Nanny agencies work with families who are in transition. Families may have a new baby, may have just moved to a new community, a new job, or just lost a beloved caregiver. Even an agency that scrupulously follows the International Nanny Associations’ Recommended Practices will from time to time deal with family or a nanny whose needs they simply cannot meet. How does a nanny agency manage their online reputation and deal with a bad online review?
A recent article in Verizon’s Small Business Connections addresses just this conundrum, one that is inevitably faced by any service business. According to the Verizon article, “Studies show that 7 out of 10 consumers believe online reviews as much as they do family and friends. Fifty-seven percent of people avoid businesses with bad online reviews.” So what does a nanny agency do when faced with a negative online review? How do you even know this information is out there?
Proactively protecting your business’ online reputation is an important first step. A nanny agency should regularly and routinely ASK their families and nannies to post an online review – asking for feedback from happy, satisfied clients as you complete a transaction, when they are still basking in the glow of a placement going positively is important. According to Forbes magazine, experts find that the average small business only has an average of 3 online reviews. Three! Stack the deck in your favor, and make sure that your online reviews are primarily from happy, satisfied clients. This proactive initiative helps you in two very important ways. First, it will increase the probability that a potential client searching Google for “XYZ Nanny Agency Reviews” will find reviews from clients you have delighted. Secondly, should a negative review be posted, it will be offset to a large degree by the positive feedback. Make it easy for happy clients to post a review! Email them your request, and post a link to your Yelp, Angie’s List or Facebook page so they can simply click and rave!
Another business best practice is to monitor the web for information about your nanny agency. Who has the time you might wonder? You do! In 5 minutes you can set up “Google Alerts” to scan the internet daily and send you an email when your nanny agency is mentioned online. You cannot respond to a problem unless you know it exists!
Lastly, don’t let a negative review stand unchallenged. Your response, however, must be carefully crafted. Best practices include being empathetic to the feelings of the poster, inviting the poster to contact you directly, offline, to work on a resolution, and absolutely avoid flame wars. A careful, caring response (never argumentative!) provides you the opportunity to positively engage the unhappy poster, and more importantly you communicate to anyone who may read the negative review that you are committed to problem resolution when issues arise. Sometimes the negative review is a learning opportunity for your agency, providing you valuable feedback about public perceptions about a policy or procedure. This is an opportunity to re-craft your messaging to new clients going forward. Occasionally you may have truly dropped the ball. Acknowledging a mistake and making a sincere effort to make things right, even if the disgruntled poster does not avail themselves of your offer, is a positive action to take online.
Have you ever had to address a negative online post? Please share any tips or trick you learned along the way.
A special thank you to INA member Kathleen Webb for contributing this article.
Kathy is the co-founder and President of HomeWork Solutions, a leading household payroll and payroll tax compliance service, and a member of the International Nanny Association since 1993.
Kathy serves on the INA Board of Directors and chairs the Governmental Affairs committee.