What Is Online Review Management? [Complete Guide]
Have you ever noticed how much your decisions are influenced by online reviews? Be it a new restaurant or product, those little star ratings and comments influence the decision on hand!
But what about securing the potential online reputation of those same businesses as completely positive and credible? This is where online review management comes into play.
In this modern era of the Internet, managing the things that customers say about a business is very important for them to be successful.
From responding to feedback to capitalizing on great reviews, there are many strategies and tools at the disposal of companies to shape their online image.
Let’s explore how businesses can harness the power of reviews to build trust, attract customers, and grow their brands.
What Is Online Review Management?
Online review management is the process of managing, analyzing, and responding to the opinions of customers on digital platforms in a controlled manner.
This service is important in forming one’s online reputation but at the same time forms part of a bigger reputation management approach.
3 Practical Elements of Online Review Management –
- Monitoring: It entails the tracking of what customers are saying on review websites such as TripAdvisor, Social media, and the company’s actual website.
- Analysis: This stage is dedicated to the review of the content of the reviews to measure the customers’ level of satisfaction, see which problems and what trends are most frequent, and gain insights on how the areas should be improved.
- Response: Engagement with reviewers is very important; businesses should thank them for positive feedback and deal with any negative comments.
Above all, online review management is the attempt to enhance consumer satisfaction and perception of the business, influence potential customers, and eventually trigger business growth.
Online review management allows companies to create a better online image, protects their reputations, and even makes choices based on customer insight and information.
Why Does Online Review Matter?
Customer reviews are critical in determining whether a buyer should or shouldn’t buy into a brand and continue or discontinue as a customer of that business.
They give point-blank views of the trustworthiness of the company, quality of service rendered, and performance of a product.
Going by the current market, business reviews are no longer quality indicators but, for any brand, form an integral part of identity as well as reputation.
The research cited below supports their importance:
- Reputation Value: 63% of a company’s market value is bound to its reputation
- Customer Behavior: 99% of online shoppers have read reviews for a local business at least once
- Local Knowledge: 81% report using Google Reviews as a factor in forming an opinion about a local business
From Business Influence, some reviews power many aspects of a company –
- Search Engine Optimization: Positive reviews generate more online visibility and improve the search results so that the potential customer will be able to locate and interact with the brand more easily.
- Consumer Confidence: Good ratings are social proof, leaving the minds of customers, confident that new or small businesses are authentic and worth trusting.
- Buying Decisions: Adding product reviews to landing pages, emails, and ads leads to a higher conversion rate.
- Improvement Feedback: Reviews provide insights about customer satisfaction in what could be improved within a business. Using such feedback helps with customer loyalty and revenue creation.
Overall, online reviews are fundamental in shaping the reputation of a business, which directly affects its competitiveness within the market.
The biggest brands therefore come up with strategies of handling online reviews that will enable them to control their reputation.
4 Benefits of Effective Online Review Management
Effective online review management brings about several advantages for businesses. Some of the advantages associated with effective online review management include the following
1. Building Trust and Confidence
Online reviews are effective word of mouth. A Bright Local survey reveals that 98 percent of consumers read reviews online, while 46% stated that online reviews are the most important factor in forming their opinion about a business.
Responding to both positive and negative reviews shows that the business is genuine and truly seeks input from customers.
2. Strategic Insights
The review gives critical information regarding the level of satisfaction with the product.
Marked areas of improvement provide potential avenues for improvement in product development and marketing teams, as this feedback loop equips them with ideas on how to better the product.
3. Enhanced Customer Retention
Answering a complaint and crediting the customer for positive comments can also help the business retain its customers.
Proactive interaction shows that the business cares for feedback input and is working towards improving the customer’s experience.
Recommendations on social media can be one of the best user-generated content that helps influence users.
4. Competitive Advantage
A brand and its competition will always have feedback that depicts the strengths and weaknesses of the brand.
The business can notice the area in which opportunities lie through listening to reviews.
For instance, when customers continuously complain that a competitor’s customer service is poor, it presents an opportunity for your brand to become a good one.
These include building trust and loyalty, strategic insights through online reviews, and having an edge over competition, thus driving business success.
7 Steps For Monitoring Online Reviews
Building a Review Management Strategy begins with the following seven crucial steps: Steps for building an effective review management strategy:
1. Establish and Enhance Your Business Listings Across Platforms
First and foremost, get your business on local review sites, most importantly Google Business Profile, to get more visibility on the search results.
An optimized profile can increase the chances of appearing in searches, thereby leading customers to your business.
Don’t forget industry-specific sites for your audience either, such as Booking.com for the hospitality industry or Zomato for restaurants.
Optimization Tips:
- Exact Information: You need to get the name, address, phone number, and operating hours to be consistent on all media channels.
- Visual appeal: Implement high-quality images of the products or services to stand out on a profile.
- Keywords: Implement relevant local keywords in the business description to increase visibility during the search.
- Brand Consistency: Maintain the same tone and branding across every media to develop recognition and trust.
2. Motivate Customers to Share Their Feedback
Be Aware of the Power of the Review, some statistics show that 65% of consumers prefer to write reviews if encouraged to do so.
How to Encourage Your Customers to Write Reviews
- Timing: Ask for a review right after the customer has had a successful interaction or transaction.
- Make it Easy: Direct links and QR codes to review platforms are much easier ways to get a review out.
- Personal: Address customers by name and relate their reviews to their specific purchases.
- Acknowledge Reviews: Thank every review for the feedback; even provide incentives if the review falls within the guidelines of the platform.
3. Engage with Reviews Quickly, Professionally, and Consistently
Interacting with consumer reviews will give your brand a great reputation. As much as 90% of consumers love companies willing to respond to all reviews.
Response Policy:
- Promptness: Reply as soon as possible within 24 to 48 hours.
- Professionalism: Treat everyone professionally.
- Personalization: Use authentic sources in the review to create actual involvement.
- Brand Personality: Insert your brand voice in the comments.
- Dislikes: Rebuke complaints politely and offer a solution proving you do care for the satisfaction of customers.
4. Tips for Addressing Negative Feedback
You should take negative reviews as an opportunity to show excellent customer service.
Best Practices:
- Swift Response: Seize an opportunity to let customers feel you care about their feedback by responding quickly.
- Take it Online: Make them take it privately with you.
- Empathy in Answers: Respond empathetically and address concerns.
- Follow-Up: Once you’ve addressed issues, follow up with customers to ensure everything is all right.
5. Prominently Display Your Customer Reviews
Multiply customer reviews’ power by distributing them across multiple channels.
Implementation Ideas:
- Add the widget to display recent reviews on your website, so now there’s some credibility and, potentially, several hundred percent more conversions.
- User-Generated Content: Request customers to share a photo or video with their review, and display them in product galleries.
- Marketing Campaigns: Use positive review emails and social media content, especially around new product releases.
6. Maintain Ongoing Review Monitoring and Management
Maintain a routine check on your online presence across different review platforms.
Monitoring Strategies:
- Alerts to the new reviews that will enable you to respond promptly.
- Escalation workflows are assigned to the team members who are going to monitor and respond to feedback.
- Periodic Audits: Monitor and assess trends periodically for improvement opportunities.
7. Evaluate, Adapt, and Evolve Based on Feedback
Think of customer feedback as a gold mine for research in the market.
Actionable Insights:
- Identify patterns or trends that frequently repeat.
- Use the insights for the launch of a new product or enhancement of an existing service.
- Leverage sentiment analysis tools to track the overall attitude of customers and trends.
With this, the approach will be followed to create a strong review management strategy that will help businesses build trust, customer loyalty, and growth.
3 Tips to Develop an Online Review Management Strategy
A successful online review management strategy has to be established based on the understanding that steady management can lead to an increase in customer base, a better reputation for the brand, and higher chances of achieving conversion rates.
While varied elements may differ from business to business, there are fundamental considerations that apply universally, as follows:
1. Determine Essential Review Platforms
Identify which review sites are the most influential in your industry. For example, a firm in the travel or hospitality industry would want to be aware of a property’s rating on TripAdvisor, while a service provider in the local services arena would want to know its Yelp rating.
Outside of the other two categories, Google My Business is still important for nearly every business due to its incredibly close relationship to the rankings in local search.
2. Create a Loyal Response Plan
Establish a structured method of engaging with reviews. Respond timely, both positively and negatively, personally, and in a way that’s consistent with the brand on which you are imprinting customer service.
3. Review Management as Part of the Larger Strategy
Review management needs to be integrated into your greater marketing and customer service strategy.
It allows your business to take the lessons it learns from its customers and apply them so you make better decisions and manage the total experience for your customers.
Set Up a Standard Review Management Process
For a standard reviewing process management, a systematic approach is, first and foremost, needed and comparable to the selection of the appropriate review monitoring tool.
Your strategy should comprise the following 4 factors –
- Proactive Review Monitoring: Arm your software to continuously monitor reviews across social media channels and various platforms like Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and so on. End.
- Responding to Feedback: Create response templates for positive and negative reviews so your process is efficient and fluid but personal.
- Timely Engagement: Set very clear guidelines around response times and implement notifications so your team is engaging with reviews in a timely way.
- Leveraging Feedback for Improvement: Designate an individual to analyze recurring themes or trends in reviews, providing valuable insights into areas that require attention.
Optimizing Your Online Reputation & Review Management With LocoBuzz
Following are 8 steps that will help you understand Optimization of Online Reputation & Review Management better –
STEP 1. Navigate to Channel Configuration
Log into your account on Locobuzz and access the Channel Configuration section, which is used to administer and integrate different forms of communication channels with Locobuzz such as GMB.
Make sure you are accessing this section to start configuring your GMB account.
STEP 2. Click on “Add Channel”
After you get to the Channel Configuration section, click on the “Add Channel” button.
It will result in the list of available channels through which you can integrate the Locobuzz platform.
This option is crucial for adding GMB to your tool for the management of communication.
STEP 3. Select Google My Business
Next, from the list of available channels, choose Google My Business.
This will let you link your “GMB account” to Locobuzz.
Once you connect your GMB with Locobuzz, you can control and monitor reviews, customer interactions, and insights on the same dashboard.
STEP 4. Choose Your Google Account
You will be prompted to select the Google account linked to the location you wish to enable.
Ensure you have selected the correct account; otherwise, the access or synchronization of data may be impacted.
STEP 5. “Sign In”
After choosing the Google account, you will be led to “sign in”
This is a prerequisite for authentication as it confirms ownership; Locobuzz will have permission to act on your GMB profile correctly.
STEP 6. Complete Configuration
Immediately after signing into the account, you have to follow more prompts or instructions as appear on Locobuzz to complete the configuration of the account for GMB.
After that, your GMB account will be integrated successfully within Locobuzz so that customer interactions and reviews can be dealt with efficiently.
STEP 7. Managing Reviews in Locobuzz
To manage reviews, go to the Inbox tab where all reviews appear in a single stream sorted from newest to oldest.
Reviews can be filtered by date range, profiles, ratings, tags, or sentiment and searched for by keyword.
The number of unmarked reviews at the top bar will give you a quick reference. For additional actions on a review, click the overflow menu.
STEP 8. Replying to Reviews
You can mark a review complete if no further action needs to be taken, and you can do this by clicking the option available in that area.
This keeps your review management streamlined so that your team focuses on reviews that need attention.
Do’s and Don't's of Online Review Management
The dos and don’ts containing the best practices of review management are as follows:
The DO’s
1. Interact with Negative Reviews
Always address any poor reviews with a professional and constructive tone. According to research, 82% of customers will seek to find negative reviews, and engaging with them can prove useful in building one’s credibility.
Responding to them is also instrumental in changing dissatisfied customers into brand ambassadors.
2. Tap into the Potential Benefits of AI Efficiencies
Leverage automation and artificial intelligence to make your review monitoring and response processes smoother.
AI can analyze humongous amounts of data to identify trends and sentiments, thereby making review management easy.
3. Customer Treatment
Reflect on the reasons behind negative feedback. In the analysis of business processes and the practices used in customer service, you get to note improved areas for change.
Necessary change is also brought by sharing reviews with the leadership.
The DON’T’S
1. Ignore Negative Feedback
Ignoring bad reviews can even help in ruining your reputation. Respond instead sensibly and promptly to show how much you care about their feedback.
2. Tolerate Fake Reviews
Creating or accepting fake reviews is unethical and may even crumble your brand credibility. Always report it through the right channels.
3. Don’t Neglect Customer Care
Treat your customers well: take their problems seriously and adapt to them for a good reputation.
By following these best practices, a business will effectively respond to its online reviews, build up and strengthen its reputation, and give room for interacting with customers to foster loyalty.
3 best practices for responding to online reviews
Here are three best practices for responding to online reviews:
1. Response to Positive and Negative Reviews
This is also a chance to gain the confidence of readers by responding to each of the reviews, negative and positive.
Negativities encountered in engaging with critics may establish relationships; based on a Bright Local survey, 79% of customers give a positive review when a business positively responds to their first negative experience.
Each review needs a response to try and win back customers even after negative comments.
2. Be Professional and Sincere
Be accommodating and apologetic in your response, especially if it is a public apology.
Your responses will be friendly and human-like. Ensure you include the name of the reviewer in every response, state their issues, and show what actions you will take to rectify the situation.
Never forget to close off with your name and position, if this is not mentioned.
3. Respond Immediately
Customers want responses to their reviews immediately.
Even if this is the case, quick action can be reflected in better overall ratings: most of the responsive brands worldwide seem to do it faster and more reliably.
Having a review response strategy in place lets you be proactive and respond faster while avoiding time waste in the long run.
Keep in mind that the reader is often the reviewer but also future customers will read it, and you can be sure they’ll pay attention to how you handle negative feedback.
In a nutshell, working online reviews professionally includes reacting to all the negative feedback, writing your response professionally, and addressing this matter with adequate promptness.
It will help settle the concerns of customers as well as build a positive perception of your brand among future customers.
Summing Up
Online review management plays a key role in the development and continuity of an excellent digital presence.
It performs active monitoring, responds to reviews, and elicits more reviews to develop customer trust and support services in ways that make the business stand out in a very competitive market.
Proactive measures do not only safeguard your brand but use customer feedback as an opportunity for growth.
Ready to take control of your online reputation and turn every review into an opportunity to elevate your business? Let’s get started on shaping your brand’s future today!