Our latest press release, as it appeared on Marketwired.

SASKATOON, SK–(May 26, 2015) – Vendasta Technologies, a leading platform provider of local marketing tools for digital agencies, announces today the release of Review Generation — an automated solution built to actively gather customer reviews for local businesses in the fastest and easiest way possible.

Built on the foundation of a robust reputation management platform, Review Generation is integrated with Vendasta’s all-in-one suite of digital solutions. The moment a review is submitted, it alerts the business owner and advises them whether the review is share-worthy or if it’s best handled behind closed doors, providing opportunities to strengthen and protect reputations at the same time.

“We started tracking the percentage of local businesses that had reviews in 2010,” says Brendan King, CEO of Vendasta. “Since then, it has gone from 29 percent to 78 percent today, showing how important reviews have become and how important it is for businesses to have them.”

Generating reviews, however, is hard work. It’s a difficult task to direct customers to review sites, to guide them through sign-up processes, to track conversations and to share recommendations on social media. Review Generation is a solution that does the heavy lifting. It sends personalized messages to customers requesting feedback, directs reviewers to a branded web page to leave comments and collects reviews and star ratings in one simple form.

Reviews with four stars and up are easily shared across websites and social channels directly from the platform. Reviews with three stars or lower are kept in a private inbox that businesses can manage offline, averting potential reputation damage. Business owners are encouraged to analyze their feedback, look at it as a potential communication issue and reply so that the reviewer feels they’ve been heard.

“Asking for a review from a customer allows business owners to express themselves while giving them a chance to address any issues or misunderstandings,” adds King. “This greatly reduces the chance of a bad review and increases the likelihood of getting a good review to share with other customers, creating major business opportunities for both agencies and SMBs.”

Learn more at www.vendasta.com/reputation-management/review-generation, or watch this sweet video.