The following is a guest post written about online reviews by our founder, Larry O’Toole.
“Over the last 30 years, Gentle Giant has grown from one small truck in Somerville to 18 offices across nine states. One of the biggest reasons for this growth has been positive word of mouth, as 80% of our business has been from referrals and repeat customers.
In the digital age, online reviews through sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List have made word-of-mouth referrals more powerful than ever. Most of the time, our extremely satisfied customers post positive online reviews about the wonderful experience they had with Gentle Giant. In rare, unfortunate cases, customers will go straight to the internet to air a grievance, even if it is an issue that can be easily resolved.
It has become very common for individuals to discuss their issues with a company online, but this does not help the customer and the business solve problems. At Gentle Giant, we pride ourselves on doing everything it takes to correct unpleasant moving situations. When negative reviews do appear, we make it a priority to correct everything that was mentioned. We always try to stay open to customer feedback because we have a strong desire to earn people’s trust.
The next time you’re reading a company’s online reviews, check to see if the company responded and attempted to fix any reported issues. It would devastate me if a customer called to discuss a negative experience and we didn’t respond; the same applies to online posts.
We want to be your moving company, for life. Hard work, trust and communication will make that possible.
Thank you, and we look forward to moving you.”