Review Monitoring: A reputation management strategy [+ tools]

Have you been looking for ways to track your customer reviews all at once and take control of your online conversations? Well, this is where review monitoring comes in.

Reviews are everywhere, so sometimes it can be stressful to manage all of them at the same time, take action against bad reviews, and resolve any customer issue. For example, if you run a restaurant and you want to know what your customers have to say about your dishes, online review management can help identify your customer’s sentiments. Reviews enable you to pinpoint any flaws in your products or services; that means you get to improve, build trust, and influence your customer’s purchasing decisions.

First impressions matter a lot, so building and managing your virtual reputation is vital for your business, as well as thinking of feedback as an insight into your customers’ minds.

Now, let’s explore the world of review monitoring!

What is review monitoring?

Review monitoring is the process of tracking reviews left online about your brand across multiple review sites like Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others. This ensures that you implement your review response strategy and resolve any customers’ issues instantly.

According to the Local Consumer Survey 2022 by BrightLocal more consumers are reading online reviews than ever. In 2021, 77% of users “always” or “usually” read them when searching for a local business. As well as, 89% of consumers are most likely to choose a business that answers back to all of its online reviews.

Top review sites can send a notification each time you are reviewed and by doing so you can respond immediately to your customers. That, of course, assumes that you already have an account on all of these top review sites. But what if some valuable or critical reviews are hidden within sources that are less popular or very specific to an industry? Can you afford to lose them?

We think not, and that’s where a Social Media Monitoring tool comes in handy. To help you gather every single review out there, and even take a step further. Help you manage them.

Monitoring what your audience is saying about your brand is vital for maintaining a strong online presence and responding immediately to negative comments, without damaging your image. Simply put, reviews are a crucial source of feedback for your brand, a space to engage with your audience, and an area that provides a significant impact on market research. Thanks to review management software you get access to features, for example, page statistics, and you get to boost your performance in search results.

How to manage and monitor your online reviews?

As we mentioned before, online reviews are one of the greatest sources of feedback about your service or products; but the real question is how to successfully manage and monitor online reviews. That’s the reason we broke down the process for successful online review management. 

So, let’s go through these 5 tips you can follow.

#1 Respond to positive reviews 

Companies tend to reply only to negative feedback, as they think it is more important and they have to result in it immediately. Online reviews are another way of communicating with your audience. When a person mentions your business on social media and leaves a positive review, you should respond. It is an effort that will bring you a lot of profits, as you show you care about people’s opinions and what they have to say about you.

As a result, the engagement under your posts will increase and have a positive impact on your brand’s reputation, as it gives you the possibility to be discovered by a new potential audience.

#2 Respond to negative reviews

The same goes for bad feedback. It is crucial to respond immediately when an unsatisfied customer comments on your business and service. However, keep in mind that negative comments can be caused by a false impression, so it is up to you to clear up the misconception with politeness. Even if these comments may appear exaggerated, the rule is to behave like a professional and resolve the misunderstanding.

It is not recommended to leave a negative comment without an answer, because this shows that you don’t care about your customer’s experience. Plus, it can cause some serious damage to your brand’s image. So, if you act fast you may turn a bad experience into a positive one. 

#3 Make sure your brand voice is consistent 

Another element you should focus on; is having a consistent brand voice when responding to your customers; that means having only one person answering to reviews. If you have multiple people answering that may confuse your audience. So, choose only one person to be responsible for handling customer feedback.

#4 Ask for customer reviews

Don’t forget to ask your customers to leave a review and don’t hesitate to do so. It’s cost-free and if they are pleased with what you are offering them they will do it without any second thought. Reviews are vital for your branding strategy, as the more positive reviews you have, the more trustworthy you seem to your audience, and that immediately boosts your brand awareness.

Don’t forget that customer reviews are the best way to receive feedback; pay attention to what your audience is saying if you want to improve, upgrade and provide your customers with what they want.

#5 Set up review alerts using a social media monitoring tool 

To manage your online reviews you need to be aware of when and where they appear. Many review monitoring tools can send a notification each time you are reviewed, providing you with instant insights. So, you can have a quick scan of your daily or weekly online status and more specifically; the number of mentions and interactions, potential changes in the estimated social reach, good and bad mentions, and a list of mentions on social media.

What are the benefits of using a review monitoring tool?

The main idea behind a review monitoring tool is that you gain valuable insights and consequently improve your marketing campaigns. Your company’s online image is crucial for maintaining a strong brand reputation. Online review monitoring allows you to track everything that is being said about your brand, provide professional real-time responses, and improve relationships with your customers.

Furthermore, using a social media monitoring tool, helps you analyze your customers’ sentiment. A crucial factor as it helps you understand their emotions behind every comment. It is important to determine a happy customer from an unsatisfied one, so you can understand what is the problem, and resolve it.

Let’s have a look below at some of the benefits of monitoring online reviews:

#1 Engage with your customers 

An effective and real-time review strategy enables you to engage with your customers, providing you with additional insights to improve your brand’s experience, by addressing the negative feedback and acknowledging happy customers. Seeking reviews from your customers shows you are interested in and appreciate their opinion. It provides the opportunity to increase customer loyalty and lifetime value.

#2 Approach potential audience 

Many people nowadays prefer to read online reviews and comments about a brand and its products, so review monitoring will be helpful to approach potential customers by showing you take into consideration customer feedback. It is critical to differentiate your business from the competitor because that would make a difference between winning and losing a customer.

#3 Investors are paying attention

It is important to know that investors are observing every business move you make, especially if they see possibilities in your company. So, if they need to make a formed decision they will be based on market reviews and use this content as a point of reference while deciding. Using reputation management software and monitoring your star ratings is the key to expanding and empowering your potential.

#4 Check out your competition

It is essential to check the actions your competitors are engaging in. Also, a good follow-up on what the audience is saying about your brand in comparison to others can help you organize your next steps and improve your products or services. As a result, you will create a better customer experience. 

#5 Expand your business 

Aside from keeping your existing customers engaged, there is no harm in expanding your business. With consistent review monitoring, your business will have the required knowledge to focus on the things that can make your business expand and approach new audiences.

Simply put, controlling your brand’s image and reputation is crucial for empowering your customers by making clear that their feedback is well-received and it has an impact on your business decisions.

Your brand’s reputation directly affects your business and the way people perceive your brand. Potential customers need to know that others trust you and choose your services over a competitor’s. That means you should take practical steps to improve your online reputation and monitor online reviews, and the best way to start is by checking out these monitoring tools.

What are the industries that benefit from Review Monitoring the most

Each industry has review sites specifically aimed to assist the business needs. For instance, if you are a doctor there is no point in checking booking.com, but instead, you should check the equivalent site for medical reviews. Let’s check out the fundamental industries and their review sites best fitted for each type of business.

Consumer Services

Consumer Services and more specifically restaurant services are crucial for protecting your brand reputation and helping you stay competitive. Being able to monitor what diners are saying about your restaurant enables you to engage with them.

As restaurants and in general, the food service industry is on its way to recovering economically from the pandemic, engaging in digital platforms is more necessary than ever. So, restaurant reviews play a significant role in shaping the customer journey, considering that 90% of diners search for a restaurant online before deciding where to eat.

The 10 major review sites to focus on for consumer services, and more precisely for restaurant review monitoring, are:

• Yelp
• OpenTable
• Google
• Facebook
• Tripadvisor
• Grubhub and Eat24
• Seamless
• Zomato
• AllergyEats
• TheFork

Financial services

While staying on top of customer feedback on bank reviews and financial services review sites businesses should keep in mind that online reviews are one of the most accurate components indicating whether customers are satisfied or not. They can attract or drive away your audience as they serve as a source of information for consumers.

Υou see, the customer perception of banks and whether they have a good reputation and are considered customer-driven is lower in 2019 than in 2009. So, online review management is the key to changing the negative sentiment and driving customer engagement.

The 10 major review sites to focus on for financial services review monitoring, are:

• Credit Karma
• Lending Tree
• SuperMoney
• Yelp
• Google
• CardPaymentOptions
• MerchantMaverick
• MyBankTracker
• Clearsurance
• Consumer Services

Hospitality

Hotel reviews are crucial for the hospitality industry. Customer reviews data shows that 79% of users on Tripadvisor prefer hotels with higher ratings when it comes to choosing between similar options. 52% of users would not choose a hotel that has zero reviews.

As a result, your business’s success depends on online reviews, so your hotel’s online presence must be featured on as many business review sites as available. Establishing and managing your hotel listing on several sites is part of maintaining a positive online reputation.

The 10 major review sites to focus on for hospitality industry review monitoring, are:

• Google
• TripAdvisor
• Booking.com
• Expedia
• Trivago
• Hotels.com
• Yelp
• Facebook
• Orbitz
• Travelocity

Healthcare

Patient feedback is the best way to boost your healthcare organization. Nowadays, patients are checking several medical review sites to discover new healthcare providers, and of course, reviews are the factor that influences their choices.

According to customer reviews, 72% of users prefer reviews on doctor rating sites as the first step to finding a new doctor and 69.9% consider positive doctor reviews as “very” or “extremely” important.

The 10 major review sites to focus on for healthcare industry review monitoring, are:

• Google My Business
• Yelp
• Healthgrades
• Vitals.com
• Caredash
• Wellness.com
• ZocDoc
• RateMDs
• Dr. Oogle
• Doctor.com

5 Review monitoring tools examples

Last but not least, we have gathered some of the most powerful review monitoring tools, to make your review discovery, just a walk in the park! Let’s get to know them!

#1 Mentionlytics

Mentionlytics is an Intelligent Monitoring Platform. It enables you to track mentions for your brand, your product, or your competitors on the entire Web, Review Sites, and Social Media Channels, like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Google Reviews, Youtube, Linkedin, Forums, TripAdvisor, Booking, etc.

 

Mentionlytics recently launched the Review Monitoring feature, by establishing a strategic partnership with ReviewTrackers, one of the most well-known review monitoring services. This advanced feature makes Mentionlytics one of the most complete reputation management tools out there, as it combines not only powerful Social Media Monitoring services, but also extensive Review Monitoring.

Having all this data in hand, you will be able to analyze the reviews and feedback from your customers, check and compare your competitors’ reviews, getting the complete picture of your brand’s online presence.

Start a free 14-day trial with Mentionlytics and begin monitoring your reviews!

#2 ReviewTrackers

ReviewTrackers is a review management software and insights platform specializing in aggregating and analyzing reviews from top review websites, like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Booking.com, and many more. In total, there are over 100 review sites/sources collecting useful review information about any business in the market. ReviewTrackers also help businesses with multiple locations to discover and interpret insights to optimize operations, increase local SEO, and build customer loyalty.

#3 Podium

Podium is changing the way consumers connect with local businesses. From gathering reviews on sites that have great importance, text-enabling your website with Webchat, collecting payment via text, and collecting customer experience feedback to monitoring all your customer messages from one central dashboard with Inbox. Podium offers review templates (including text) that are frictionless for users, and at the same time integrate with apps your brand already uses.

#4 Birdeye

Birdeye is a customer experience platform. Businesses use the platform aiming to attract new leads with Listings, Reviews, and Referrals, convert them into customers with Webchat and Payments, as well as keep the users satisfied with Surveys, Ticketing, and Insights – all at once. The app serves both small businesses and enterprises that want to monitor their online reputation, by attracting listings, pages, reviews, and referrals.

#5 Reputation

Reputation is an online reputation management tool that translates vast amounts of requested and unrequested feedback data into insights that businesses use to learn from and evolve. This process is referred to as Reputation Experience Management, a category the company created. On that same note, you can transform feedback from reviews, likes, listings, comments, and clicks into your competitive edge, and as a result, monitor social media for negative reviews.

Now Over to You

Review monitoring is essential to enhance your brand’s reputation; online reviews are vital for any type of business as they build trust with consumers and convert prospects. Once you build an online review presence you can use your reputation to showcase how you process customer feedback. Generating, analyzing, and improving reviews can create a positive cycle that continues to build star ratings.

Online reviews can be the factor that guides your audience in choosing between you or your competitor, as well as a great way to convert potential customers. Keep in mind that customers will read multiple reviews before trusting a brand.

You can find both brand and review monitoring in one software, as Mentionlytics offer this possibility. Manage your brand’s image and benefit from the useful insights at the same time!