Online review management is a major part of managing your company’s reputation. It is emerging to the forefront as a way to be aware of what is going on with how you are presented on websites to review businesses. This ultimately leads to how your company is perceived online. So online review management is critical to your business success.

What Is Online Review Management

The reputation management industry is fast-growing, and online review management can help you monitor your web image to offer an accurate reflection of your online businesses for top consumer experience.

In a way, review management is a function of online reputation management. Companies practice certain guidelines to understand public opinions about their brands. Then the company must take an active role to attain favorable sentiments. Ultimately the goal is to attract more customers and more sales.

Why Is It Important

For a small business, online review management is absolutely critical. The way in which consumers find your business has fundamentally changed as well as online review management is crucial. Online review management is an essential component in the marketing toolbox for your business, just as much as a responsive website or SEO.

One of the most important parts of online review management is to be aware when a new review gets posted. Review monitoring software can help you stay aware of your web image to offer an accurate reflection of your online businesses for top consumer experiences. A reputation of outstanding customer service can drive growth, improve consumer relations, and elevate online reputation.

Recent practices illustrate that online review management is so important. It has become an integral part of the contemporary marketing mix. Therefore, it has therefore become a central element of every modern online marketing strategy.

A Critical Component of Brand Management

The reputation management industry is fast-growing and online review management is emerging to the forefront. It is a way to stay on top of how your brand is presented and perceived publicly. Perhaps the single most important online review marketing strategy is to keep an eye on the conversation.

Responding to comments on business review websites will greatly improve the trust between you and your customers. Which is a key factor in the buying cycle. It will make a positive impact on brand reputation and revenue. Online review management will be a beneficial addition to your holistic digital marketing strategy.

Review Management Impacts Search Results

Online review management is one of the best ways to reflect your brand. Because the way in which consumers find your business has fundamentally changed. So it works together with social media marketing and search engine optimization. Of all the business reviews Google displays, the best reviews show up first.

This is why investment in an online review management strategy is often the key to a company and its long-term success or failure. Prospective customers will check out business reputation when deciding who to purchase from. And when they review a business on Google, the results will be available for everyone to see. So business owners looking to future-proof their digital marketing presence must exercise online review management.

The most effective strategy is to get more and more positive reviews about your company, especially on Google. Doing so will help your company rank high in search engine results. In addition, it will push your competition lower in the rankings. Ideally, you’re in the top 5 and your direct competition is out of the top 20 search engine results. This is where it can work in perfect harmony with your SEO and social media marketing efforts.

Measures Customer Interaction

Online review management is essential to intelligent marketing. Business reviews and ratings help marketers navigate customer interaction. It help companies capture feedback and monitor their online reputation. It also measures the amount of interaction customers have with positive mentions of a brand.

How Does It Work?

Review management services integrate with reputation management. Online review management is concerned with taking care of the results on websites that evaluate companies services and make referrals.

The First Step – Scan Your Reviews

Scan the internet to find your current online business reviews and complaints. How do they look? A big part of a successful online reputation management strategy is review monitoring. Monitoring reviews on business ratings websites, and how to write response to reviews, is clearly important. It is key to receiving customer feedback and building a good online reputation for customer service.

Scanning review sites for businesses will show a range of customer experiences. From those who were so satisfied with your business that they left a great online review. To those whose experience was unsatisfactory, and left bad reviews. So you must assess your online business reviews ratings.

Bad Reviews Can Be Helpful

If you have bad reviews showing up online, then you need help to regain the confidence of potential customers. Because consumers will also scan reviews to get an idea of how good your product or service is. And they will take comfort in knowing that you take feedback seriously. Scanning reviews will give a prospective customer an account of others’ experiences with you. Which often sways the decision to purchase from you or not.

Prioritize Review Sites

When scanning your business reviews online, you must decide which review sites to prioritize. Clearly the most important is Google. It affects your search results. Also review sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor are important. Especially if you are in the restaurant or hospitality business. Then you need to figure out how many reviews will be needed to make an impact on your ratings (next step). So that is why monitoring reviews is an important part of managing customer feedback and protecting your brand reputation.

The Second Step – Get More Reviews

The most reliable way to increase your reviews is simply to request them. Securing more reviews forms the foundation of a marketing and sales strategy centered on social proofing, an established persuasion method. By reading and addressing reviews, you can uncover important insights into areas that may need improvement. Naturally, the key to gaining more reviews also lies in ensuring you retain the positive reviews you’ve already received.

Remind Your Customers to Leave a Review

The best way to get a customer to post a review on Google is to email the customer after the interaction. So then you simply ask him or her for an honest assessment. Online review management software can help you contact your customers in greater numbers. Then you can automate requesting customer feedback on experiences with your company.

Another method to get more reviews is to use a business card with step-by-step instructions for how to review your business. You direct the customer to an online review site. Then you give them to your employees to hand-out to customers. This is very effective for local business reviews and service industries. Because if your representative knows the customer is happy, then they ask the customer to leave them a positive review online.

A sure-fire way to get more reviews is to remove any obstacles that might prevent a customer from leaving a review. Make it easy. Use it as a normal part of the customer service interaction. Keep it pleasant. And avoid using shady practices to get more reviews. It will get you nowhere. All you have to do to get more reviews is politely ask customers “please review us on Google.”

The Third Step – Respond to Reviews

Responding to reviews is a best practice. It shows interest in your customers and a deeper level of engagement that other businesses may not display. Monitoring your ratings and responding to reviews will show your customers that you are dedicated to customer care. It is a way to show prospective customers who you are and what you stand for.

Responding to reviews is important. It should be done with a strategy that aligns with the values of your organization. Since it is a very strong way to build trust publicly with your customers. It is essential. But to answer the question of “how should I respond to my online business complaints?” Like everything, there are certain ways to go about it.

Follow the 3 P’s

Be Prompt

Responding to reviews promptly will show your customers you care about what they have to say. A good rule of thumb is to respond to a negative review within 24 hours. And within 48 hours respond to positive reviews.

This ensures the experience is fresh in the reviewer’s mind.

Being prompt also improves the volume and quality of reviews. It demonstrates to customers that you are listening. Then managers can make responsive improvements to products and services. Also implement rapid adjustments to policies and procedures. All this will enable you to avoid repeat future complaints about similar issues.

Be Personal

Responding to reviews can really help clear the air with negative reviews and show your appreciation for positive reviews. Mention the specific product or service. If the review is negative, then mention the problem the customer experienced.

Being personal can also humanize your business while showcasing your company brand and personality. It will make customers feel appreciated, and your business will be considered as caring. So it not only helps establish a long-term relationship with your customers. But will also show that you are sincere in resolving their concerns.

Be Professional

How to respond to reviews can be a bit difficult. So it’s best to keep your responses to online reviews simple, sincere and brief. Remain professional at all times in your responses on consumer review websites.

Keep in mind that responding to reviews is a task that should be approached with utmost care. So tasking an in-house resource with the responses can sometimes have negative results. However, it is always a good idea to use a marketer or customer service expert to respond to online reviews. Every review response is an opportunity to highlight something your company does well.

Respond to Negative Reviews

How you customize your responses to negative online reviews is important. It will help turn your negative reviews into positive ones. It is difficult to read a bad online review. So do not make any negative comments or attack the reviewer. Instead, show empathy and take responsibility for the mishap. Then offer to make amends or take corrective action.

Even the most reliable customer service providers cannot always make every single customer happy at all times. Most customers understand this. So what they expect to read in online business reviews ratings, is that you demonstrate a desire to fix the problem and make improvements. Then they will regard you as a company who cares about your customers. In this way, how you respond to negative reviews can generate success for your company and encourage more customers to come to you in the future.

However, if the worst should happen, an angry customer may decide to make derogatory comments online. Then an online reputation management strategy can help mitigate the damage. This practice of responding to reviews is common on review sites like TripAdvisor. So in this environment, responding to poor reviews is vital to reputation management.

Lasting Benefits

Online review management has created techniques basically in order to re-establish the good name and also reputation of services, products as well as businesses. Therefore, the best online review management focuses on your brand messages. Also, how you communicate your commitment to customer care and satisfaction. Then you not only encourage repeat business from existing customers. In addition, you generate opportunities for more new business.