If you’re in business, customer reviews are a big deal. If they are something you have been ignoring, then now’s the time to change that. Womply, a small business SaaS provider, conducted a study of over 200,000 businesses and is reporting a strong connection between reviews and revenue.

• Businesses that didn’t claim their listings averaged $72,000 less in annual revenue according to Womply.

• Another “no-surprise” finding is that consumers appear more inclined to buy from businesses that respond to online reviews. This may be because they assume those responding to reviews offer better service. According to the study, 75% of businesses don’t respond to their online reviews. But those that do earn considerably more revenue.

• Womply also discovered an optimal star-rating range. Businesses obviously don’t have control over this. But the company found that businesses in the 3.5 to 4.5 star range had more average revenue than those below or above, including businesses with 5-star ratings.
• Womply offers two reasons to potentially explain the under-performance of 5-star businesses compared with those in the optimal range:
  • Five star businesses tend to have fewer reviews
  • Consumers may be more skeptical of 5-star businesses (assuming manipulation)

• The study also discovered that review counts were more strongly correlated with revenue performance than average star ratings.

We dissect all these findings and discuss:

• The strategy for soliciting customer reviews
• The mistakes most businesses make when it comes to customer reviews
• A brand-new platform coming soon from Tricycle Creative that will allow businesses to collect and produce video testimonials at a touch of a button

In one of the most bizarre stories this year, Rolling Stone reported that Hasbro now owns Death Row Records:

More precisely, Hasbro purchased Entertainment One, a multimedia company that owns the children’s franchises Peppa Pig and PJ Masks (these are apparently popular among the youth, though they surely pale in comparison with Mr. Potato Head). Entertainment One also has a music division, which happens to be one of the biggest independent labels in the industry — it took in more than $30 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2019. And back in 2013, eOne acquired the catalog of Death Row, which had previously been forced to declare bankruptcy in 2006.

This gets added to our list of interesting collaborations/acquisitions (remember the KFC/Cheetos alliance? Or the Hennessy and Ridley Scott commercial?). We also wonder, what toys could this acquisition lead to…?

On our last episode, Chris had a therapy session brought to the show a discussion about his productivity challenges. And now, he has good news – he’s using the Pomodoro Technique and loving it!

We talk about the Pomodoro Technique and how Chris is able to apply it to his creative work in an office setting.