DiveGearExpress
Contributor
This post is going to shamelessly pat ourselves on the back.
Consumers seem to like reading on-line reviews of companies and products, but the reality is that those reviews in general have become very untrustworthy. Today, reviews are being "gamed" by vendors and retailers (and often consumers with hidden agendas) using a variety of techniques that make them only marginally useful. On our website, it has become an overwhelming task to filter out the "spam" type review posts that are generated by bots, and the review mechanism itself has become a cyber-attack surface that raises the occasional security issue. The usual third party "Google Business Reviews" that you might see in a Google search results sidebar summary are a little better than what you might find on something like Amazon... but the fact is that anyone can leave an anonymous review for any reason and about any topic... there is no timely curation. The Google Business Reviews for our own Dive Gear Express seems to get the occasional hater that doesn't even seem to be a customer that we can identify and with an agenda. Disputing a review seems to take 6 to 12 months before determination is made.
All that being said, we do use Google to collect a type of survey information that we have found to be useful. Anyone who has placed an order with Dive Gear Express has seen a dialog box pop up following the successful placement of an order on our website. The dialog box is from Google itself and asks our customer if they would be willing to participate in a survey by Google. This is a Google program that they call "Google Customer Reviews" which allows actual customers to rate their purchase experience with specific merchants who participate in the program. If the customer chooses to participate they are not anonymous; only consumers who are actual customers of Dive Gear Express receive the survey from Google, about two to three weeks after they place an order. Originally by invitation only there is no feedback mechanism in the program for the merchant perspective, and Google itself currently doesn't seem to promote or use the results in any significant way that we can detect even though their project has been running for years. The survey results do not appear in Google Search results, you pretty much have to know where to find it, although we do post a link to the survey results on our About page that nobody much seems to click. Here is that link...
Google Customer Reviews for Dive Gear Express
As of when this post was written here is a screenshot below of what you might see on your phone. Of the metrics that Google seems to be using an AI engine to evaluate, Dive Gear Express is currently receiving the highest ratings we have ever seen - a perfect 5.0 score out of 800 plus surveys in the last 12 to 24 months with "Exceptional" evaluations for the quality of our shipping, returns policy, payment options, as well as the quality of our website itself. Achieving this Top Quality Store 5.0 rating from Google isn't an accident, it required the dedication of every single team member at our company... and something of which I personally take pride in their accomplishment.
Consumers seem to like reading on-line reviews of companies and products, but the reality is that those reviews in general have become very untrustworthy. Today, reviews are being "gamed" by vendors and retailers (and often consumers with hidden agendas) using a variety of techniques that make them only marginally useful. On our website, it has become an overwhelming task to filter out the "spam" type review posts that are generated by bots, and the review mechanism itself has become a cyber-attack surface that raises the occasional security issue. The usual third party "Google Business Reviews" that you might see in a Google search results sidebar summary are a little better than what you might find on something like Amazon... but the fact is that anyone can leave an anonymous review for any reason and about any topic... there is no timely curation. The Google Business Reviews for our own Dive Gear Express seems to get the occasional hater that doesn't even seem to be a customer that we can identify and with an agenda. Disputing a review seems to take 6 to 12 months before determination is made.
All that being said, we do use Google to collect a type of survey information that we have found to be useful. Anyone who has placed an order with Dive Gear Express has seen a dialog box pop up following the successful placement of an order on our website. The dialog box is from Google itself and asks our customer if they would be willing to participate in a survey by Google. This is a Google program that they call "Google Customer Reviews" which allows actual customers to rate their purchase experience with specific merchants who participate in the program. If the customer chooses to participate they are not anonymous; only consumers who are actual customers of Dive Gear Express receive the survey from Google, about two to three weeks after they place an order. Originally by invitation only there is no feedback mechanism in the program for the merchant perspective, and Google itself currently doesn't seem to promote or use the results in any significant way that we can detect even though their project has been running for years. The survey results do not appear in Google Search results, you pretty much have to know where to find it, although we do post a link to the survey results on our About page that nobody much seems to click. Here is that link...
Google Customer Reviews for Dive Gear Express
As of when this post was written here is a screenshot below of what you might see on your phone. Of the metrics that Google seems to be using an AI engine to evaluate, Dive Gear Express is currently receiving the highest ratings we have ever seen - a perfect 5.0 score out of 800 plus surveys in the last 12 to 24 months with "Exceptional" evaluations for the quality of our shipping, returns policy, payment options, as well as the quality of our website itself. Achieving this Top Quality Store 5.0 rating from Google isn't an accident, it required the dedication of every single team member at our company... and something of which I personally take pride in their accomplishment.
