else..Remember people over profit...Don't worry about reviews, just do what you do,and give it your 100 percent.....Don't dwell on those few negative reviews,,,put that energy that you are losing on those negative stuff and put it towards a positive energy...focus on the positive.......

xrac · February 8, 2018

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Hands On · February 8, 2018

8 hours ago, AlohaAutoLasVegas said:

Why are you shop owners so conserned about a few bad reviews when you have more positive reviews than negative reviews??..We as shop owners will never be able to satisfy all of our customers..If you feel you did their repairs as quoted and agreed too then what's the problem..Complainers will complain...Haters will hate....Unhappy people will never be happy...Its probably easier to get bad reviews then good reviews butt,as shop owners we need to treat our customers the same way we would want to be treated as if we were them.Just think about it,would you as a shop owner be willing to pay for that repair you just quoted for your customer if it was your car?..example,,Brake flush.. $100.00..coolant flush $150.00..p/s flush $100.00... Or whatever those flushes cost...or what ever the repair is,, My question is to you shop owners is did you do any of those same flushes on your personal vehicles? And would you pay for those services at the prices you charge?....My point is,give customers what they need at a fair price and treat them if you were in their position...you don't want to be overcharged for something so don't do it to someone else..Remember people over profit...Don't worry about reviews, just do what you do,and give it your 100 percent.....Don't dwell on those few negative reviews,,,put that energy that you are losing on those negative stuff and put it towards a positive energy...focus on the positive.......

3 hours ago, xrac said:

If your business has a Goggle rating above 4.0 you will have a higher ranking in Google search.

I do worry about the reviews, mainly because I have worked so hard to get all of the good ones I have. I worry that I will log in one day and see someone write a fake one, or get mad at me with out contacting me first. Or even just make a mistake and click the wrong star rating. I am kind of looking forward to a day when we get a horrible yelp review or two so I can relax a bit. I do everything right for my customers because that is who I am. I sell flushed because I have seen them work and I do perform them on my own vehicles. But, we only sell them when we see a true need, metal in the power steering, odd chunks floating in the brake fluid. Oil blacker then coal.

Reviews can make or break a business, as well as your response to reviews.

3PuttFever I looked over your reviews and responses. If you do not mind me making a suggestion, you might back off on your responses a bit. I would suggest not trying to go after the customer at all in your response. Just simply state what you do right and offer to make it up to them. I know it can be infuriating when someone posts falsehoods about you online, but attacking that person makes you look bad. Be the better man and take the high ground with a simple I am sorry we dropped the ball, or I am sorry we did not live up to your expectations this time, ect.

Once in a while I get a difficult customer in the shop. I take those as a challenge, to see just how much sugar I can dish out as shit is shoved in my face. I treat my best customers great, I try to treat the worse ones even better. The customer that comes in and balks at an estimate, offer to do a thing or two for free before they leave paying nothing. This way you wont get slammed online and they might even mention you to a friend with more money in a positive light.

3PuttFever · February 8, 2018

I appreciate the advice. There is some merit to taking the high road. Very difficult to ignore bad reviews when the people are intending to cause my business family harm. My nature is to take care of all my customers. A few customers treat us as beneath them or as if we're cheating them. When they go to online review sites and exaggerate or mislead people with half-truths or lies you bet I'm going to defend myself. And no, I'm not doing something for free for a bad customer just to see if I can earn their business. If that works for you great but this is a flat out struggle to be profitable. Not one of my vendors feels sorry for me. Not one of any business I frequent do I get anything for free. If a customer isn't willing to pay for my expertise and service then they AREN"T a customer. I also don't believe giving away something for free will result in referrals other than 'they do this for free'. To each their own and results vary, right? There's a distinct pattern of the complainers and decliners and I'm getting better every day in recognizing how and what I need to do to be successful.

AlohaAutoLasVegas · February 10, 2018

Why would you flush a p/s system if there is metal in the oil?.If metal is in the oil then there is problems in the system.Flusing it will only get the metal out but,it's not fixing the actual problem of what's causing the metal in the system.And if there is mysterious chunks of crap in the brake fluid,Flusing the system will remove that crap but, again that's not fixing the problem of why the crap developed in the first place.

Bigdondale · February 16, 2018

Ahhhh. The keyboard warriors. Gotta love em. If you are not pissing people off then you are probably doing something wrong. Don't worry, nobody with half a brain pays any attention to what some goober says about you on the internet. Intelligent individuals see right through the bad reviews. The ones that don't, well you probably don't want them in your shop anyways.