#if this isn’t a bug but actually some new very poorly implemented feature | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nancydsmithus · 6 years ago

Text

What We Wished For

Mat Marquis

2018-12-24T14:30:46+01:002018-12-24T13:46:21+00:00

I think we’re headed for trouble, though I can’t say for sure. Trouble — trouble I know. The on-ramp to it, though; I’ve only heard about that. I’ve only been doing this for ten years. I missed all the lead-up the last time around. What I can say for sure — what I know from experience — is that I’ve never had a wish made in anger come true without regretting it.

Ten years (I don’t mind saying) is a pretty long time. Back when I first truth-stretched my way into a web design internship, good ol’ Internet Explorer was already a laughingstock.

“If you notice that a piece of your content appears and disappears, and sections of the page only get half-drawn, these are good indications that an element requires a layout. [...] A hasLayout fix involves nothing more than declaring a CSS property that causes an element to gain a layout, when it wouldn’t ordinarily have a layout by default.” — The Internet Explorer hasLayout Property

I hated IE. I feel like I can cop to that now. I tried not to; I really, sincerely did. I’d tell people it was fun to support, if you can believe it.

As all the other browsers got easier and easier to deal with, I attempted to convince myself that there was at least still a challenge to quirky old IE. That even became something of a point of pride: I had gotten so good at fixing obscure IE issues that I’d learned to dodge them during the course of my everyday development, leaving nothing (well, less) to dread come the big “open it up in IE and see what broke” phase.

Web forms are such an important part of the web, but we design them poorly all the time. The brand-new “Form Design Patterns” book is our new practical guide for people who design, prototype and build all sorts of forms for digital services, products and websites. The eBook is free for Smashing Members.

Check the table of contents ↬

It’s fun, in a way. Fun. That was the lie I told myself.

/* Fixes #2588: When Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) tries to calculate a numeric opacity for a select (including “inherit”) without explicitly specifying an opacity on the parent to give it context, a bug appears where clicking elsewhere on the page after opening the select will open the select again. */

— jQuery Mobile source

I hated it. I full-on, bad-jokes-in-a-conference-talk hated IE, in every one of its incarnations. I hated it every bit as much everybody else did.

“Internet Explorer 6 has a puzzling bug involving multiple floated elements; text characters from the last of the floated elements are sometimes duplicated below the last float. ... The direct cause is nothing more than ordinary HTML comments, such as, , sandwiched between floats that come in sequence.” — Explorer 6 Duplicate Characters Bug

A waste of my goddamned time is what it was. All those hours I spent hunched over a janky virtual machine—reload, wait, throw a nonsense fix at a nonsense bug, reload, crash, open IE again, wait, double-check that caching wasn’t a factor, reload, wait, and repeat. I could have been doing so much more with my time — I could have learned so much more.

I was certain that it didn’t just hold back my work, and it didn’t just hold the web back, but it held me back, as a developer. On that second point, I guess I wasn’t entirely wrong — all the obscure IE 6-7 browser bug knowledge I accumulated is all useless now. All I have to show for it are an involuntary flinch at the word “filter,” an inscrutable preference for padding over margin, and a deep-seated but largely unfounded fear of z-index.

“…extra whitespace causes the wrong styles to be picked up if the actual class name is a substring (or superstring) of some other class name.” — IE5/Mac whitespace parsing bug

I wished it would go away. Uninstalled by a clever and widespread virus, banned by law, Microsoft finally deciding to cut their shoddy rendering engine’s losses and switching to Firefox’s rendering engine, Gecko — whatever — just make it go away. But… no. The web kept evolving and we developers beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Chrome came along, Firefox kept getting better, new features kept rolling out, the exciting and endless possibilities presented by the advent of responsive web design spread out before us, and also (quick aside) remember that you’ll only have a couple of days to make it all more-or-less work in old IE, so don’t get too carried away.

“IF you are using IE8, AND you are using the CSS ordered list numbering approach described above, AND the HTML that has the classes that use the counter-reset and counter-increment CSS attributes is HIDDEN when the page loads, THEN whenever that hidden HTML is displayed, ALL of the automatic numbers will be ZERO, BUT ONLY IF THE CSS :hover PSEUDO-CLASS IS USED ON THAT PAGE!” — The IE8 “hover” Bug: The Most Awesome IE Bug Ever?

It’s hard to imagine experiencing that kind of frustration nowadays, at least for us relatively-old-timers. Not to say that there isn’t an incredible amount of work involved in tuning things up cross-browser these days, too — I know all too well that there is. But it’s tough not to feel the occasional pang of, “back in my day, all we had were floats, and let me tell you about IE’s double margin bug,” when you hear about a little difference in how CSS Grid works from one browser to another.

I was wrong; I want to be clear on that point. Not wrong for being frustrated. I don’t think anyone should be blamed for being frustrated with those old browser bugs, same as I don’t think anyone should be blamed for their frustration with any aspect of web development now. No, I was wrong for the conclusion that anger brought me to: the desire to see Trident burned to the ground and the earth where it once stood salted.

I suspect that only one dramatically-ironic thing grows out of that salted earth: those same frustrations, born anew, for a new generation of web developers. When I started my career, scant few years after the browser wars, those seeds had already taken root. Because, for a time — a time before my own — we web developers cursed Netscape the same way. The weaker, buggier, inarguably worse browser. But Internet Explorer — developers loved that browser. And they wished those other browsers — the bad browsers — would just go away: uninstalled by a clever and widespread virus, banned by law, Netscape finally deciding to cut their shoddy rendering engine’s losses and switch to IE’s rendering engine, Trident — whatever — just make it go away. Those inscrutable Internet Explorer bugs didn’t happen by coincidence or negligence. They came about because Internet Explorer had won, and we loved it for winning.

See, our frustration and our anger lied to us, as they usually do. They told us that supporting those other, worse browsers didn’t just hold back our work, and didn’t just hold the web back, but it held us back, as developers. A waste of our goddamned time is what it was. So, we told ourselves that it wasn’t only for our own good, but for the good of the entire web.

We weighed IE just a little more heavily. We gave it just a little more say in our decisions. And so, holding so many chips, Microsoft played their cards accordingly — who could blame them? Everyone built websites for them first, and the others second. Their word wasn’t law, but it was certainly more than suggestion. Sure, they deviated from web standards here and there (just a little bit), but after all, wasn’t something implemented by The Biggest Browser a sort of de facto standard anyway? Besides, supporting the better, faster, easier browser was doing the web itself a service! Together with Microsoft, we were pushing the web forward! Everybody wins.

The rendering engine that powers Microsoft’s Edge browser today — EdgeHTML — is a fork of gnarly old Trident. It’s a stripped-down and vastly improved fork of Trident, for sure, but it isn’t, let’s say, universally judged on its own merit. The EdgeHTML team has always been working with a couple of disadvantages: the first was technical, in that it took a tremendous amount of time and effort to catch up with the likes of Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. The second was emotional. It was us — you and me — jaded from years of Internet Explorer, staring down a cheery blue lowercase “e” with cold disdain.

A few weeks ago, the Edge team announced that they’d soon be abandoning EdgeHTML in favor of Blink, the rendering engine that powers Chrome. With this change, the last few remaining embers of Trident will be snuffed out forever. The wish I’d shared with so many will finally be granted. Ironically timed — as it turns out — EdgeHTML was becoming a pretty solid rendering engine.

Blink is an open-source project led and governed by Google. It powers both Chrome and Opera, the latter of which similarly abandoned their home-grown rendering engine a few years ago.

By an overwhelming margin, Blink is (and will increasingly be) the way the web is experienced the world over. Blink is fast, stable, packed with modern features, and — by comparison to development for the still-evolving EdgeHTML — painless.

It may have happened too late to save us from those ancient IE bugs, but our work will be easier now that there’s one less rendering engine to support. You and I will lose a little more of our collective “but does it work cross-browser” burden. Our projects will go more smoothly, and the web will lose just a little more of what was once holding it back.

As stewards of the engine powering so very much of the web, well, Google’s word won’t be law, but certainly more than suggestion. And maybe over the course of the next few years, they’ll deviate from web standards here and there (whether intentionally or accidentally) in the tiniest of ways. But after all, isn’t something implemented by The Biggest Browser a sort of de facto standard itself? Besides, how could you argue? Favoring the better, faster, more powerful browser is doing the web itself a service, after all. Together with Google, we’ll be pushing the web forward. Everybody will win.

That is, as long as little standards deviations and tiny, nagging bugs don’t grow bigger over time — thanks to the twin forces of entropy and complacency. Unless the decisions we’ve made for the good of the web (hand-in-hand with a notoriously privacy-hostile advertising company) begin to feel a little darker, and a new bogeyman begins to take shape in our minds — unless we find that our old fears and frustrations have risen again (like a phoenix that renders a couple hundred pixels away from where it should and flickers in a weird way when you scroll).

It doesn’t take much imagination to see newer, more exciting rendering engines appearing over the next handful of years. It takes just as little imagination to see them failing due to lack of support, as we favor “the-browser-that-everyone-uses-first” by choice, and later perhaps in grudging service of “the bottom line”.

Again, though, I don’t know. I’ve never seen this happen with a rendering engine myself. I’ve just heard the whole story, and I only know first-hand how it ends. I know the ending from the ache of old psychic scars; from an involuntary flinch at some bits of code, and muscle-memory that compels me to avoid others. I know it from the jokes in conference talks that always felt a little tired, but still resonated just the same in a way I wouldn’t allow myself to admit and still spoke to a secret wish that I held deep in my heart. A bitter, hateful wish.

But hey, listen. Not anymore. Now, I mean — I would never. I really do love a good rendering engine bug, now. I do.

“CSS 3D transforms with perspective() are rendered inside out.” — bugs.chromium.org

I mean, that’s actually kind of a fun bug, right? Like, fun in a way. Y’know?

It’s fun.

It’ll be fun.

(dm, ra, il)

0 notes

gamingtipsandtrickshacks · 7 years ago

Text

Payday 2's Switch port looks fine but runs poorly • Eurogamer.net

The heist is on! Payday 2 has arrived on Nintendo Switch, making it by default the first truly portable version of the game. Based on the editions released for PS4 and Xbox One three years ago, the port goes further, incorporating a wireless four-player option for nearby Switch users, along with other tweaks and DLC added since its last-gen launch. In most other respects, the game's core remains the same as before, which begs the question - to what extent can Nintendo's hybrid match the 1080p30 experience of the existing current-gen versions?

Obviously, we are dealing with a significant power differential between Switch and its established counterparts - tweaks to graphical settings are commonplace in Switch ports and there sometimes there are performance compromises too. To start, Switch runs at 1600x900 while docked. In itself, that's a pretty good showing, and it looks fine while connected to a HDTV. Any resultant jaggies from the resolution downgrade are mostly resolved via a strong post-process anti-aliasing, meaning that it's softer next to the direct competition, but it's hard to complain, especially when other ports have delivered a much lower 720p pixel-count.

Running at a lesser 900p is fine on its own, but even in docked mode, the quality of most the other visual features is either dropped or disabled outright. Take anisotropic filtering, for example. This is one of the oddities of the existing versions: it's fully maxed at 16x anisotropic filtering or close to it on Xbox One, but reduced to a mere trilinear implementation on PS4. Switch inherits that low quality texture filtering of the Sony version - an approach that muddies ground textures. There's a double-whammy here in that the core texture quality itself is downgraded on the Nintendo machine too: fine for handheld play, not so impressive when docked.

Shadows - a computationally taxing rendering element - also show a clear cut in quality. Again, the filtering cascade is exactly the same as PS4 but up-close, the quality preset is simply lower on Switch. That said, the effect holds up well enough to escape notice while in the heat of action. Considering that the shadow setting is also usually one of the more demanding areas when tweaking the PC version, it's perhaps understandable that this would take a hit.

youtube

Our full visual breakdown of Payday 2 on Switch. Stacked up against PS4 and Xbox One, it's a real disappointment.

Overall object draw distances are still very close to what we get on PS4 and Xbox One. The geometric layout of banks, jewelry stores and nightclubs is perceptually identical on Switch - and likewise for NPC counts - meaning scenarios play out in much the same way. And while there are a few anomalies here and there in draw distance, the framework of the game is very much intact. These locations are often complex sprawls: starting at streets filled with cars, to shopping malls filled with nicely detailed shops, each partitioned by breakable glass. In its defense, this is a successful design choice for the Switch version. It does at least translate the core logic of the other releases, even if it dials down the visuals over the top.

It's not all bad news though. There's actually one cutback on Switch that could rank as a bonus in that the chromatic aberration effect is removed. This post-processing extra is enforced on PS4 and Xbox One, distorting the edges of the screen - but it's completely absent on Switch. It was never a huge distraction, but it does make this version look cleaner around the edges. You can call it a matter of preference, but the removal of chromatic aberration is another mark of the developer cutting back any visual features it can in a bid to claw back performance. Sadly, this also extends to light bloom, which is also removed on Switch.

All of these observations apply equally to the undocked, mobile experience, where performance suffers still further. However, there is something curious going on here. Playing the game docked, then switching to portable mode sees the game retain its 900p resolution, which is then super-sampled down to the 720p screen. However, booting the game in mobile mode sees native 720p rendering with no downscaling. This is where the inability to measure mobile performance accurately is an issue, as we suspect that booting the game in portable mode should deliver a notable performance advantage. It certainly seems a touch smoother but unfortunately we can't provide definitive numbers to match. Regardless though, this does appear to be a bug that should be patched.

Outside of some shading differences between then, the Switch release does still have a lot in common with the other versions - even down to the limitations those older releases had. One aspect that really sticks out is the use of a half-rate animation on characters past a certain range. The shopping mall stage shows this off best: towards the corners of the screen, you can see characters animate at a jarring 15fps, even while docked. Worse still, they can often pop in from the sky, or glitch out on their first step forward.

Taken together, Payday 2's visuals aren't really a showcase for the system and it's more a case of how the developers have strategically shaved the PS4 and Xbox One versions in order to get the game running on a significantly less capable system. The issue is that these cut-backs are compounded by a performance level that just isn't up to snuff on Switch. Even with full GPU clock speeds accessible while docked, you can expect many drops below the target 30fps, which obviously isn't ideal for a fast-paced first-person shooter. In fact, some areas can even drop down to 20fps and stay there for long stretches, with alpha transparencies and high levels of geometry the main culprits.

Payday 2's performance issues stick out like a sore thumb for one simple reason: aspects of the gameplay speed are directly tied to the frame-rate. So for example, if the game drops to 20fps, all the action suddenly seems to play out at two-thirds speed, making it feel almost like moving through treacle until frame-rates settle back at its target 30fps again. Given how often the frame-rate is shifting, that makes even simple acts like aiming needlessly difficult.

It's a real issue. Remember that all of these performance issues are still occurring despite those cutbacks to visual quality, and what we're left with still manages to feel uneven and unoptimised. There are other frame-rate based problems too: the game stutters the moment a grenade is thrown - a physics-based interaction that adds a sudden hiccup, on top of any ongoing frame-rate drops. Additional frame-time spikes to 16ms even when the game does hit its target 30fps also serve to add further judder to the experience. Rounding off our concerns with performance, despite the dropped visual settings when playing on the go, frame-rate issues are even more pronounced. In fact, areas we've logged running at 30fps while docked tend to drop closer to 20fps in some areas. Maybe dynamic resolution scaling could have helped to manage the most serious of drops here - Payday 2's pixel-counts are locked, based on our tests.

The Switch has been blessed with a number of great ports recently and it's been wonderful to see so many excellent titles get a new lease of the life on the hybrid system, especially when these conversions allow many of these games to be played portably for the very first time. Compromises are always necessary when transplanting across a PS4/Xbox One title to what is effectively a mobile chipset, and there's often a delicate balancing act to achieve between visual features and performance. The main problem with Payday 2 is the visual cutbacks only go so far in stabilising performance, and with performance so key to gameplay in this case, the end result is a shooter that misses the target.

0 notes

samiam03x · 7 years ago

Text

97% of Customers Read Online Reviews. Here’s How to Make Sure Yours are in the Top 1%

When was the last time you tried a new restaurant without a recommendation?

If you’re like me, it’s probably been a while.

Everyone you’ve ever met is just naturally inclined to seek the opinion of others before trying something new.

On your own, you don’t know if that new ramen house down the street is any good, but your brother says he took a date there and had a great time.

That carries weight in your decision making as a consumer.

A staggering 97% of customers read online reviews before they buy. And almost half of those interviewed will only trust 4-stars or better.

So you should pay attention the quality of your business’s reviews.

The issue for you is that winning five-star reviews takes time.

To make matters worse, many businesses see social proof as being largely out of their control. Consumers “feel the way they feel” about your business, even if you do everything right.

But I don’t think we should accept that.

Everything you do as a business should be calculated and purposeful, so leaving such a vital element to chance is crazy.

There are methods that allow you to win more good reviews, faster, and with better results.

You just have to know where to look.

Where do you start? By knowing just how reviews work and how much they do impact your bottom line.

Here’s Why You Should Care

I’ve worked with business owners that didn’t care about online reviews, and it always bugged me.

You put so much money, sweat, and grit into something just to “not care” that someone says you can do better? No!

But even if you’re one of those that “doesn’t care,” there are data-driven conclusions that undeniably prove why reviews are important.

One of the best examples I’ve seen comes from a study published in the Wall Street Journal by some environmental researchers:

They were attempting to convince consumers to save money by using fans in the summer instead of air conditioning.

The most convincing argument? Social proof that their neighbors were already doing it.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There so much more to consider.

Invesp found that consumers will actually spend more if your business is well-reviewed:

What else in your business provides a 31% increase in revenue that you can do today?

You could probably fire someone, but that’s not adding revenue, it’s just cutting cost. And you’ll probably regret it.

My point is: you don’t have many other avenues to see a hike in spending like that for your business other than 5-star reviews.

Or you can think of it in the negative.

Bad reviews are hurting your business and affecting your online performance. That dip you’ve seen in earnings over the last few years might be tied to how poorly you’re being reviewed.

A single negative review from a user could immediately drop your sales anywhere from 5-8%.

I’m not sure about you, but there have been plenty of times when I don’t think I could afford a dip like that.

Even if you don’t think it’s a big deal, a stall that big can severely dampen momentum and morale.

And what about your existing customers? Do they read reviews?

Actually, yes.

Positive rankings actually drive 18% higher loyalty and 21% higher purchase satisfaction from customers.

And when you’re spending 5 – 25 times more to win a new customer as opposed to retaining one, that 18% loyalty rate looks pretty good.

Plus higher satisfaction improves your odds of getting more positive reviews. That’s just simple math.

So at this point, I hope you’re convinced about the importance of online reviews. Because now we’re going to talk about how to make sure yours are in the top 1%.

Know Where to Position Yourself

There are plenty of reviewing sites on the web these days. But not all of them are created equal.

For example, Yellow Pages was the giant of directory listings in the last century.

But most people don’t look to them now as a trusted source when they’re researching an unknown business.

Focusing all of your efforts on an underserved source is just a waste of time.

You need to aim for reviews on the review sites that are going to convert. These sites should be well-known and make it easy to leave reviews.

So where do the most influential reviews occur?

In most cases, the Big 3 are Google, Facebook, and Yelp.

As you can see, these sites have a combined average just shy of 300 million visitors each month.

They’re also suitable for any business, which makes them one of the digital lifelines of many local businesses.

And while the statistics will always vary from business to business, a combined 83% of patrons of service-related industries relied on Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

If you’re not getting reviews on one of these sites, it’s most likely for one of two reasons. You’re either:

Not on the site at all.

Or you’ve made it difficult to find and review you.

The good news is that both of those issues are very easy to fix. Let’s start with Facebook.

Facebook Reviews

Facebook is an insanely popular site with over 2.2 billion users. Being well-liked on this platform isn’t something that’s optional for most businesses.

The catch is, no one is going to leave reviews if you make it hard to find.

Just like friction in a sales funnel, the momentum will die if your customer has to go on a long search for your reviews.

So don’t make it too difficult for your visitor to progress to the next step. Otherwise, by the time they get there, their enthusiasm is gone.

If they can click once, write a review, and then submit, the experience is relatively frictionless. But if they have to hunt through a page to find where to go, the misdirection will curb momentum.

That’s why the First Law of Sales Funnel Friction is visibility.

So here’s how to make sure your Facebook review options are easily accessible.

If you’re opting to allow reviews on Facebook, you’ll want to start by making sure your Review tab is activated and visible for your visitors.

You can opt out of getting Facebook reviews, but I highly recommend you allow it.

Many business owners don’t even know this feature can be turned on, or that it’s off in the first place. So you’ll want to double check.

Setting it up correctly provides a subtle proposition to anyone who visits your Facebook profile.

Go to your Page’s Settings tab, scroll down to the Edit Page section to where it says “Reviews,” and turn them on.

Once you’ve turned reviews on, you want to make sure that they’re visible to your Page’s visitors.

Not all of Facebook’s Pages are set up to display reviews, so you’ll need to look at your Template options.

Just above where you turned on your reviews, you’ll see an option to select your Template.

Look through the options to find one that suits the type of business you have. Or, just opt to go with the default “Business” version.

When you’ve picked a template, scroll down to make sure that reviews are supported:

You’re now set up to receive and display reviews on Facebook.

Yelp

Now that you’re set up on Facebook let’s take a trip over to your Yelp page.

Failing to be on Yelp means you won’t be successful, especially if you’re a locally-based business.

If you want proof of Yelp’s success with local businesses, look no further than the laundry list of Case Studies on their website.

Yelp does require a little more of a hands-on approach than Facebook, though.

That’s because it weighs some reviews above others. Yelp is unique as it tries to always display the reviews that it deems “most helpful.”

While you may not agree that a one or two-star review could be helpful, Yelp has a fair process in place.

They weigh the overall history of the reviewer, the feedback left on each review (e.g., a like on a review) as well as the quality of the reviews you already have to determine how to incorporate each new review.

How does this work for you?

The simple answer is that you need to get as many high-quality reviews as possible. Doing so will bring all of those well-reviewed benefits we discussed earlier.

While you can’t directly ask for reviews on Yelp, as that breaks their terms of service agreement, you can ask people to “check you out on Yelp.” Any format of that works just so long as you don’t ask for a review.

So your best bet for positioning on Yelp is actually just personal pushing.

Set up your Yelp profile, claim your business, and display the sticker they send you in a prominent location.

Then when you’re interacting with customers and receive positive feedback, direct them toward Yelp.

You can even include the Yelp badge on your website or email signature. It will encourage new visitors to check out your reviews and possibly even remind them to review you themselves.

It’s one of the ways Yelp stands out as a useful reviewing and recommendation source against their competition.

Advertising doesn’t give you any extra benefits.

So instead, incentivize frequent reviewers to visit your business and leave favorable reviews.

Google

Google offers a free business listing for all businesses known as Google My Business.

It complements your existing web presence by giving your business a home on Google while allowing customers to find you, read reviews, or leave them once they’ve visited.

To claim your business, you simply have to verify that you are the owner with Google.

Once you’re set up, you’ll start appearing in Google’s listings for your business category. Viewers will then be able to find you and leave reviews, just like with Facebook and Yelp.

Now that you’re everywhere you need to be to get reviews, let’s look at a few techniques that you can start implementing to win high-quality social proof quickly.

Tip #1: Just ask for a review

Many think it’s awkward to ask, but it’s really not.

Think about it like you’re asking a friend if you can borrow their toolbox for a project.

You wouldn’t just beat around the bush and hope that your friend understands subtle hints that you need to borrow their stuff. You’d just come right out and say it!

The same thing works for reviews. Any one-on-one format is an opportunity to find a way to ask for feedback.

Like email. Check out how Aaron’s Auto does it:

They send a personalized email that directly asks for feedback and provides the links. This makes it easy for the receiver to leave a review.

You can use a service like BirdEye that will make it easy for customers to submit their reviews. They’ll simply get an email asking how their experience was, and they’ll click a link to make it easy to review your product or service.

Of course, asking in person is just as good.

I see customers approach a business owner to let them know how good their product or service is all the time. Take those opportunities to ask if they’d be willing to leave feedback!

And it’s easy for them if your business is set up properly.

Take this example shared by Socially Sorted:

When Facebook prompted her to write a review, this was the response. Otherwise, she probably would have neglected leaving a review altogether.

But if you’re not set up as we mentioned earlier, then you’ll be missing out on positive reviews.

Bonus tip: Make sure you direct your customer to the most important reviewing sites.

Sometimes your payment processor or point-of-sale will allow you to receive feedback as well.

Use this information to improve, but then use it as an opportunity to piggyback on your positive experiences and push them to a more visible location.

Here’s an example from the popular POS Square:

All three provide good feedback but aren’t visible to the outside world. Thank your customer, and then push them toward a more visible platform.

Tip #2: Don’t freak out when you get a bad review

One of the worst things you could ever do as a business owner is attack a bad review.

It’s easy to get caught up in the emotions of a bad review. But don’t let them run your response.

If you respond negatively – or not at all, future customers and prospects will see your response and make a decision about your business off of it.

So always made sure to create a positive spin on a less-than-stellar review. Take this one for example:

Many shop owners would see that and immediately go to the barista, tell them what they did wrong, and then leave no response.

Instead, this business took the opportunity to explain their policy on sub-par beverages!

Now anyone who reads that review will know that if their drink isn’t what they wanted, they can get a new one.

The best part about this particular instance?

This review was initially a one-star review. Now it’s a two star.

Simply keeping your cool and responding with professional courtesy can raise a bad review to a not so bad one.

Plus, you can always use the opportunity to further explain your company policies and attention to customer service.

Tip #3: Optimize social proof on your website

You may have noticed that many sites these days are putting customer testimonials right on their homepage. There’s a good reason for that.

Social proof has long been used as a way to ease the minds of new customers. And that’s why it’s starting to pop up on more than just review sites.

These short statements on your site‘ from satisfied customers are a proven method to help your conversion rates.

Here’s an example from HubSpot of how you can leverage reviews on a landing page:

As you can see, they use a variety of clients that give feedback in their unique voice. It builds trust and pushes the reader to dig a little deeper into their product.

I highly recommend finding a way to take some of your reviews and sprinkle online testimonials throughout your website to help improve your conversion results and prompt further reviews.

Tip #4: Offer incentives to employees

It’s tempting as a business owner to provide a discount or a free item in exchange for a review.

That’s not always a good idea though.

There have been instances of businesses incentivizing customers that resulted in the FTC stepping in and laying down some hefty punishments for buying or falsifying reviews.

It’s also against a site like Yelp’s terms of service agreement, so you could lose your hard-earned reviews if you get caught.

But finding a way to incentivize your employees to ask is a good way to get more positive reviews.

Many employees take pride in their work but don’t always ask for a positive review. Training your team to ask, especially after a good experience, can give your business and employees valuable feedback.

Offer a prize or special perk to the employee with the most reviews and then watch the magic happen.

You might also notice that you can buy 5-star reviews from sites like Fiverr or Upwork.

While that may sound like a good idea, it can backfire in more ways than a government crackdown.

Buying all those reviews will likely make your real customers suspicious. And when an out-of-place detail gets noticed, you can say goodbye to your reputation.

Conclusion

Online reviews are a vital method of winning new business in every industry. They’re seen by almost everyone and play heavily into your success both offline and online.

In the ebb and flow of business, it can be difficult to always do everything that’s needed. But failing to prioritize online reviews is more costly than many realize.

Doing everything you can to win good reviews is in many ways just good business sense because the majority of consumers look to reviews before making their decision.

Prioritize your customer’s reviews on platforms like Facebook, Yelp, and Google. And take some time to make sure they’re set up so that it’s easy to review your business.

Then be active in your approach to winning more positive reviews. Get out there and ask when you interact with customers. Find the opportunity in negative feedback. Leverage your existing social proof to drive more customers to leave positive reviews. And make sure you’re training your team to help you acquire reviews on a daily basis.

Successful reviews may not happen overnight. Think of it like any other process in your business. It takes work to be in the top 1% of anything, but it sure feels good when you finally get there and start seeing the customers roll in from it.

What hacks do you use to get positive reviews for your business?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

http://ift.tt/2FDj8yt from MarketingRSS http://ift.tt/2EVj1AY via Youtube

#MarketingRSS

0 notes

reputationiseverything · 7 years ago

Text

97% of Customers Read Online Reviews. Here’s How to Make Sure Yours are in the Top 1%

email marketing how to get