[Webinar Transcript from August 2022]

Hi everybody. Welcome to the webinar. We're excited you're here. Today we're going to talk about why event venues are increasingly turning to texting to generate reviews. We'll take about 10 to 15 minutes. We'll keep this relatively short so you can get back to the rest of your day.

Who is Kenect?

Why are we doing this webinar? Well, we're a texting platform that is built for event venues. We have over 5,200 businesses who use Kenect every single day. Basically, what we allow you to do is turn your main business number into a textable line that allows you to generate new leads, conduct video consultations, and drive online reviews as well. We were recently listed as one of the fastest scoring companies in the world on the Inc. 5000 list also.

So how do we do it? Two way text messaging for your business so you don't need to give out your personal cell number, web leads straight from your website, video chat for virtual consultations, and online review generation as well.

Your clients prefer text messaging, and this is the theme you're going to hear throughout this webinar. 89% of customers say they'd prefer to text with a business rather than have a phone call. 98% of all text messages are opened within three minutes. 96% of customers find phone calls to be disruptive. Bottom line is the reason people are turning to texting to generate reviews is because it works better. Simply put, it just works better. It produces reviews at a much higher rate. Why? Because 98% of all text messages are opened. It's really, really important.

Top 8 ways the event industry uses Kenect. Scheduling consultations, sending reminders, streamline the process, validating info, collecting fees via texting, which is also really powerful, and then adding the "text us" button to your website is really important as well.

This is the Kenect texting inbox. So this is actually how you send text messages. Looks and functions like an email inbox, but it's for texting. And that's really important to note is it's for texting. It's really important for businesses to understand that. You can send and receive text messages to and from this inbox like you would an email, but again, it's for texting.

Now, what are all the things you can do on the Kenect platform? So on the mobile app or on the desktop version, you can request reviews, you can do quick replies, you can send photos, videos, PDFs, attachments, you can request payments via text, you can schedule messages as well.

So how can you use Kenect video? This is an important one as well. You can just, while you're texting hit the video icon and you can immediately start video chatting with somebody.

Getting positive Google reviews

All right, let's talk about Google reviews and why people are turning to texting to get more reviews.

First thing you need to know is about Google My Business. So Google My Business is the place on the internet where Google hosts and holds all of your pertinent business information. It allows you to put basic and verified information about your business on the internet and it's used by Google as the central location for verified information about your business. This can also be used for engaging with customers and attracting new customers.

So your Google My Business page typically receives five times more views than your actual website. It's the location where reviews are left and housed, and it allows your business to show up in Google results and on Google Maps. I think that's important.

It's also the primary method for clients to share feedback about businesses. So anyone using Google can review your business and leave a star rating. I think that's important to note. It's not just a matter of people who are confirmed and verified as your clients who can leave you a review. Anyone with a Gmail account can leave you a review. And that sometimes freaks people out and can be scary for them.

So why do they matter? Well, because they matter to customers. So 93% of customers will use reviews as the first step in choosing a venue. 91% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That's important to note. So they won't engage with you, they won't become your customer unless you have good reviews. The second is because they matter to Google. Now don't tell your clients this, but this one's more important. 97% of people go to Google when they want to find a wedding venue. Google determines the order in which businesses are listed based on ratings and reviews. And if you are not in the top three, you will not get clicked. So 98% of those clicks are in the top three. That's important to note.

A couple of items here that I want to highlight. Why does Google care so much about reviews? Google cares because they have one job and that job is to produce the result the searcher wants to see. That's the reason Google cares so much about reviews is because they have one job and that job is to produce the results the searcher wants to see.

Dealing with negative Google reviews

I want to just touch on how to deal with negative reviews. So first of all, how common are they? It's about 1 in 50 reviews are negative is what we found. How can you avoid them? You can't really avoid them, you can mitigate them. You're going to get some, but what you need to do is mitigate them. Now the number one reason that people leave negative reviews for venues is poor communication, or at least a perception of poor communication. That's why people get negative reviews. So what should you do when you get [inaudible 00:08:22] a negative review and what you should not do?

What you should not do is the following. You should not ignore it. Always pay attention to it, get to the bottom of it, figure out what happened and how the interaction went wrong. Also fail to reply. Don't fail to reply. Always reply. Silence is consent, if you don't say anything, you're letting them have the last word. Don't plan on Google removing it, they usually won't. And then don't start an online argument.

More on Google. Will they take them down? The answer is no. Google will only take them down if they contain offensive language, if they contain profanity, or if they're written by someone with a conflict of interest that's really obvious. In those cases, they will take them down, but it's just so unlikely that it's not even worth talking about.

Now, how do you get more positive reviews? This is what we want to talk about. So the reason that more and more event venues are relying on texting to get reviews is because it works better. So, really, really works better.

You have to build a process, of course. Who you ask, how you ask, when you ask and who's in charge of asking, but ultimately, if you're not texting, you will not get reviews. Now, why do I say that? Because if you send an email, you're going to get reviews between 1-2% of the time. If you send a text, you're going to get reviews between 38-58% of the time. It's that dramatic. The difference is that dramatic. You will get reviews 58% of the time if you text, you will get reviews between 1-2% of the time if you don't.

So let's go through these one by one, build a process. Who do you ask? I would just only ask those that like you. If you ask everybody, there's a chance that you'll ask people who don't like you and that's stupid.

How do you ask? Do you text, email, and person on the phone? I would just text. You're going to get reviews more often. When do you ask? You can ask any time you want. It's up to you. Determine an owner for the process. Make sure you have someone who's in charge. Doesn't need to be the same person at every business. If you're big enough to have a marketing person, that's great. It could be an owner, it could be a manager, it could be the person who's in charge of catering. Doesn't matter. Just put someone in charge of getting reviews and make sure that they are vital... They know they're vital. And then ask in the right way. And this is where I talk about texting. Okay? Send a text message, if you're using Kenect this is what it looks like. It's got your logo, it's got your business name, you send a text message, they click on it. They click on that... Hit the Google link and they leave the review, it's that simple. If you do that, you'll get a review 58% of the time.

Now, if you remember nothing else from this webinar, remember this. Take control. Don't let the angry clients determine your online reputation. Get your great clients to leave reviews. If you sit back and wait, you're just going to get a few negative and a few positive and it's not going to help your business.

All right. If you're interested in learning more, you can text us or call us at (888) 972-7422. Thank you.

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