Reviews

On line reviews are valuable because they can increase the number of phone calls you get.  It used to be easy to get reviews posted on Google.  Just set up an account write a review and it appeared.

That has changed.  Now the reviews need to be linked to a name that is published. Reviews from an account that appear to be fake to the Google computers are never made public.

Other review sites like Yelp have set up a sting to catch people posting fake reviews.

The reality of reviews is that very few consumers post reviews of a business.  When a consumer has a great experience at a business they are not as motivated to post a review than a consumer that has had a bad experience.  A business that serves 1,000 customers a year may end up with three bad reviews and one good review.  The reality is that 950+ consumers had a good experience.  But you would not know that from reading the reviews.

Google's and Yelps attempts to make sure the review is written by a real consumer is a good step in the right direction.  But I don't think the reviews are a good indicator of how a business treats its customers.