Online reviews are a key element in business success. They are powerful enough to make or break your business. Online reviews directly affect your reputation and the trust new or existing customers can develop. Hence, it is important to learn how to monitor and manage them.
It is surprising to find that some business owners neglect online reviews in the beginning only to pay closer attention when something goes wrong. To avoid this, here are 6 ways to help you monitor online reviews.
- Delegate the task
The reason online reviews are not taken seriously by business owners is that they never delegated the task to anyone. You can start by assigning this responsibility to customer service, PR, or marketing departments. This will lead to proper planning for monitoring online reviews. - Claim your listings
Your website is not the only place customers leave reviews. Check review sites like Yelp to know if you are listed there. Platforms like Yelp allow anyone and not just owners to list businesses. Claim these listings wherever you find them and let the assigned team monitor these spaces for any reviews. - Check Social Media
It is vital to have social media accounts for your business, but they must be checked frequently for comments. Now and then people might leave positive or negative comments and you have to be available to handle them. - Learn to respond to negative comments
Positive comments promote a good reputation and can increase sales. However, negative comments can have the wrong effects on your business. These effects can be minimized if you respond properly. Ensure your response is quick, professional, polite, and positive for your reputation. As much as customers love to see positive reviews, they sometimes refer to the negatives to vet honesty. - Use tools
It might overwhelm you to monitor and respond to all online reviews using manual methods. Thankfully, there are several tools that provide companies with assistance in monitoring reviews. Check the options available and pick one or more suitable ones. They include:- Google Alerts – This is a popular online reputation monitoring tool that gives efficient free tools to marketers. You will get emails of reports on your mentions according to the frequency you set on the tool.
- Social Mention – social mention is used by several social media sites. It is free and offers categories such as strength, passion, reach, and sentiments.
- SentiOne – This tool provides both real-time and historical data. It allows you to review from the past up to the present.
- The Review Generator – The Review Generator is a very specific review monitoring tool. Not only does it ensure you can monitor online reviews across the internet but it also allows you to reach out to your customers the leave reviews online.
- Create user generated FAQ
Rather than let customers drop online reviews wherever and however they please, make the process more engaging and profitable for your business. Create FAQs that users can answer as a way of delivering their feedback. This is a great help in monitoring reviews and managing them to promote your business reputation. Keep the FAQs alive by responding to user’s comments.
The Review Generator is here to help businesses grow their online reviews. Through our program, our clients have seen an increase in reviews on Yelp, Google, and Facebook. Learn more by contacting us via our website, email, or by calling (818) 588-0097.
