In today’s digital age, monitoring online reviews is crucial to managing your brand’s online presence. As the importance of reviews for customers’ decision-making rises, businesses must be ever vigilant in monitoring their online reputation.
This comprehensive guide will delve into the world of monitoring online reviews, discussing their significance and various strategies that local businesses can employ.
What are Online Reviews?
Online reviews are written comments or opinions shared by customers about their experiences with a product, service, or business. They can be found on websites like Google My Business and Yelp, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and review sites like Trustpilot. Reviews provide valuable insights into customer sentiment that businesses can use to improve their products and services.
Monitoring Online Reviews
Monitoring online reviews is essential to local marketing and can provide valuable insights into customers’ needs and expectations. You’ll be able to respond quickly to all reviews left for your local business. Not only will responding to all customer reviews allow you to identify and rectify any issues, but you’ll also be able to respond to all negative reviews quickly and professionally. It can also help businesses improve their reputation, increase visibility, and generate leads.
How to Monitor Online Reviews?
Monitoring your online reviews means you’re going to keep tabs on customer feedback left for you on relevant platforms. Tools and tactics can be employed to monitor customer comments, answer unfavorable reviews, and enhance one’s standing.
Automated Monitoring Tools
Automated monitoring tools are a great way to stay on top of customer feedback without manually searching for new reviews. These tools provide notifications when new reviews are posted so you can quickly respond to any issues. Popular automated monitoring services include Google Alerts, ReviewTrackers, and Yotpo Reviews.
Manual Monitoring Strategies
Manual monitoring strategies involve actively searching for new reviews across platforms such as Yelp or Facebook. This lets you find out what customers say about your business even if they don’t leave a review directly on your website or social media pages. It also allows you to engage with customers who may have had a positive experience but didn’t leave a review yet.
Benefits of Manual Review Monitoring
The primary benefit of manual review monitoring is that it allows you to be more proactive in responding to customer reviews and feedback. You can quickly respond to positive and negative reviews, address issues, or thank customers for their support. This helps build trust with your customers and strengthens your online reputation as a business owner who values their opinion. Additionally, manually monitoring reviews allows you to showcase your customer service skills which will help improve customer loyalty over time.
Challenges of Manual Review Monitoring
While manual review monitoring does have its advantages, there are some drawbacks, too, such as the amount of time required and the potential for missed reviews if not done properly. Checking each platform individually takes up a lot of time which could be better spent elsewhere on other tasks related to digital marketing or running your business. It also runs the risk that some reviews may go unnoticed due to a lack of alerts being set up or incorrect email addresses being registered with each platform – making it difficult to keep track of all incoming reviews efficiently without missing any important ones along the way.
Tips for Successful Manual Review Monitoring
To ensure successful manual review monitoring, ensure you regularly check all relevant platforms at least once per week (or more, depending on how active they are). Also, ensure that you’ve opted-in to receive an alert each time a new review is published so that nothing goes unnoticed – this should be done regardless of whether you choose manual or automated methods when tracking online reviews. Lastly, don’t forget about logging frequency volume data so that trends can easily be identified over time – this will help inform future decisions regarding how best to manage online reputation.
What Should You Do With the Reviews You’re Manually Monitoring to Understand Trends?
When manually monitoring reviews, it is important to take the time to consolidate and analyze the data to understand trends. This can be done by collecting the review text into one central location, such as a shared Google doc. From there, you can begin analyzing the sentiment of each review and identifying common themes or topics being discussed.
To get started, carefully read each review and highlight keywords or phrases that stand out. You may also want to categorize reviews based on their sentiment (positive, negative, neutral). Once this is done, you can use these keywords and categories to create an overall picture of what customers say about your business.
For example, if many customers mention similar experiences with customer service or product services offered by your business, this could indicate a trend worth further exploring. In addition to reading through individual reviews for insights into customer sentiment and experience with your business’s offerings, it is also important to look at larger patterns over time when trying to identify trends in customer feedback.
How Do I Track Negative Reviews?
Tracking negative reviews is important to any business’s online reputation management. It can be time-consuming, but ensuring your business isn’t suffering from bad press or negative customer feedback is essential. Here are some tips on how to track negative reviews and address them quickly:
Setting up alerts for keywords related to your business is the best way to stay on top of new reviews as they appear. This could include setting up Google Alerts for mentions of your brand name, product names, or competitors’ names so you know when someone has something negative to say about you online. You can also set up email notifications directly from review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor so you don’t miss anything.
It’s not enough just to set up alerts – make sure you’re regularly checking in with all the major review sites where customers might leave comments about your business. Check out what people say on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other popular platforms at least once a week (or more often if possible). If any particularly concerning posts need immediate attention, then take action immediately!
How Do I Monitor Google Reviews?
Monitoring Google reviews is an important part of any local marketing strategy. With the right tools and techniques, you can easily keep track of customer feedback and respond to it on time. Here are some tips on how to monitor Google reviews:
Setting up alerts for your business’s Google My Business page will ensure that you’re notified when new reviews come in or when someone responds to one of your responses. This way, you’ll be able to stay on top of all incoming feedback and address any issues quickly before they become bigger problems. You can also set up email notifications to receive an alert whenever someone leaves a review for your business.
Many customers leave their comments and opinions about businesses on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., making it important for businesses to monitor these platforms regularly. By keeping tabs on what people say about your business online, you can respond promptly if any negative comments or questions need addressing.
There are many automated tools available today that make monitoring Google reviews much easier than ever before, from software programs like Hootsuite and Sprout Social which allow users to manage multiple accounts at once, to apps like ReviewPush, which help businesses track customer feedback across various sites; or even simple browser extensions like Gorgias Reviews which provide real-time updates whenever someone leaves a review for your business online!
When responding to customer feedback (positive or negative), always do so with professionalism and respect, no matter how angry the person may seem! Acknowledge their concerns by thanking them for sharing their thoughts with you; apologize if necessary; offer solutions where possible; then close off by wishing them well in whatever future endeavors they have planned! Doing this shows potential customers that you care about what people think and take actionable steps towards resolving issues as soon as possible, something everyone appreciates seeing from companies nowadays!
FAQs about Monitoring Online Reviews
Conclusion
It is important to be aware of the effect that reviews, both good and bad, can have on your business as well as how best to monitor them. By following best practices for monitoring online reviews, responding quickly to customer feedback, and encouraging customers to leave positive ratings, you’ll ensure your local business has a strong presence on search engine results pages. Taking advantage of OptiLocal‘s services for monitoring online reviews will help you stay ahead of the competition when optimizing your website for maximum visibility in local searches.
