The other day one of our crew received the following missive from Verio:
Boy, do I have some issues with this.
There’s nothing wrong with asking customers for positive reviews; when a client tells us that they had an especially good experience with flyte we ask them if they’d be willing to recommend one of us on LinkedIn, write up a review on Google, or let us use their message in our online marketing.
However, the idea of paying someone for a review, especially only if it’s favorable (their underline, not mine) seems, well, unseemly. No need to share your story with others if your experience is unfavorable. Do that on your own time.
I also have issues with the logic behind writing these reviews. “Because they garner awareness of our solutions, which in turn, leads to to direct outreach.” I’m not even entirely sure what that means, but if you want direct outreach, shouldn’t you be reaching out to the people who might need your solution?
Here’s how I might recommend Verio moves forward: teach your account reps to do a kick-ass job, and when your customers are suitably impressed, then ask those people if they’d be willing to write a positive review for you. No incentives other than your undying gratitude.
We got this semi-targeted email in the midst of moving all of our clients’ sites off of Verio to another host after too many frustrations; probably not the best time to ask us for a favorable review of their product line.
I’m still a believer that all hosting companies suck, some just suck less…I can only hope that our new hosting company falls into that latter company.
P.S. Please don’t take this as an opportunity to sell us on your hosting services; we’ve spent too much time and energy moving, and we’re not going to review our hosting again for another, say, 27 years.
