Franchise Advisory Board | Expert Franchising Advice for Franchise Leaders

How do we end racism, bigotry and bias in our personal lives and in the workplace?

May Snowden of Snowden and Associates, Inc., a leading expert in creating cultures of diversity and inclusion shares some deep insights into how to do it.

Here are some of the insights we discussed.

What is Prejudice? (Pre-judge) It is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience about a particular group. It is formed without adequate prior knowledge, thought, or reason. A prejudice can be positive or negative. Bias has a similar meaning: an inflexible predisposition to see certain things, events or category of people in a certain way (positive or negative based on their appearance, group kinships, or differences from you). Prejudice often relies on stereotypes, which are a set of oversimplified images, statements, and generalizations applied to a whole group of people, without regard for the individual. Stereotypes are often unconscious beliefs about a group of people. Then the stereotype is often applied to individual members. A belief that ALL members of the group match the stereotype. Prejudice, Bias, and Stereotypes are an internal belief. They are mental prejudgment, positive or negative, made about an individual. It’s not until you act it out in speech and behavior that others receive the impact.

SIMPLIFIED, FIXED BELIEFS OR JUDGMENTS ABOUT A GROUP OF PEOPLE

Who has it? Everyone – We all have an “affinity bias”. A definite preference for doing things the way we like to do them. And a tendency to warm up to or be comfortable with people like ourselves. No one is immune from bias.

Where did it come from? They are Taught. No one is born prejudiced or biased. Family, Friends, Culture of Origin, Churches, Teachers, People of Influence in our lives, Media, Magazines, Movies, Past Experiences, Books, etc.

What is Racism and How does it inform our Prejudice? Racism comes from the belief that race is equated with particular traits and capabilities. A belief that some races are superior to others. A belief that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others. Scientists and anthropologists have noted that race is a social construct, not a biological one.

What are the benefits and detriments/disadvantages of being prejudice?

What is Discrimination? Discrimination means Action. Treating a group of people unfairly because of a prejudice against them.

How can we overcome Prejudice? Assess your own Biases, keep yourself accountable for the following 4Es:
•Exposure
•Experience
•Education
•Empathy

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

Join Franchise sales and marketing maven, Erica Tarnowski from 919 Marketing, as we explore some of the trends and shifts in buying and selling behavior in franchise development.

Some of the key insights you'll want to hear are:

- The evolution of the customer consideration process over the past few years
- How franchisors and franchise marketing firms should to adapt to these trends to drive more sales
- What FranDev teams are doing to improve their lead conversion rates and sales
- How and why franchise marketers need to diversify their marketing channels and messaging to accommodate the changes in franchise buyer behavior
- The importance of structuring, streamlining, and automating the FranDev lead response process

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

In this week's podcast, learn from a guru in the franchise development space, Red Boswell of International Franchise Professionals Group - IFPG.

He shares FranDev best practices from a broker and a a Franchisor perspective, and we hone in on a few key points franchisors and brokers alike will want to pay attention to, including:
- How franchise development teams have to approach their prospecting differently
- Why franchise system leadership teams need to engage and create strong value to their franchisees to improve the validation process
- Why in-house Franchise Development teams need to develop strong relationships with their broker network and vice versa
- Why Franchise Brokers need to sell with a win-win-win in mind, or they won't last long

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

Lane is a fantastic professional with great experience in leading teams and running companies- from franchises to IBM to sales organizations generating $250M per year.

In this episode, he shares insights into mindset management, we joke about and then seriously discuss how coaches can help elevate performance, and then we dive deep into how to identify the opportunity to pivot and how to overcome the fear of doing so. Our last point of discussion is around how Franchisors and Franchisees can strengthen their relationships and create a highly successful, collaborative partnership.

If you work in the world of franchising, you have probably felt the strain of the franchisee relationship and wondered how to improve it. Listen in for some great advice.

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

Franchises and businesses looking for some expert advice on how to create a powerful branding strategy will want to check out this episode with Jed Morley

In this episode of The Advisory Board Podcast, Jed shares decades of experience regarding:
- how to extract your brand story from your clients and personnel
- how to live your brand story and the consequences of not doing so
- how to codify brand behaviors to enforce brand as part of your culture
- how to create alignment across franchise systems or other multi-location businesses
- how to nail your brand promise and use it as your guiding beacon for all messaging strategy.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

What are the most pressing legal issues for franchise systems today?

How are you changing your Items 19 and 20 to accommodate for the recent economic turmoil that's impacted your franchise system? How should you?

How do you handle deviations from your FDD and franchise legal agreements to accommodate changes needed to weather the current economic storm?

Listen to Christian Thompson from The Franchise & Business Law Group in this week's episode from The Advisory Board Podcast as he shares some insights and actionable advice that all franchise systems should be paying attention to... after all, his team has been in Franchise law for more than 40 years.

Key topics we cover are:
- How to encourage and not create legal issues by Zor and Zee innovation
- Negotiating lease agreement issues during closures
- Legal issues we you should be monitoring during this time of reopening
- Do's and Don'ts of Zee termination and resale

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

If you are trying to cut through the noise of the marketplace and reach a targeted audience quickly, direct mail can be a powerful tool to do it.

In this episode of The Advisory Board Podcast, listen to direct marketing expert, Angie Bynum, who shares insights into B2B and B2C direct mail marketing strategies that actually work.

We cover:
How to build an effective direct mail strategy?
B2B vs B2C direct mail - what works best?
What are the best types of items to send?
How to balance budget and impact with direct mail?
How can you send your items to make them stand out?
What are some good/bad examples of direct mail campaigns?


Want the transcript? Here it is!

Dave Hansen (00:02):
Hey Angie, thanks everybody for joining this episode of the advisory board podcast. I am joined today by the lovely Angie Bynum who is the founder and CEO of Villager Magazine and an expert in direct marketing. Angie, I don't want to elaborate too much on it. Why don't you add a little bit of color to that? What else should everyone know as they listen to this about you?
Angie Bynum (00:24):
Just a quick introduction of where we started out about 11 years ago. We had another business and our biggest challenge was figuring out how to market our business in an affordable way, targeted way. It really was our biggest challenge in our company and so we ended up creating our own direct mail piece. And fast forward 11 years, it started out as just a really small community magazine and now we mail to about 200,000 homes and we've franchised and done some fun things with that. But then in addition to that, we've just added to our marketing toolkit, I guess. And, and we sent out all sorts of funds, direct mail pieces now and, and we just love marketing and everything to do with advertising but mainly direct mail. So. Right.
Dave Hansen (01:18):
Well I'm glad we've got you on the call and I think let's start off with something a little bit lighter and fun. Maybe a couple of examples, but tell me, tell me a little bit about maybe some of the coolest or most effective or even the funniest direct mail pieces that you've seen people use before that have been effective.
Angie Bynum (01:35):
So we'll, we've done, I mean it's been 11 year honestly. I mean sometimes we're pushing companies to be, you know, kind of fun and whimsical and do different things that stand out. One is funny and this is actually an interesting thing. We had a company do a split test, actually a local plastic surgeon office that offer a hair restoration treatment that is really unique. I think they're the only ones in Utah that offer it. And we did a funny split test ad campaign and they sent half of their ads without was very attractive young man with a super thick full and apparently other one was just this funny old guy that, you know, had the comb-over in the hole, you know, you know what some people are trying to avoid these days and did a split test and it was funny. The interesting thing is the young guy with the hopeful head of hair one, so the funny guy with the comb-over but, but yeah, we did that and we then were creative I think funny. It's hard to get companies to step out and do something funny and whimsical even though they're super effective campaign. You actually were telling me about a campaign you recently did that I think is super superb, so maybe you should tell that.
Dave Hansen (03:00):
Oh no. Well I in my bag, I've got a good buddy that I was an early friend of mine professionally who did direct mail. So I've always loved this concept. And I'll, I'll maybe I'll share a story too, cause I'll share one of his stories even though it's not yours. It's funny. But so we were going to a recent event. You're talking about the floppy disks, right? Okay. So we're going to an event now, you know, client ever. We're CRM with sales automation on online reputation, blah, blah blah, right? A technology platform designed for franchise. And so we're going to a franchising conference. So we, we hand picked about, about I think about 250 people that we wanted to send a direct mail piece to. And we got a floppiness like the three and a three and a half floppies and we put a label on them and then we put them in, you know, padded envelopes, handwritten addresses, and sent them out. And and the label, I can't remember what it said exactly, but something to the effect of, Hey, is your, is your franchise? You know, CRM software a little bit out of date. You know,
Angie Bynum (04:00):
When you told me that, I just thought that is brilliant. And first of all, like can you even find floppy disks anymore? So I don't know where you came up with 250 sloppy disks, but I think that's super fun secrets you can find anything on eBay. So the thing I loved about that, like it was whimsical and fun, but anything in direct mail and really any type of marketing, but especially if you're going to have the extensive postage and sending something off, you want to have something that really engages the recipient. And then the other thing that I think was so great about that campaign you spent sent out is a package like that is going to make it up to the decision maker. You know, even if it's just a funny little piece you know, it was going to make it to the hands that you want to get to, you know, it's not going to be, you know intercepted by a gatekeeper. So I thought that was a really fun idea.
Dave Hansen (04:58):
Yeah. I mean even during the recent days I would still have opened up any handwritten envelope sent to me cause I'm like, Oh, what's this? This is cool. Like no people are, and maybe, maybe I can share a funny, like a really interesting story. So a friend of mine, Chris Salway and I'll tell, I'll tag them when I post this cause he's, he worked for a direct marketing guru for years, but they did like really weird stuff. And he told me about his campaign. He actually sent me one in the mail while he was working for this guy who was a canoe paddle. So you know like like five feet long on the blade of the Knute paddle. They use that real estate to put like vinyl lettering that said something like I can't like are you, is your, is your sales automation technology for Creek?
Dave Hansen (05:39):
I can't remember what it was exactly, but to get to the CEOs of fortune 500 companies and so to these guys, I mean the cost to get involved with these guys, for this tech company they were working for was astronomical and just unlikely. And so they did this campaign and he, the funniest part about it was, you know, the ROI was like 12000% ROI. It was like a crazy high ROI. He said, but we would get phone calls about the campaign and people would be, so they would think it was so creative. They'd call him up and say, I had three people follow the package from the mail room to sit in my office while I opened your canoe paddle. That was G they'd have an entourage. Cause what was the last time you saw somebody ship a canoe paddle into a corporate American office?
Angie Bynum (06:24):
Right, right. Well it's really fun. There's a piece that I came out of an ad agency in Canada and I think a couple of agencies since then has duplicated it. And I did like anybody listening to this Google cardboard record player ad campaign. And they actually took a piece of cardboard that folded. You opened it and there was an actual 45 record inside and the cardboard could fold and you know, they had a pin and everything and you actually stuck in a pencil and rotated the record and it would place the messaging. And it was, I mean it actually wasn't a crazy expensive campaign. You know, probably the paddle was much, much more expensive, but it just, you know, it took off like wildfire and it's actually one of the most well known direct mail campaigns ever just because it was so unique. And then it also engaged the recipient. And so, you know, a piece like that probably was passed around the whole office shown to their colleagues, you know, just, you know, really made the rounds and that's, you know, that's the ultimate goal of every marketing campaign is to get as many eyeballs as possible. So, so fun. Yeah. Fun piece like that.
Dave Hansen (07:41):
Totally agree. You know, and I think we could almost spend the whole show just sharing creative and funny ideas of the whole episode. But it brings me to, to wonder, like, I've also seen really terrible direct marketing pieces where people say like they're trying to do it, but literally send me like a foam Chachi in the mail. I'm like, why? Why I should, I had somebody wants, they met and they sent me a, a poop emoji, a phone poop emoji in the mail. And I was like, I don't know yet. It had their name on it. And I was like, let me get this straight. You just sent me, there was some sales technology company at the time, I was VP of sales at a translation company and they're like, eh, but they're trying to get me to use their service. I'm like, you just sent me a foam poop emoji with your logo on it because you want me to use your cell service. Like there was no connection, no emotional connection. I was like, well that was a pretty crappy campaign, pun intended. And they wasted so much shipping cause it was in walks, you know?
Angie Bynum (08:36):
Yeah. Whatever I can say is that would probably a really, really expensive campaign. And I do think that sometimes in marketing we get, you know, we might fall in love with our own ideas and really, you know, thinks that we, you know, this is going to be so funny or this is going to be so, you know, get so much attention. And it might get, but you've got to know your audience and you also have to have the ability to kind of step outside yourself and say, okay, if I received this from a random company I've never heard of, is that something I want to get? And I'm like, well, I'm actually working with a couple of companies right now that we're sending a nice little care package that we'll have a little bottle of hand sanitizer that'

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

Join franchise and multi-location marketing expert, Mark Jensen to learn from his experience managing a $1M per week PPC budget across 1,800 locations of Extra Space Storage.

Key things we discuss are:
- How the PPC landscape is shifting in the past 3-6 months
- What are some of the challenges in managing multi-unit and Franchise PPC marketing?
- What are some PPC best practices that can improve success?
- What should franchise marketing practitioners be monitoring and measuring in their PPC campaigns and why?
- How you can tell if you're paying too much and/or not getting much from your outsourced or in-house PPC partner
- How you can tell if you have a solid PPC marketing vendor

Want a transcript of the podcast? Here you go!

Dave Hansen (00:02):
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the advisory board podcast. I'm Dave Hansen, the host today. We've got an exciting character with us. His name is Mark Jensen, AKA Marcus T. He's also, he's been a semi famous punk band entrepreneur, semi famous - also one of the early managing partners over get found first. A pretty well known SEO PPC firm and he's been managing a ton of you know, very large multi-unit PPC campaigns for groups like extra space storage. So I wanted to bring him on early in the podcast series because he's kind of a witch in this space of PPC is known it and tracked it for many years and and multi-unit multi location PBC is a totally different animal than running it. Just one campaign for one side. So Mark, thanks for joining us.
Mark Jensen (00:55):
Yeah, absolutely.
Dave Hansen (00:57):
Yeah. Anything you want to add, any color to you before we jump in? Any content?
Mark Jensen (01:02):
You know, I've been in internet marketing now for about eight years. Had a lot of exposure to all the different channels in digital marketing, including running that agency, which I think kind of helped me think more like a business owner in this. So going in and, and running this large account for extra space storage that I, gosh, I think we're spending about 52 million a year on 1800 locations. Yeah. Having that business hat when you're working with accounts this size, it's, it's been really helpful and I hope through our discussion I'll be able to kind of highlight some of those nuggets that I've been able to find.
Dave Hansen (01:37):
Yeah. Good. Well, we're gonna, we're gonna pull them out of your brain, so thanks for, thanks for doing that. Hey, so talk, let's, let's just start kind of high level, like what's changing? So PPC is always changing. That's the one thing that never changes with PPC is it's always in a state of flux. Thanks. why don't you share a little bit with us about, about what you've noticed changing in the last maybe, you know, 90 days, six months,
Mark Jensen (01:58):
Okay. Yeah, I mean, first off at caveat, this was saying when we talk PBC, it's almost exclusively Google, right? If you're not on being, you should go there. That's got a generally lower cost for Claire. She can get a, you know, a good conversions there, but it's just not the volume. Like PPC is ubiquitous with Google right now. So we'll kind of reference it by that. The first thing I'd say is covert, right? That's on everybody's mind right now. So much negative news right now. So let me give you some, some potentially good news is it's not the nail in the coffin for every single business out there. I've seen a lot of companies really thriving right now. Thinking of like home renovation or, Oh gosh, like mold removal, these different projects of things people are finally starting to get out on these places are actually increasing in volume right now. So what I'd say is that, Hey, not all industries are impacted the same and not all locations are impacted the same. So something you should do if you're having somebody manage your account is going and ask them, Hey, is there opportunity to actually take advantage of this right now? And not in a slimy way but just like, Hey, there's more interest so let's lean in.
Dave Hansen (03:16):
Yeah. And you know, just a thought to share on that, cause I've got an interesting insight. One of our partners, they generate leads for home service companies and at a very large scale and one of their directors, and I will keep this I won't share any details of who shared what, but they shared that actually HVAC, plumbing, several the home services way up emergency plumbing was way up. Like people are flushing like napkins and paper towels down the toilet, I guess.
Mark Jensen (03:44):
Right. Which is why we are discovering our ineptitude and using our own household things.
Dave Hansen (03:49):
Yeah. Like, well that works in the office toilet, I guess it doesn't work. People are doing, but they're spending more time in their homes. And I'm glad you brought it up because it's an area that we do a lot of work in the client, the other, but that, that niche of, I'm in my house constantly now I'm out on my deck working and my decks, crap, I want to replace my deck or I want to do redo my floors. We can need to get new carpet. Like we have seen an insurgence, a resurgence of leads flowing into, you know, painting, plumbing, HVAC, all sorts of, all sorts of places where a lot of business owners I think are, had been pulling back like, Ooh, save money. I'm afraid. And so what's happening to the competition for those clicks?
Mark Jensen (04:25):
Right. It may not be the time for us sturdy for, for a lot of companies right now. Absolutely. the little tidbit out there like addressing covert in your ads could actually be a good move right now too. So if you're, or you've got somebody managing this, look at cleanliness, leaning into no-contact, things like that, those are performing really well right now.
Dave Hansen (04:47):
Hmm. A question for you. I have somebody who told me that if you referenced coronavirus or covert in your PPC ad copy that Google's blocking those, is that right?
Mark Jensen (04:58):
Hmm. Say I'm not, I'm not sure. Yeah. The only ways I've seen it lean into is not specifically naming Cove it, but just addressing the, the value adds that accompany wants to bring to the table,
Dave Hansen (05:11):
Which is frankly a better psychology of marketing anyway. Stop talking about the, you know, features, benefits, talk about just the benefits of the value that you bring. So yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yep. Sorry to put you on the spot. Cool. So any other trends that you are seeing right now as far as how people should be using or are using PBC?
Mark Jensen (05:31):
Yeah, you know, I love the good buzzword. So let's let's say a couple of big data AI automation that's been around. That's great. Wow. Who's not excited, bright. Now I don't know. But yeah, I'd say that those are still still top of mind. Google's rolled out some of these automated, Ooh, machine learning features in the past, but they're getting better and they're getting better. This is the way that, that things will be moving is automation. And I think one of the things that we're going to start seeing is a difference in how campaigns are being made. And this should be changing already. It used to be when you would create a PBC campaign, it would be extremely broken out, right? You go and you look at anything that was built and you know, four or five years ago, it's going to be very, very intricate. With these automated technologies, they need a lot of data, right? So if you're super broken out, you're actually minimizing the data that this machine learning can grab. So it may not be super popular with some people that want all that control, but having more condensed builds will actually benefit this type of technology more. So that's what I'm going to expect to be seeing is more and more consolidation, fewer keywords, fewer ad groups, things like that. And really leveraging some of this automation in exciting ways, honestly.
Dave Hansen (07:01):
Yeah. Well I come, I have a background in that a little bit. The natural language processing machine learning space for being an inflation. And if you want to train an engine, I've seen, I've seen engines that can translate patents in certain languages as well as humans, but they are very specific content in a very tight, tight content domain, but lots of volume flowing through it. So that makes total sense. Right? Exactly. Yup. Very cool man. Yeah, well I've got a couple of, I got a couple of questions for you, Mark, since you're the expert, if you're ready to be on the hot seat. Yeah, race yourself. So let's, let's shift gears back to multi-unitbecause that's kind of the focus of what we want to talk about today. And there are a lot of people that run franchises that are running a dealership, programs that have hundreds of locations. And this is a big challenge for a lot of them. I've talked to them, they've told me I was what you think of this. So talk to me a little bit about challenges. Like, how is it different? Like what, why is it challenging to run PPC campaigns for multi-unitfranchises or otherwise? Otherwise,
Mark Jensen (08:01):
I think one of the, especially as you start getting bigger and bigger and your portfolio gets larger it can easily become unmanageable. And this is especially true if you've grown over the past few years. Things that you're not thinking about is standardization, right? You're, you're just getting off and you're excited and you're building this business. So what you're going to have is you're going to kind of have this Frankenstein account. Now what I don't want to do is just lean into, yeah, that's really tricky to manage. But also it's really tricky as a business owner to know what in the world is going on when you can't do good roll up reporting, like what products are doing well, what services are doing well, what regions are doing well. All these things are a little tricky if you don't have good standardization and taxonomy. So it's kind of a crazy one. It wouldn't seem like high impact, but

Thanks for listening to the Franchise Advisory Board Podcast, where we explore the ideas, strategies, and people shaping the future of franchising.

If you found today’s episode valuable, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a fellow franchise leader. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn and Youtube.

Until next time, stay curious, stay strategic, and keep building stronger franchise systems!

Join me and online review and business reputation management guru, Mark Spencer from Consumer Fusion as we discuss reputation management best practices for franchise, multi-site, and small business.

We address:
- The impact of your online reputation on your business
- How do Google reviews tie into your organic search traffic
- What's the best way to respond to negative reviews (Google reviews, Facebook Reviews, Yelp Reviews, etc.)
- What should you look for in negative reviews that can help you get them removed
- How to monitor your online reputation effectively

Want to read the transcript? Of course... here you go.

Dave Hansen (00:01):
Hey Mark, thanks so much for joining us. Hey, guys, this is Dave Hansen from ClientTether, and this is our first podcast video casts with, Mark over at... In fact, Mark, I don't want to introduce you. You introduce yourself, you'll do a much better job of it. Please.
Mark Spencer (00:17):
Hello, my name's Mark Spencer. I'm with Consumer Fusion. Consumer Fusion is an all-in-one reputation management, solution along with, some local search and, local listings along with some organic social media. So thanks for having me Dave. I appreciate you having me on for your inaugural, podcast.
Dave Hansen (00:36):
My pleasure. You guys are a good partner and I love your content. Every time we talk I learn new stuff and that's why I thought I've got to have Mark or Brynn - one of the two of you join me cause you're kind of experts and have a lot to share. And I love that you guys are willing to share like your social posts, things like that. Often, I'll read it and say, Oh, I didn't know that and I'll share it to my network. So thanks for being great content contributors.
Mark Spencer (00:58):
Thank you. I appreciate you sharing them.
Dave Hansen (01:01):
Yeah. Well, and so one of the things you didn't say that I'll, add as well is you guys also do negative review removal. We'll talk more about that. But that's kind of an interesting topic today. A lot of people have a lot more time on their hands. I mean, before we jump too far into anything, do you mind maybe sharing a little bit about what are some of the trends you're seeing in reputation in the industry right now? Things that people ought to be aware of.
Mark Spencer (01:24):
Yeah. The thing is, is here at consumer fusion, we're not here to make a bad company look good and we're not here to remove negative reviews that belong there. Um, but we see a trend of third party experiences. Um, especially with Covid-19 going on right now. , we see a lot of tattle tellers, a lot of people, , seeing that non-essential businesses are out there, not staying at home and then taking pictures and then uploading those and tagging that business and writing a negative Yelp or Google review. And so with that, we see we're trying to hold these brands and help them get through these, these challenging times so to speak as we roll these out.
Dave Hansen (02:01):
Yeah, that's interesting. I guess now we have an answer to one of my questions, which is what are all these people doing with all their extra time? But I guess that's a, that's part of it. And I think fans. Hey, well tell me a little bit about, I thought it'd be fun to start, with just an experience you've had with the crazy or like a funny, , negative review, removal of reputation experience. You guys have tons of these aren't bad, but what are some of the, what's something you've seen recently that was, was really interesting?
Mark Spencer (02:27):
, there's a few crazy ones. Oh. Um, consumer fusion. Shoot, we've been around just under 10 years. Um, and how we started was brand. You mentioned Brynn, she's the founder and CEO. So it's a woman owned company. Um, my dad's a retired dentist and one of his ex employees went online to his Google business page and wrote, um, saying that he doesn't pay his employees and it was just a bad firing. And my dad took it like it was okay and she didn't. So she went online and said, Hey, he doesn't pay his employees. And there's a lot of patients, , that saw that and he lost some patients because of it. So Brynn, who was, we were dating at the time said, Hey, let's look into it. So she read the terms and conditions of that, of Google. And one of those terms and conditions, and we'll touch base a little bit on later, is you can't write about your ex-employer.
Mark Spencer (03:15):
Um, that is one of the terms and conditions and Google, Yelp, Facebook, they don't have the manpower to police the reviews. And so we went out and we disputed it. Um, disputing has changed over the last 10 years. But, , she went into disputed it and it finally came down and ding, ding, ding. Um, my dad was part of a rotary club, , with plastic surgeons and lawyers. And that leads me right into a couple crazy, um, first time things that we've seen in regards to the negatives that we've been able to remove, um, in the medical field. , first one was, , there's a lot of pill poppers out in this world. Opiates are becoming a pretty big thing right now. And it's, it's a, it's a tough subject for a lot of people and pill poppy because that's what the doctors do is they just give them, Hey, this will help you out.
Mark Spencer (03:58):
Well, some of the medical doctors that we do work with, with reputation management, they get hit hard because they turn people away, , without prescribing them oxycodone or whatever. And then they get home, they get frustrated, they're already irritable and they, they go off and write. But the most memorable, memorable one that we've come across was, , a multiunit franchisee pizza place. , I don't wanna name names. Um, but it was not on their end. Um, but it was a Google post with a picture and it was a picture of a pizza pizza with a pubic pubic hairs sprinkled on the pizza, um, and, , in the cash. And it was like, Hey, I received this pizza. And then their second picture was after they ate a couple pieces of pizza, didn't know that Cuba care was there. They took a picture. Um, there was a picture of a penis that was written in Sharpie underneath the pizza says, you ate, you saw the picture of that.
Mark Spencer (04:50):
So then they started looking at the pizza and found it. Well, long story short, this was all drawn up. We found out that it was a bunch of drunk people that actually, um, wrote this and they were just looking for some free pizza, but we were able to remove it. It was a troll type of a review, and that's what we see trending. But it was, we've seen it all. , we've seen some crazy stuff that once again, we're here to keep reviews honest and help those small businesses and large corporations maintain a good online presence. So the houses, it's crazy.
Dave Hansen (05:20):
Wow. Yeah. People would go to no end for a free pizza, like five bucks. You know, like if you want to go get a Dominos or something. So ...hard times, I guess. So, yeah, I need to reroute those funds. , we, we've got, um, and you know, just, you know, and, and this, in this podcast and video, we're not, we're not condoning or condemning, you know, beer or pizza. I said these are okay to is neutral stuff, but, , the, , I wanted to ask you a little bit about, about reputation. You know, that's a very specific niche you guys are, and we'll come back to negative reviews, but tell us, talk to us a little bit about best practices and monitoring your reputation. So I mean, and, and, and also, you know, meaning good and negative, like what are some best practices that people should be paying attention to?
Mark Spencer (06:08):
Definitely address the negatives. And there are times that you can remove negatives. Um, I want to respond to the negative reviews. Um, the most important thing when a review comes across, whether it's both positive and negative, is making sure you have a business owner's response in a timely matter. Um, so with best business practice, I recommend never get emotional with your responses if it's a negative. And we at consumer fusion, we do have a platform that notifies you via text and email when you get any review, let alone if it's three stars or below. Um, but you want to pounce on that. And I mean, I'm by pounce on that is, , 90% of consumers read the business owner's response. And so it's important that you don't turn a negative into a double negative. And, , but you also want to go in there, devalue it, but reach out and let the, let the potential consumer that sees that negative to see that, Hey, they're reaching out, they're trying to rectify the situation, they're to giving phone numbers and emails and they're trying to reach out to make it.
Mark Spencer (07:03):
Right. So, , with that, I say the best thing to do is make sure you respond to reviews, both positive and negative. And I was talking negative. Let's talk positive. I mean, don't you say thank you when someone thanks you and says happy birthday day, you know, on social media. Will you say, Hey, thanks. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate that having a great day. Do you want to do the same thing with your positive reviews and responding to positive reviews, acknowledging that these people take the time out of their day to write you a good review. You want to respond to it. And so there are platforms out there that can monitor your reputation. Um, , but ours is a little different because we're actually doing the manual work to be an all in one solution, which is , removing negative content that doesn't belong there. Customized our owner's responses and then the monitoring part of it. But there's a, there's a lot of , practices. So I recommend a monitoring service, um, and the third party to respond to that. You don't get emotional on the reviews.
Dave Hansen (07:59):
Yeah. And let's say you're a small business. Like I don't have budget to hire any sort of a service. I know some are fairly inexpensive too, but I mean, worst case they should have some sort of a process where they're, you know, a cou

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