Online Review Monitoring: Track What Your Customers Say

Businesses don’t fail because their product or service isn’t good. They fail because their offerings don’t align with the needs of the people they are targeting. Therefore, listening to customers through online review monitoring is perhaps one of the best things you can do.

After all, how would you know what your customers need and expect from you if you don’t read their reviews? Only some customers will be willing to visit your business and voice your opinions to your face.

So, if you don’t monitor your reviews, you’ll miss most of the suggestions that can help improve your offerings.

If you want to learn to monitor online conversations and what to do with them, you’re at the right place. So, let’s begin.

Why Do You Need To Monitor Online Reviews?

Before you start performing any task, understanding its importance is a wise step. Why? Because it motivates you to accomplish that task the right way. Similarly, if you know the perks online review monitoring can bring you, you’ll want to give it all you’ve got.

So, firstly, keeping an eye on customer reviews can help you know them. You’ll learn their preferences, the problems they’re facing, and the things they want you to improve.

Acting upon this information, you’ll be able to perfect your offerings. They’ll meet customer expectations, which, in return, will increase their loyalty to you. After all, onboarding new customers is five to seven times more costly than retaining them.

You can even introduce new products that fit the trend and align with your offerings.

Secondly, you won’t miss a single customer feedback, making it easy for you to manage reviews effectively. We’ll discuss why that’s important in a while.

But for now, let’s see the third reason why you should monitor online reviews. It helps you initiate meaningful conversations with your customers. When onlookers read these conversations, it builds brand awareness for you, and you might even get new customers.

Moreover, when you constantly monitor reviews, you also take steps to solve the issues. This helps you prevent the issues from becoming too big.

How To Monitor Customer Reviews?

Now that you know the importance of review monitoring, you’re ready to learn how to do it.

There are two ways to go about this process. Either do it manually or use a tool. Let’s discuss the first method.

Here, you must make a list of the review sites where your customers could be leaving feedback. These include Yelp, Google, Tripadvisor, etc.

Moreover, head over to your competitors’ sites and see where they’re accepting reviews. Some sites have badges saying that they’re accepting reviews on a certain site. You could also use this as an inspiration and do the same on your website.

Once you’ve made the list, submit your email address and turn on the notifications for each new review. If you haven’t registered or claimed your business on these sites yet, you might have to do that first.

However, manual monitoring takes more time and effort. Plus, there’s a chance you’ll miss some of the reviews. Therefore, using an online tool that can give you valuable insights is better.

Even when using tools, some people make the mistake of only keeping an eye on social media mentions. That’s not enough, so take these steps instead. A smart first step is to set up Google Alerts. You will get a notification any time someone mentions your brand online.

If you’re a local business, turn on Yelp notifications. Apart from these specific alerts, there are some tools that let you monitor reviews across the whole web. Reputology, Hootsuite, and Trustpilot are some popular platforms for this purpose. If you run a local business, WiFi marketing solutions usually offer features to manage your reputation from one dashboard.

How To Use Online Review Monitoring To Manage Your Reputation?

90% of people rely on online reviews to help them choose a business. But this doesn’t mean they just read the reviews and decide on the spot.

They try to get a feel of your business by how you deal with those reviews. If you can make a good impression on them, they may choose you even with many negative ones.

But that will only be possible if you use online review monitoring to manage your reputation. So, here are the steps you need to take.

1. Respond to All Reviews

What’s the use of keeping an eye on people’s feedback if you’re not going to reply to it? Yes, you should respond to all the reviews you get.

After all, customers are doing you a favor when they leave positive reviews. The least you can do is show them gratitude.

On the other hand, when they leave negative reviews, they usually just want you to solve their problem. But answering a bad review with anger will only make the situation worse.

Suppose you get this review. “Pathetic service. I ordered a desk lamp which came broken in the package. They didn’t even bother covering it with bubble wrap.”

As you can see, the tone is quite aggressive and accusatory. Now, instead of rushing to defend yourself, your response should be something like this.

“Dear [Reviewer’s name,] thank you for your valuable feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience you faced. We make sure to pack all fragile orders securely, but maybe we didn’t have enough coffee that day.

But that’s no excuse. So we’d like to offer you a replacement along with a 20% discount voucher for your next order.“

Now, while humor can lighten the situation, don’t go overboard here. A little pinch with clever placement would be enough.

2. Actively Work on Getting More Positive Reviews

Another important part of online reputation management is getting more positive reviews. This doesn’t mean you can force or incentivize customers to change their views about your business.

Instead, the best way to get positive feedback is by giving the best service. If your offerings measure up, you listen to your customers and make changes accordingly, you have nothing to worry about.

Sometimes, customers don’t know where to leave reviews and suggestions. It’s up to you to let them know.

You can place signage in your stores with badges from review sites such as Yelp. But for that, you’ll have to register yourself on the appropriate websites.

Or simply keep a physical suggestion box. Moreover, send your customers a personalized message asking them if they like your product or service.

This will encourage them to share their thoughts. Again, reply to your positive reviews and display them on social media, tagging the reviewer. Other people will take this as an opportunity to get recognition, and that will encourage them to leave feedback.

3. Deal With Fake Reviews Correctly

Sometimes, angry customers or rival businesses will post fake reviews about you to sabotage your reputation. If you face this, you have three options.

Firstly, each platform has a “flag as inappropriate” option. When you find a fake review, report it. The platform will see into it, and if it goes against the terms of service, they’ll remove the review.

But what if the review looks genuine and the platform doesn’t remove it? Well, your next option is to respond to the review.

Just do what you would do if it was a genuine positive or negative review. This way, onlookers will know the whole story instead of just the reviewer’s side.

Lastly, you have the option to take legal action. Fake reviews are not necessarily illegal. Hence, you’ll have to reflect on it and research it before taking action.

Display Shining Reviews To Get More Customers

With online review monitoring, you’ll never have to miss out on a conversation. It paints a picture of everything customers are saying about you, so why not use it to your advantage?

However, don’t just stop there. Be a part of the conversation by using an online reputation management tool. Give an answer to all reviews with either a “thanks for the shoutout” or “sorry we missed the mark” attitude.

If you want to simplify your reputation management while getting more reviews, try out Beambox. It’s a WiFi marketing platform that can help you grow on the main local review sites and automate your campaigns. Try it for free for thirty days!

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