An online review of a company can increase potential customers and consolidate its reputation: here’s why they’re important and how to manage them
The first impression a potential customer will have of a company comes not only from an effective website and up-to-date social media, but also from the online reviews of other customers. Reviews from other users are key to establishing brand trustworthiness, like a sort of digital word-of-mouth between customers.
More and more people are using review sites or leaving comments on companies’ products and services on their social networks. It’s a trend that continues to grow over the years, leading to a greater need for companies to manage online reviews effectively. While a positive review may help grow the business, a negative one could cause some serious image damage. Then there’s the issue of fake reviews, which can damage a brand’s online presence and therefore should be monitored and reported. Here are some tips to better manage your company’s online reviews.
How to monitor online reviews
Hundreds of websites are available where you can review a company’s products or services, as well as comments and opinions can also be made on social networks. Checking and monitoring all these sites requires an investment of excessive time and resources for a company. For this reason, it will be good to select only a certain number of websites, such as Trustpilot, and social networks, including Facebook and Google MyBusiness, to be included in a proper monitoring strategy.
Businesses will be able to select the sites and social networks to monitor by evaluating parameters such as the presence of a greater amount of reviews, the trustworthiness the site has among users on the network, the presence of reviews only for verified purchases, as well as the ability to respond. Being able to respond to reviews, both negative and positive, is important because it gives the brand the ability to create a direct channel of communication with all of its customers, even the most dissatisfied.
Managing Online Reviews: To Respond or Not to Respond?
When defining your online review management strategy, you will need to decide when it is appropriate to respond to a customer’s evaluation and how. Positive reviews in themselves are great advertising for a brand, but responding to them will make the customer feel considered and may further solidify the company’s online reputation as reliable and friendly.
Response is always mandatory for negative reviews, however, you need to make two distinctions. In the case of a false review, the response can reaffirm the reliability of the company by disproving the allegations. In the face of a negative and truthful evaluation, the advice is to take responsibility for your mistake: if the company shows its customers, even the most dissatisfied ones, that it knows how to learn from its mistakes and remedy them by increasing the quality of its services and products, it will transform a potential image damage into an invaluable resource to increase its credibility and grow its business.
Do-it-yourself or professionals: who manages online reviews
Given the importance to expand and consolidate your business, the management of online reviews of a company should never be improvised. In case of do-it-yourself management, you will need to devote time and resources to get effective results. For those who prefer to invest their resources in improving products and services, there is no choice but to rely on professionals such as Italiaonline’s review management service. Companies will be able to monitor and respond to reviews on the main evaluation sites, including Trustpilot, Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Foursquare and Yellow Pages, saving time, and therefore also money.