By Illinois Review
In nationwide surveys, 95 percent of consumers read reviews before making a purchase, and 58 percent said they’d be willing to pay more money if a brand or service had good reviews.
Consumers also trust reviews just as much as personal recommendations – demonstrating the power and influence of online reviews in today’s marketplace.
The surveys also included some interesting data points.
For example, 72 percent of consumers depend on Google reviews when looking for businesses; star ratings matter more to consumers than the number of reviews; and 94 percent of consumers have avoided a business or service altogether because of a bad review.
Good reviews reward good products and services, while bad reviews result in a decline in sales or services.
So if the average consumer relies on reviews as part of their daily decision-making process, then why not create a platform for star ratings and reviews of local and statewide campaign consultants – allowing candidates the chance to review consultants before making a decision to hire them on their campaign?
Far too often, candidates – especially first-time candidates are deceived into hiring campaign consultants who care more about how they can make money from their campaigns, then actually creating a winning campaign strategy.
Campaign consultants find interesting ways to make money off of campaigns and candidates, by persuading a candidate to only use their vendors for mailers, printing, literature, walk cards, signs, television and radio spots and website development – and taking a “referral fee” on the backend.
Campaign consultants can also come with their own donor list or voter data, negotiating with campaigns an additional fee structure that pays the consultants a certain percentage of all money raised from their own fundraising lists, or from the data that they collect and provide.
For candidates, all of this can be overwhelming – and it’s why a rating system with reviews would be incredibly helpful.
It’s also important for candidates to know what other campaigns the consultants worked on, and did those campaigns win or lose?
If a campaign consultant has a track record of losing races, then a candidate should know that. And if a campaign consultant has a track record of winning races — they should know that too.
By creating transparency and accountability – with realtime information, ratings and reviews, candidates will have the opportunity to make informed decisions – just like consumers do before buying a product or service – or in this case, investing in a campaign consultant.
And if this happens, candidates will be in a much better position to win by filling their team with consultants that bring with them a track record of winning.
If every day businesses are subjected to rating systems and reviews, then why not campaign consultants too?
Illinois Review is contemplating developing a grading system and invites people to confidentially share their consultant experiences with us at [email protected].
