[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.19.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.19.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.19.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Introduction” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
First impressions matter, and these days they often come in the form of online reviews. Managing customer reviews can be challenging, especially if you have a large volume of them coming from various online platforms. Review monitoring is a way for businesses to track and manage all of their reviews effectively, so they can take control of their online reputation.<\/p>\n
By monitoring reviews for your clients, you can identify any issues or concerns raised by customers and take action to resolve them. Among many benefits, this can help your clients improve their products or services, build trust with customers, and influence their purchasing decisions.<\/p>\n
In this article, we\u2019ll dive into the reasons online review monitoring needs to be on your radar, and the best tools available to help agencies effectively and efficiently monitor their clients\u2019 reviews.<\/p>\n
[et_pb_section global_module=\"113146 \"][\/et_pb_section]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”What is review monitoring?” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Review monitoring is the process of tracking and managing customer reviews that are posted online about a business. It\u2019s one of the most important components of any reputation management strategy since reviews play a major role in helping prospecting customers determine whether or not they want to engage with a business.<\/p>\n Monitoring online reviews requires businesses to regularly check their websites, social media channels, and third-party review platforms for reviews and ratings. Businesses also need to take the appropriate actions that their reviews necessitate. For positive reviews, this might be a simple thank you, while responding to negative reviews may require more involved remedial action.<\/p>\n Review monitoring provides businesses with a valuable peek into the minds of their customers, enabling them to identify issues or concerns that could be affecting customer satisfaction and to take steps to address them. It is also a valuable tool for gauging customer sentiment, which can help businesses refine their offering.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”How to monitor online reviews” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n When a business is just starting out, monitoring online reviews manually might be doable since there aren\u2019t many coming through yet. However, as the business grows, more sophisticated strategies for review monitoring are required.<\/p>\n The four components of any effective review monitoring strategy are:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at each of these in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n Forgive us for stating the obvious, but in order to monitor reviews, a business has to actually have<\/i> a flow of reviews. Some consumers may be avid reviewers who don\u2019t require any encouragement. However, most will benefit from nudges that encourage or incentivize them to leave a review.<\/p>\n Having a strategy in place to collect more reviews<\/a> can also help to counteract the fact that people are more likely to be highly motivated to leave a review if they are angry about their experience. This can make your reviews skew more negative than is accurate. Making sure to collect reviews from all customers can ensure a steady stream of positive, reputation-boosting reviews.<\/p>\n This can be as simple as having an automated email flow that invites customers to leave a review at a given time after receiving their product or service. Many customers are more than happy to leave a review about their positive experience after receiving this nudge in their inbox.<\/p>\n Once a business is generating reviews, they also need an effective strategy in place to identify them. Reviews can be posted on many different platforms and websites, so checking each of them regularly is time consuming and inefficient. The right tools can come in handy for this step. Manual review monitoring risks seeing many reviews unseen and unaddressed. We\u2019ll discuss some of these tools in a moment.<\/p>\n It is important for businesses to respond to both positive and negative reviews<\/a> that are posted online. When a customer leaves a positive review, it is a good opportunity for the business to engage with them and thank them for their feedback. This can increase engagement and have a positive impact on the business’s reputation since it shows that the business cares about its customers and values their opinions.<\/p>\n On the other hand, it is just as\u2014if not even more\u2014important for businesses to publicly respond to negative reviews and address any issues that may have led to a poor experience. Even if the negative feedback feels unfair or exaggerated, businesses should see this as an opportunity to resolve the problem or misunderstanding respectfully and professionally.<\/p>\n Ignoring negative comments<\/a> is never a good look: It shows a lack of concern for the customer experience. It can even lead to review bombing<\/a> to get a business’s attention.<\/p>\n Remember, it\u2019s not just the reviewer who sees the response but also potentially thousands of prospective customers. By responding promptly and professionally, you can turn a negative review into a positive brand-building exercise.<\/p>\n Regardless of which platform a review appears on, businesses should have guidelines to ensure that their brand voice is consistently used when engaging with customers. This ensures that customers receive a consistent, cohesive experience of your client\u2019s brand, which can go a long way to building their online reputation.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Monitor for reviews on 5 platforms” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The list of platforms that a business should monitor may vary slightly depending on their audience and the industry in which they operate. However, there are some commonly used platforms that just about every business should be monitoring for reviews.<\/p>\n Your client\u2019s website is, of course, one of the most important platforms for review generation and monitoring. Whether your client sells a product or offers a service, prospective customers are sure to click around the website to look for reviews and testimonials. Since 95% of shoppers<\/a> look at reviews before shopping, you want to make sure that your reviews section is giving the best possible impression of your business. As discussed, this means addressing both positive and negative reviews.<\/p>\n Since you have control over your own website, it can be tempting to limit the visibility of negative reviews. Resist this temptation: Having some negative reviews in the mix can make the overall balance of reviews feel more trustworthy since customers can be (rightfully) suspicious of review sections that are exclusively positive. Instead of deleting them, address them in a helpful and professional manner.<\/p>\n Google Business Profile is a free tool offered by Google that enables businesses to manage their presence across Google\u2019s products, including Google Search and Google Maps. When you search for your client\u2019s business, the sidebar that appears with their business info is their GBP.<\/p>\n If a prospective customer searches Google for your client\u2019s business or searches for it on Google Maps, they\u2019re sure to see their GMB profile, along with the reviews posted on it. Since Google\u2019s products are so ubiquitously used, every business, regardless of their niche or industry, should pay attention to their Google reviews<\/a>. Like those on their own website, these should be publicly responded to.<\/p>\n Yelp.com<\/a> provides crowd-sourced reviews of businesses across most industries. These are unique because they can be quite a bit longer and more in-depth than other review sites<\/a>. This gives reviewers the chance to provide much more detail than usual.<\/p>\n The Yelp page of a business<\/a> can frequently appear on the SERP for its brand name. For this reason, businesses should pay special attention to this platform and stay on top of the reviews that come through on their page.<\/p>\n For some industries, Yelp reviews can have a particularly significant impact. For example, online reputation management stats<\/a> indicate that 74% of people consult Yelp when looking for a home service provider, and a 1-star increase on a restaurant\u2019s Yelp page can produce a 5-9% increase in their revenue.<\/p>\n Facebook remains a hugely popular social network, so if your business has a Facebook page, monitoring the reviews there is a must. Whether a prospective customer searches for your client\u2019s business directly on Facebook or finds the page through Google, these reviews are publicly visible even to those who don\u2019t follow the brand.<\/p>\n Some industries have platforms or databases that are less well-known to the general public but are used extensively by their specific audiences. If there is a platform like this for your niche, make sure your clients are set up to receive reviews on it, and be sure to monitor them.<\/p>\n Examples of niche-specific review sites include Angi<\/a> (formerly Angie’s List) for US service-based businesses and Influenster<\/a> for consumer products, especially health and beauty products. In some cases, such as Angi, your clients will have to pay for a membership to have their business appear on the site. If their target audience regularly frequents a paid platform like this, it\u2019s likely well worth the fee to have their business listed and reviewed there.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”9 benefits of review monitoring” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The perks of a well-oiled review monitoring strategy are extensive.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Best review monitoring tools” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n We\u2019ve established that manually monitoring reviews is unlikely to be an effective strategy for all but the smallest of businesses. Luckily, the right tools can streamline and simplify the review monitoring process. Here are some of our favorites.<\/p>\n Vendasta\u2019s white-label Reputation Management<\/a> software is an all-in-one review monitoring tool for managing clients\u2019 online reputations.<\/p>\n Instead of manually visiting every platform on which reviews may appear, which is time consuming and sure to lead to missed reviews, over a hundred websites can be monitored from a single dashboard. That means only one login is needed, and all reviews can be responded to quickly and easily from this single location. Plus, auto review responses reduce the need to comb through every review.<\/p>\n AI and machine learning insights, coupled with competition analysis, make it easy to accurately gauge brand sentiment from reviews and conversations so clients can swiftly identify the areas in which they need to improve.<\/p>\n Review monitoring requires not just addressing reviews as they come in, but also encouraging more<\/em> reviews. Having plentiful and recent positive reviews is a cue to prospects that your business can be trusted. Customer Voice<\/a> automates the review generation process by enabling businesses to reach their customers through email and SMS<\/a> at the perfect moment when they are most likely to be receptive.<\/p>\n Plus, reviews generated through this review monitoring tool aren\u2019t only for your own website: use it to generate reviews on Google Business Profile, Yelp, or anywhere else your client\u2019s audience is looking.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re focusing on Google Business Profile, you can set up notifications so that you get an alert whenever a new review is left on your client\u2019s profile. For smaller businesses looking for a free tool, this one provides a lot of value. Since Google Business Profile is such an important platform for collecting reviews, it\u2019s well worth carefully monitoring it and responding.<\/p>\n Google Alerts is another useful free tool from Google. You can set up a Google Alert for your client\u2019s brand name and receive an email at the time of your choosing summarizing all the new mentions that Google has crawled since the last report. This way, you can keep an eye on conversations about your clients\u2019 businesses without having to Google them yourself.<\/p>\n Just as you can set up notifications on Google Business Profile to be alerted of new reviews, you can do so on many other popular review platforms, such as Yelp. To do so, you have to claim the business\u2019s page.<\/p>\n This is a great way to stay on top of new reviews without manually checking, but it has its limitations. You may not be able to get notifications from every platform, and managing dozens of notifications from different platforms can become untenable. That\u2019s when an all-in-one dashboard like Reputation Management comes in handy.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”White labeling: The secret weapon to improve your agency’s delivery of review monitoring services” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Review monitoring services should absolutely be a part of your product portfolio if you sell digital solutions. However, online review monitoring for a long list of clients can become a full-time job in itself.<\/p>\nWhat is review monitoring?<\/h2>\n
How to monitor online reviews<\/h2>\n
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1. Generating reviews<\/h3>\n
2. Identifying reviews when they are posted<\/h3>\n
3. Responding to reviews<\/h3>\n
4. Maintaining brand voice<\/h3>\n
Monitor for reviews on 5 platforms<\/h2>\n
1. Your website<\/h3>\n
2. Google Business Profile (GBP)<\/h3>\n
3. Yelp<\/h3>\n
4. Facebook<\/h3>\n
5. Niche-specific sites<\/h3>\n
9 benefits of review monitoring<\/h2>\n
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Best review monitoring tools<\/h2>\n
Reputation Management<\/h3>\n
Customer Voice<\/h3>\n
Google Tools<\/h3>\n
Platform Alerts<\/h3>\n
White labeling: The secret weapon to improve your agency’s delivery of review monitoring services<\/h2>\n