Managing online reviews can be overwhelming – but it’s not something you and your business can ignore these days. Here’s why it’s important and what to do to make the process much easier (and, well, turn it into a process in the first place.)
Manage reviews from Google My Business, Google Play Store, and Apple App Store – all in one place
Use NapoleonCat to manage all of your comments, messages, reviews, etc. – with an all-in-one social media tool.
What is review management?
Let’s start with why reviews are important, shall we? I might not even have to tell you this, but when you run a business selling anything to your customers – whether they’re products or services, software or apps, online or offline – reviews are everything.
Or at least, they are a crucial part of the decision-making process that’s going on in your prospects’ heads. And – you know it – stats do show it. (I didn’t mean this to rhyme, but here we are.)
- Over 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online. (That’s like nearly everybody.)
- 49% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members.
- 84% of millennials don’t trust conventional advertising.
- 8 in 10 shoppers use their smartphones to look up product reviews while they are in-store.
- Reviews on social media platforms increase social commerce.
- And 3.3 stars out of 5 are the lowest rating customers are likely to consider.
Reviews and star ratings are what matters when you book a hotel, download a mobile app from an app store, go out to eat, or hire a lawyer. They pop up in search results, and these days, they’re also important in search engine optimization, a.k.a. SEO.
So, from a business perspective, managing and replying to reviews is what every business should be doing.
Which brings us to the initial question. Review management is exactly that: monitoring reviews about your business and – yes – replying to them. (You did know you were supposed to reply, right? Both to negative and positive reviews, because both are important.)
There are different ways you can do it, depending on the volume of reviews you get – from manual management to using tools that help you collect all reviews in one place and automate parts of the process. We’ll get to that in a second.
But however you do it, review management means you have some kind of control over what’s being said about your business. Or at least how you respond and what you do about it. (Reviews, by definition, are something out of your control – they come from your customers, after all.)
Review management vs. reputation management
It’s simple – you can think of review management as part of reputation management.
Reputation management is a broader term for managing everything that affects your brand reputation beyond online reviews. This could include customer service inquiries, online mentions, including on various websites, forums, and social media networks, and a whole lot more.
How you manage online reviews obviously affects your brand reputation – and the importance of review management will depend on how big of a part reviews play in your industry. (But also, show me an industry where reviews are unimportant.)
Benefits of review management
By the time you got to this point, you’re probably well aware of some of the benefits of review management. (The numbers alone are pretty convincing if you ask me.)
But let me list them out for you anyway. 🙂
(You’re welcome!)
- Better online reputation. (Obviously.)
Since reviews are so important and read by nearly everybody who’s going to ever consider buying from you, they’re actually shaping your brand image and how your prospective customers see you – before they get the chance to meet you.
And it’s not just about whether your reviews are positive or negative – but also how your brand responds to either. And whether you respond at all.
- More time for other business tasks.
Brand reputation is obviously really important. And if you don’t manage it properly, it can (and will) backfire. Usually, taking all of your time and resources to fix it. (Usually on the weekends, may I add.)
But managing it on a daily also takes time – especially if you have, for example, multiple Google locations where people leave their reviews (and a mobile app on top.) That’s why you should take the “management” part seriously. And instead of spending literal days of probably multiple team members monitoring the reviews manually and replying to them, find a tool that does the “management” part for you.
- Improved sales.
In case the stats in the first section of this article didn’t convince you, let’s highlight this fact again. People trust online reviews, and they check them almost 100% of the time before buying that product, downloading that app, or booking that table. Or even deciding to pop by your cafe when they’re in the vicinity looking for specialty coffee. It’s how social proof works – and online reviews are social proof.
Managing reviews and responding to negative reviews AND positive ones, too – all of this is in your business’s best interest. That’s what shows people you’re the kind of brand they can trust. And it WILL translate into sales, eventually.
- Improved customer relationships.
Speaking of trust – that’s how you build trust with your customers. By paying attention to what they have to say and responding in a timely and helpful manner. It’s the core of customer service and a surefire way to improve customer satisfaction with your brand.
Plus, this way, you’re creating the kind of customer experience that any successful brand wants. (And any customer needs.)
- An easy source of voice of customer and user-generated content.
When you monitor and manage customer reviews – whether that’s on Google, in app stores, or on review sites – you get access to valuable customer feedback. That you can use not only to improve your products or services but also to find the language to use in your marketing communications. Including your customers’ pain points and the exact words they use to talk about them.
Customer reviews are also a great source of user-generated content. It’s a goldmine of compelling social media posts and testimonials for your website. That can help you get even more customers much easier.
Manage reviews from Google My Business, Google Play Store, and Apple App Store – all in one place
Use NapoleonCat to manage all of your comments, messages, reviews, etc. – with an all-in-one social media tool.
Tips for successful review management
So now that we’ve established the why, let’s look at the how. Review management can be challenging – the bigger your business and the more engaged your customers. Here are some tips that could simplify it.
Pinpoint review sites to focus on
This will depend on your industry and your customers, so do some research to find where they leave reviews and where you should absolutely be to monitor and respond to reviews. This could be:
- Social media sites (with Facebook leading the pack, as it has an actual review tool for your customers to use)
- Google Business locations – available in Google search results and on Google Maps
- review sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor
- booking sites like Booking.com
- comparison sites (for example, G2.com or Capterra if you sell SaaS software)
- and more.
Monitor where your customers are most likely to leave reviews. You can also ask them to leave reviews on specific sites and then closely monitor that channel.
Claim your business on Google and other important review sites
If you haven’t already, it’s essential to do that. You can’t do proper review management if you don’t own the locations where your existing and potential customers leave and read reviews.
(You can check this post to see how to set up your Google Business account.)
Build a review management strategy
Yes, review management needs a plan. And besides the review sites you’ll keep an eye on, it should include:
- People responsible for managing and replying to reviews
- How often they’ll be checking the reviews
- Guidelines for responding to customers, including who to contact for information and what tone of voice to use
- Processes to escalate negative reviews
- Refund/discount/reward policies for negative and positive reviews
- Using reviews in your marketing and sales strategies
People involved in responding to customer reviews should be on the same page with what’s going on in customer service overall, as well as marketing campaigns, product launches, and all other customer-facing initiatives.
Use review management software.
This is a game changer if you get lots of reviews, maybe for different Google locations, and then on Facebook, and possibly for your mobile app in app stores.
Review management can get overwhelming pretty quickly. So, may I introduce you to NapoleonCat’s review management capabilities:
- Google My Business management tools for all your Google Business locations. You can see and reply to all reviews and ratings in one place, next to comments and DMs from customers on other social media channels.
- This is a true game changer for customer service teams, helping save hours during the work week. You can delegate reviews to team members as customer service tickets to neatly organize the whole process, which is such an upgrade compared to manually checking individual locations every day. Speaking of teamwork, you can see in real time which reviews are being moderated by other team members.
- NapoleonCat also lets you schedule content on your Google Business page, which means you can use it to add updates and promos to lock in that initial interest backed up by positive reviews and turn it into a sale.
- You can also automatically translate reviews and your replies within the platform, without having to copy and paste text into other tabs and apps.
- Speaking of apps, NapoleonCat also lets you monitor and manage reviews and ratings for your mobile apps in Google Plays Store and Apple App Store, which can significantly boost your app downloads. Again, all in the same place.
- Plus, you can also review and reply to Facebook reviews left by your customers.
This helps create a cohesive and streamlined experience for your customers and for your customer service representatives, whose work becomes much easier and more efficient.
We highly recommend you test NapoleonCat for free here – no credit card required during signup 😉
Learn to spot fake reviews
When your business is open to public reviews, all sorts of things can happen:
- The competition might pop by with fake negative reviews (not an acceptable business strategy, but we can’t pretend it doesn’t exist)
- Trolls and haters might also do their usual thing they do anywhere online – which is trolling and hating
- A frustrated customer might vent in the review section or even gather their friends and family, asking them to leave negative ratings for them
Here are a few things that might give away a fake review:
- A star rating only without a written review (though these can be real ones, too.)
- Reviews that are overly positive or overly negative.
- Multiple very similar reviews in close proximity, with maybe slight changes in wording.
- A review that just reads fake. It might use general statements, be impersonal, or read like an ad for the competition.
- Reviews by anonymous users (or users with weird-sounding handles and no profile picture.)
- Reviews that have weird grammar mistakes or read like they’re translated by a very old version of Google Translate. (Though, again, this is not 100% certain these kinds of reviews are fake.)
To read more about spotting fake reviews and what to do about them, see this article.
Manage reviews from Google My Business, Google Play Store, and Apple App Store – all in one place
Use NapoleonCat to manage all of your comments, messages, reviews, etc. – with an all-in-one social media tool.
Don’t ignore customer reviews
(I know you won’t, but I just want to double-check.)
Customer reviews should really be the backbone of your business – and your sales and marketing strategy (not to mention customer service – it’s kind of self-explanatory. 🙂) That’s why a solid review management system – including strategy, resources, and software to help – is a must if you want to keep your brand reputation (and your team’s sanity) intact.
You may also like:
- The Essentials of Google Reviews Moderation
- Support Your Team With a Social Media Moderation Tool They Deserve
- How to Manage Google Reviews for Multiple Business Locations
- How to Get More Google Reviews
- How to Remove Fake Google Reviews – A Quick Guide
- The Essentials of Google Reviews Moderation
- How to Monitor Social Media for Negative Reviews and Protect Your Brand Reputation
- The Best Social Media Crisis Management Tool
- The Best Social Media Customer Engagement Tool
- How To Protect Your Brand from Instagram Trolls
