While collecting reviews is a rewarding feat in itself, there’s so much more you can do with customer review management than many realize. To start, you can use them as actionable insights to make better business decisions to propel the brand forward.
Let’s talk about customer review management and the value it brings to businesses.
What Is Customer Review Management?
Customer review management is the process of collecting, monitoring and responding to reviews or feedback from customers across various sources, such as customer review sites.
It also involves tracking customer sentiment on social media channels. Review management aims to understand customers’ feelings toward a company’s products or services.
By using online review management software, companies can streamline their process and gain accurate insights to develop an informed strategy.
The Benefits of Online Review Monitoring and Management
The benefits of online review monitoring and management are multifaceted. By keeping an eye on customer reviews, you can:
- Identify areas that need improvement, allowing for a more efficient review response and faster problem resolution.
- Build brand trust and loyalty by showing customers their voices are heard and their feedback is valued.
- Use customer reviews to gain valuable market insights, such as which features customers are looking for or what products they appreciate most.
Ultimately, online review management is essential to any business’s success. By monitoring customer feedback and responding promptly with meaningful solutions, you can increase customer satisfaction, improve product features, identify opportunities for growth and create a better overall customer experience.
Top Customer Review Sites for Online Review Management Services
Customer review sites are invaluable resources for consumers looking to make informed purchase decisions. From clothing, electronics and travel services to restaurants and hotels, customers can find detailed opinions from real people who have already tried certain products or services.
- Amazon – One of the leading eCommerce sites offering customers reviews, ratings and detailed information on millions of products.
- Yelp – An online platform that enables users to find reviews, photos and prices for local businesses in an area.
- Google – An easy way for customers to review businesses on Google Maps and provide feedback about their experiences.
- Consumer Reports – A well-respected source of unbiased product ratings and reviews from professional testers who rate dozens of products based on performance criteria established by experts in the industry.
- TripAdvisor – A website with millions of traveler’s reviews about hotels, restaurants, flights, attractions and more, providing helpful insights for people worldwide planning trips abroad or locally.
- Angie’s List – A popular website where you can find ratings and reviews of various service providers such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and so on.
- Trustpilot – An online platform that allows customers to leave anonymous feedback regarding their experience with any given brand. It helps to hold companies accountable and lets customers hear from their fellow customers.
- Kudzu – A website offering customers reviews and ratings on contractors, roofers, plumbers, electricians and other service providers in a local area.
- CNET – An online tech review site providing readers with unbiased product reviews from experts and user-submitted ratings of various gadgets.
- Glassdoor – A website where people can post reviews of their current or former employers and submit company salary information, making it easier for job seekers to understand the company’s culture and atmosphere before applying.
While the last item on the list, Glassdoor, is an employee review site, it’s still a powerful platform to boost branding and inspire trust among partners, investors and even end customers. All of these sites provide an unbiased opinion of brands, their products or services, allowing users to make educated decisions before engaging and investing.
Depending on your needs, some of these websites are more suited to your business. And since there are numerous sites to consider, it’s best to employ customer review software or review management platforms to save time on what would otherwise be extensive legwork.
Tips for Managing Customer Reviews: How To Launch a Successful Customer Review Management Strategy
As mentioned, online review monitoring and management are critical factors in the success of any business. Properly managing customer reviews is an effective way to nurture current customers and attract new businesses.
To ensure you reap its rewards, here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Identify Online Review Sites and Sources
Knowing the review sites that are most critical and influential to your business, as well as other online sources that are most relevant to your industry, is a crucial step in successful review management. Searching through all available review networks allows you to review what is being said about your business on each platform and decide which ones will be best for you to prioritize. Additionally, you should claim your business page on each of such sites to ensure that you have control over it.
2. Establish Key Individuals and Review Management Process
Decide how often reviews should be checked, who from the team should be responsible for reviewing each website, and which types of reviews you should respond to or ignore should all be considered here. Remember that responding to negative reviews is just as important as responding to positive reviews. Moreover, you should select individuals with experience in reputation management to help stay on-brand when responding to reviews, reflecting positively on your business.
3. Capitalize on User-Generated Content
Customer reviews are user-generated content (UGC) that prospects seek out, so utilize them to your advantage. Ensure to feature positive reviews on your digital channels, such as your website and social media pages. For instance, you can highlight customer stories on your social media post for a certain product to better relate with potential customers. UGC also helps create a sense of community and adds authenticity to your brand. Between a marketer and a fellow consumer’s voice, your prospects will favor the latter.
4. Employ an Online Review Management Software
Being able to identify fake reviews is also essential for successful review management. So, while negative feedback can still provide valuable insights into areas where improvement may be needed, false reviews should be identified and removed. Customer review software can help automate this process by aggregating all reviews in a single dashboard. With a review management platform, you can simultaneously analyze reviews, perform review responses and run review generation campaigns.
5. Consult a Customer Review Management Expert
Working with review management experts is a great way to maximize the potential of your business’s customer reviews and ensure that your brand is well-represented online. On top of being more than capable of the items above, review monitoring services experts enable your business to keep up with the latest trends and practices when it comes to customer reviews, tailoring a well-informed marketing and messaging strategy. Moreover, review management experts can safeguard your brand from reputational risks.
Features of a Review Management Platform: What To Look For in an Online Review Management Software or a Customer Review Software
Your software for online review management services should come packed with features to keep track of your online presence and identify opportunities for improvement. These features include but are not limited to abilities to:
- Solicit feedback from customers through push notifications or emails.
- Track and analyze customer reviews in a single dashboard.
- Respond to customer reviews quickly and efficiently.
- Aggregate customer reviews from multiple sources.
- Monitor sentiment analysis of customer reviews.
- Create and send customized survey questions.
- Assign tasks or to-do lists for customer feedback follow-up.
- Customize the look and feel of the dashboard.
- Provide analytics to check review trends over time.
So, when you vet customer review software, keep in mind that your goal is to automate your efforts in review monitoring services — don’t settle for less.
Tips for Responding to Reviews: How To Write a Good Customer Service Review Response
When responding to positive reviews (and negative ones), the cardinal rule is to act with professionalism at all times. Here are some tips to help you craft a good customer service review response that displays respectability, humility and a genuine desire to do better:
- Acknowledge the customer’s feedback, whether positive or negative and show your appreciation for their time.
- Thank the customer for their input, and empathize with them by understanding their frustration or delight.
- Address the customer’s concern or question by providing time-bound solutions, if applicable.
- Use a polite and professional tone when writing your response, avoiding jargon or terms they may not understand.
- Offer to continue the conversation and provide contact details should they need further assistance or have additional questions.
Keep these tips in mind for a good customer service review response strategy, ensuring customer satisfaction.
Customer Review Management Done Right
To end, customer review management is a huge factor for many business aspects crucial to your success, such as fostering customer satisfaction, making informed business decisions and attracting new customers. But again, there needs to be more than just a collection of positive customer reviews. Rather, you must engage and make the most out of them — and Rize Reviews is here to help you do just that.
Rize Reviews is a team of customer review management experts. If you want to learn how we can help you, message us or call 866-908-4748.
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