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Consumers are reviewing your organization on Google- whether you ask them to or not. It’s very common. Just put your company’s name in the search bar and push enter. Unfortunately though, most of us will likely see the consumers who most often review debt collection agencies are those who aren’t happy for one reason or another.
Do you consider negative reviews to be complaints? Should you? Even if the consumer may not be making a formal complaint in the traditional sense, they are putting you on notice that they aren’t happy.
The CFPB and other regulatory agencies can see google reviews and it’s likely they would consider it a complaint. So what do you do? Should you log them and respond the way you would respond to a complaint sent directly to your office, from the BBB, the CFPB or any regulatory body. How can you when google reviews don’t always give you enough information to identify the consumer?
Whether you respond to google reviews ultimately will depend on your organization’s risk tolerance, but here are some things to consider:
Although Google does not require you to respond to reviews, responding can show that you value consumer feedback and support a positive consumer experience. If you decide to respond you should keep your responses short and to the point. The CFPB reminded us in their Bulletin 2022-05: Unfair and Deceptive Acts or Practices That Impede Consumer Reviews that we cannot remove negative reviews, but there is a process for requesting reviews be removed if they violate Google’s content policies or are associated with an incorrect location or listing. There is a whole list of reasons you can request a review be removed and they can be found here: Prohibited and restricted content.
Should you try to limit reviews and redirect consumers instead?
One way to limit reviews in a public forum is to provide consumers an opportunity to provide feedback directly. However, your intent with consumer reviews should always be to improve your company’s performance and the consumer experience. With that in mind, you may want to apply the “Delta Airlines approach.” At the end of every customer service call they ask one question to gauge the consumer’s satisfaction with what they called about. To paraphrase, “would you hire the representative you just spoke to?” Upon calling in they ask if you’d be interested in taking a brief survey after the call. If you respond yes, you are automatically directed to an IVR to respond to the question. They also use a similar consumer satisfaction survey if you engage with them via text message.
On our most recent Peer Call, one of our Research Assistant members shared that their collectors proactively ask the consumer at the end of each call if they felt their call has been handled professionally. You could also send a survey link or a short satisfaction question using text messaging. Technology offers several different options if you are open to using them.
What are the benefits?
Consumer reviews and feedback can help you identify risks before they become formal complaints or lawsuits if you use the data to enhance training, coaching and even impact your organization’s policies and procedures. Depending on the results, you might even want to include consumer satisfaction data on your website and in client RFPs.
Regardless of whether you leverage public reviews, such as Google or capture the information internally it’s important that you use that data in a way that impacts your overall Compliance Management System.
It seems like there’s a lot to unpack here and this topic is sure to appear on future peer calls.
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