I’m visiting a small town in the mountains of North Carolina today and I need lunch. I’ve been hanging out in a coffee shop using the free wifi and searching for a restaurant.

I went to Google and typed in “restaurants Brevard NC” and got a list. The local business results came up and a bunch of the restaurants had customer reviews. I started clicking and scanning.

The first restaurant had four reviews: three bad, one good. I immediately scratched it off my list. Truthfully, I gave it all of about ten seconds of thought. Some poor person has spent years building this restaurant, and I wrote it off in seconds based on a few reviews from people I’ve never met. In fact, it’s conceivable that these aren’t even real people. I know a bunch of techniques for vetting these reviews, but I didn’t use any of them. I just reacted.

In ten seconds, I let some anonymous people make a decision for me that resulted in my skipping that restaurant now and forever. Boom. Done. No second chance.

Do you think prospective clients evaluate you based on the reviews on online sites? If you don’t, you’re living in fantasyland. Online reviews are word of mouth on steroids. You’ve got to pay attention. You’ve got to find a way to encourage positive reviews (within the rules in your jurisdiction), or you’re going to get sandbagged by an unhappy client, opposing party, or other anonymous person.

These review sites are incredibly powerful. Ignore them at your peril.