5 Stars, “I’m Lovin’ It”

Carrie’s brother and sister-in-law recently came to visit. They were driving out from Colorado and stopped for lunch at a fast-food restaurant along the way before continuing on to Holly’s Hill. It was late when they finally arrived, and one of the first stories they shared was about their miserable lunch stop. The service was abysmal, and their food didn’t arrive for more than 30 minutes.

I won’t name the restaurant, but let’s just say… it was a bit of a clown show.

As we sat around catching up that evening, my sister-in-law mentioned that she almost never leaves online reviews. This experience was bad enough though that she pulled out her phone and left a one-star Google review before they even pulled out of the parking lot.

It got me thinking. Our business is built almost entirely around the tasting room experience. Sure, it’s nice when a wine earns a medal at the county fair or state fair, or receives praise in a wine publication. Those things certainly don’t hurt, but they don’t drive people through our front door the way they once might have.

It used to be word of mouth. Today, it’s Google. When someone searches for a winery in Placerville or El Dorado County, there’s a good chance their first stop isn’t asking a friend—it’s pulling out their phone. Whether they decide to visit us often comes down to the photos they see and the reviews people leave.

You’ve probably read about the challenges facing the wine industry, and the alcohol industry in general, lately. Like many wineries, we’ve been adapting. We’ve added more food events, created a daily food menu, started brewing beer, and put much more effort into social media.

Then Carrie found a company that offered to evaluate our website, online presence, and search engine optimization (SEO). The report was eye-opening. We were doing some things well, but we were missing a lot of opportunities. They offered to handle everything for us, but they also said, “You can absolutely do this yourself.”

If you know me, you know exactly which option I chose.

Over the following months, we worked through page after page of recommendations. Some changes were technical. Others were surprisingly simple, like rewriting page titles and headlines and even starting a blog (This one! Which Carrie calls my creative obsession.). We learned how search engines actually find businesses like ours, and we started making it easier for Google to understand what Holly’s Hill is all about.

The results have been encouraging. We’re seeing more first-time visitors than we used to from all generations.

But one area continues to be surprisingly difficult: Google reviews.

I actually try to leave Google reviews whenever a small business exceeds my expectations. I know how much they matter because we are on the receiving end of them, too. Just recently, I left a five-star review for one of my favorite stores in Placerville, Grateful Threads. I kept it simple:

“Cool stuff and super nice people. What took us so long to discover it?”

That was it.

What many people don’t realize is that businesses don’t just need good reviews: they need great reviews. Most of us think four stars means, “That was really good!” Unfortunately, Google algorithms don’t always see it that way. If one business has a 4.9-star rating and another has a 4.3, which one are you clicking on? An honest four-star review, which many people intend as a compliment, can actually lower a small business’s overall average and make it less likely to be chosen by a new customer. That’s why five-star reviews are so incredibly valuable when you genuinely believe a business has earned one.

A while back, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. After one of our food events, we emailed everyone and asked them to leave us a Google review.

It completely backfired.

A few longtime wine club members left one, two, and three-star reviews. They weren’t reviewing Holly’s Hill as a winery; they were reviewing that specific event. Had I simply asked them what they thought of Holly’s Hill overall, I’m confident many would have given us five stars. (I guess they just really didn’t like my Croque Monsieur sandwich. Lesson learned.)

Since then, we’ve been much more careful about asking. In fact, before my in-laws headed back home, online reviews came up again in our conversation, so I asked them to leave us a five-star review.

That was a week ago.

I’m still waiting.

(Hi, Scott and Vickie!)

So here’s my question for you: If you own a small business, or if you’ve figured out a great way to encourage happy customers to leave reviews, I’d love to hear your advice.

And yes, since we’re already talking about it, here’s the shameless plug: If you’ve had a wonderful experience at Holly’s Hill and feel we’ve earned a five-star review, we’d be incredibly grateful if you’d take a minute to leave one. It makes a much bigger difference than most people realize, helping new visitors discover us and giving them the confidence to stop by.

And if your experience wasn’t five stars? We’d honestly rather hear from you directly. We’d love the chance to make things right before you head over to Google.

Review or not, if you walk out of our tasting room thinking, “I’m lovin’ it,” then we’ve reached our goal.

Josh Bendick
Co-winemaker