I’m obsessive about reading reviews before buying any new product or service or booking any hotel or restaurant. It’s been said that I spend more time researching a holiday than I actually spend on it! (I have the spreadsheets to prove it!)
Reviews are so important to us as consumers, aren’t they? They help us make purchasing decisions and can be particularly reassuring when we’re considering a new company or product.
But reviews aren’t just important to consumers; they’re important to the businesses too, which is why, in January, we introduced a monthly prize draw with customers earning one ticket for every new activity review they post.
As a result, we’ve already had seven times more real-life reviews of activities in 2022 than we had in the previous three years combined!
Here is a small sample:
(5/5) “I used this in a team working sessions. New Managers particularly find it helpful. Breaks down what can be a complex issue into easy manageable steps.”
(4/5) “Good little exercise this one. Interesting results. Ideal for a quick session with a group who lack experience about this subject potentially.”
(5/5) “I used this at a recent workshop and the template was so useful. I gave this as the last exercise and it helped people pull together what they had learnt from other activities and then work together to reflect or plan a difficult conversation.”
(5/5) “I love this exercise! I have used it on several occasions and there always seems to be some new learning that can be drawn out. I use it mainly for problem-solving facilitation as a wrap-up exercise. I have used it face to face and remotely, using a Jamboard so the delegates can collaborate virtually. For the remote version I have created a number of cards to match the number of delegates, making sure I include all the facts. The tricky thing is you don't always know exactly how many delegates you'll get on the day! In the face to face version I just hand out more cards per person. It's great for illustrating listening, team work, understanding a task, data visualisation - the list goes on! I would highly recommend this exercise.”
I realise that this looks like I’ve cherry picked some of the best reviews, but actually, I selected them at random and 4 out of 5 is the lowest score any modules have been given this year.
Of course, great reviews like these provide incredible marketing for a small organisation like ours, and we’re grateful for every single one we’ve received.
But it’s important to value the criticisms and less positive reviews too because they provide equally important opportunities to learn, adapt and grow as well as avoid mistakes. So, I want to emphasise that every review of an activity, good or bad, will earn a ticket in the prize draw!
When you join Trainers' Library, any review you post about any of our activities will automatically enter you into our monthly prize draw. This month's prize is a selection of goodies from The Woodland Trust worth £35.00 and there'll be another new prize in July on offer.
Until next time...