Have you ever thought what’s the importance of customer review management in the digital marketing of your business? If not, let’s look below to find the crucial insights of it in detail.

Online reviews posted on various sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc. play a major role in helping consumers to make a purchase decision. Thus, it becomes crucial to implement online review management in your marketing strategy. 

By managing reviews, you can enhance your brand’s online reputation, improve your search engine performance, and create an unbreakable trust with your customers. 

Let’s dive deeper into the aspects of Online Review Management.
 

What is Online Review Management?
 

Online Review Managementis a process that monitors, analyzes, responds to and generates reviews on various online review websites with an aim to support the overall company’s marketing strategy and improve its business performance.

According to a research, around 72 percent of customers will not purchase without reading online reviews.As per the Online Reviews Survey, 94 percent of people avoid doing business if they encounter a negative review. 

You can’t just avoid reviews posted online if you are running a startup or a well-established business. People will talk about it either positively or the opposite of it.
 

3 Topmost Strategies to Manage Online Reviews
 

Managing online reviews can be a challenging task, but we have effective strategies and approaches to make this work easier for you. So, there are three essential actions you can take to manage reviews, which are listed below:

Be responsive to online reviews for creating a better image of your business online. 

Address all types of reviews including both positive and negative to create a sense of trust. Show a sense of gratitude to the positive reviewers as they took out time for sharing thepositive feedback.

Now, the question arises,how to respond to negative reviews? 

Addressing feedback should be the priority of every business while accepting the opinion as it is: be negative or positive. Be polite and empathetic to your customers while avoiding the delay in responding to your customers. The sooner you respond to your customer, the greater are the chances of improving the situation. 

Moreover, you can also guide reviewers to get help from your customer resource center, which assists them in getting their issues fixed immediately and protects customer relationships. 

It becomes difficult to respond to the companies, which have multiple locations and are represented by multiple profiles on various review websites without an effective online review management program.

Online review management softwarerannkly can make this easier and help your business to stand out and be in the good books of your customers. It can save a lot of time as you don't need to log in and log out from every review site manually. If you’re looking for online review management software, Rannkly can serve your purpose better at cost-effective prices. 

Rannkly is an online reputation management tool that helps you to shape, redefine and improve your brand’s reputation through appealing features. It connects various review websites to one dashboard through which you can easily monitor, reply & analyse your customers’ reviews. It generates new reviews and engages potential customers to take your business to the next level.

Choose it to experience better!

Reviews can’t be generated themselves organically, you have to ask for them and create ways to reach out to customers for reviews. Email can be the best option to ask them for their views on social media platforms. Around 70% of reviews arrive from post transactional review request emails. Other channels that you can use for review requests are SMS, customer surveys, review landing pages and review request automation software.

Remember to keep the things simple so that they can easily write and publish their review.

• Create a google link
• Right survey questions
• Use SMS text survey templates for review requests
• Avoid buying reviews

Online reviews create a sense of trust in customers who go online to know about your business. Thus, online review management works in a perfect synergy with your overall marketing strategy. 

According to the statistics, Reviews enable your business to rank higher on the search engine. In the list of Local Pack/Finder ranking factors, they come at top 3. 

Reviews on Facebook business page, website, or search ads can improve your marketing results. Review widgets rannkly display online reviews from your review profiles to your own website, which can improve conversion rates, reduce bounce rates, and improve your ad quality.   
 

Why is review management important?
 

Customer reviewshave a significant role in making you popular and trustworthy online. With the availability of mobile apps and the addition of visible ratings in search results, business reviews become more accessible. It becomes simple for a customer to find your brand and make a purchase decision.

Reviews can be seen as feedback for your business; whether it is positive or negative, you need to acknowledge it. It helps you understand where you’ve to improve or what customers like in your services, which you can highlight more. 

People go on social media looking for brand mentions and feedback that give them cues to go further and do business. The ratings can increase your SEO visibility and show your brand in search results. 

Statistics show a majority of 68% said a positive review encourages them to use the services of a local business while 40% said negative reviews make them change their decision.
 

Benefits of review management

Most often customers find about your business through onlinecustomer reviews which can be regarded as the new version of  personal recommendation. There are multiple benefits of Review Managements like enhanced trust, higher revenue, customer satisfaction, reduced risk, and improved ROI of marketing costs. 

Increased Trust:People look for other’s opinions to choose a service that has good reviews, referrals and ratings. As per Nielsen, 83% of people trust referrals from friends and family and around 70% trust them more than advertising. 

Transparent Marketing:If your company responds to both positive and negative reviews, this shows that your company has an active presence online and listens to customers. Moreover, replying to social media comments encourage trust and engagement. 

Higher revenue:Companies with positive reviews influence more people to do business with them. How people see your business online has a direct impact on sales and revenue. As more people are reading positive reviews about your product or service, there are higher chances of making a purchase decision. 

Improve Customer Satisfaction:With effective review management, negative reviews can be addressed smartly. If your business can promptly resolve any issue your customers are facing, it will leave a positive impression. Customers also feel that their feedback is valid and the company will address their concerns in the future as well.

Improved ROI for marketing:When your business has a solid presence and a good reputation, which means people are talking about it positively on social media. More positive reviews boost the rankings on Google, which results in a higher business ranking. Thus, potential customers can easily find your business quickly with local SEO and high conversion rates happen due to the quality service provided. 
 

Protecting your brand Through Customer Review Management
 

Customers don't shy away to share their experiences online after using a product or service. They can express their viewpoints on various available sites like google, yelp, yellow pages, etc, and make their voices heard. If you’re unable to monitor your review sites, it means you're not managing your brand effectively. 

Negative customer reviews are not always a bad thing, they alert you regarding the issues your customers have, which you need to address on a priority basis. Here, you have an opportunity to turn a negative review into a positive one; how you’re responding to your negative reviewers makes a difference. Negative reviews can also be quite engaging because of how passionately you want to resolve a concern of your customers and what efforts you’re showing to do that can make an everlasting impact.

But, you can be in big trouble if your negative reviews are more than the positive ones. You should always try to reach for more positive reviews and say thanks to the customers who took out time to appreciate your services. 

What positive reviews can do for your company?

• Invite new customers
• Create a bond of trust with customers
• Consumers become interested to do business with you
• Your Brand will be protected

Hence,on the basis of customers’ reviews, people make their choice. Don't ever ignore youronline reviews because they play a pivotal role in redefining your brand’s online reputation. 

Acknowledging and responding to both positive and negative reviews strengthen your brand’s image and also enhances social media engagement. Social customer care and online review management work in synchronization. Handle these two with perfection to get an exemplary customer care strategy.