These time-saving capabilities are vital in a ratings + reviews management solution

Brands need an online reputation management system that integrates their other CX data with unsolicited ratings + reviews. But while implementing an online reputation solution is a great first step, it isn’t enough. That’s like buying a treadmill and thinking you’ll get in better shape just by looking at it. Nothing will get accomplished until you engage with the tool.

The problem is many companies don’t have a designated person to manage online reviews, which means the responsibility falls on the shoulders of your location or area managers—who are likely pretty busy with a slew of other responsibilities. 

In order to succeed, your team needs a comprehensive solution that is easy to use (and way less work than a treadmill). Let’s take a look at the time-saving capabilities an intuitive ratings + reviews solution will provide:

Real-time, in-platform response

While it would be great if every review was positive, despite our best efforts, not every customer leaves happy. With most social listening platforms, there’s a lag between reviews and reporting. Best-in-class online reputation management technology provides real-time, rule-based alerts, which means you can be notified immediately about reviews with specific star ratings or comments containing keywords.

In-platform response not only provides you with timely customer feedback, but it also lets you engage with these customers faster. This two-way communication provides you with a more efficient and comprehensive close-the-loop process—resolving issues quickly and maintaining a positive brand reputation. And for brands with a significant number of reviews, the ability to rotate and publish responses using a library of templates with a single click means you can efficiently look like you’ve employed an army of social media managers.

Trends + competitive benchmarking

Analytics and data visualizations will help you keep a pulse on where to focus so you can continue making meaningful changes to the customer experience. Some examples include:

• Volume trends: Track reviews + star ratings over time
• Text analytics: Understand sentiment, product mentions, and themes in the review comments
• Review sites performance: See where your customers are leaving reviews
• Store comparisons: Create a scorecard to ­­compare the performance of multiple locations
• Keyword performance: Understand how your reputation management program is impacting your visibility for important local keywords
• Google My Business insights: An aggregated view of click conversions for important metrics like requests for driving directions + phone calls

And with best-in-class benchmarking, you can get an easily digestible perspective on your place in the competitive market. Many online reputation management solutions provide insight at the brand level—which is helpful, but limiting. In order to really understand where you’re winning and where you’re coming up short, you need to know how each individual location is doing relative to its local competitors. Location-level benchmarks show you:

• An overall rating compared to local competitors
• Drill-down functions + selection of specific competitors of interest
• Summaries from the most important review sites
• Competitors’ performance across top platforms like Yelp, Facebook, and Google (including response rates, review volume, and individual review site volume)
• Snapshot overviews providing a high-level view of how locations have performed over customizable date ranges

Social listening is not enough

For real impact, interaction with online ratings + reviews is key. Don’t let customer feedback pile up unanswered—jump on that theoretical treadmill and get to work. But don’t stress—the right online reputation management solution does most of the heavy lifting for you, making it faster and easier to respond to as many customers as possible—and to see where you are stacking up and falling short on the customer experience.

To learn more on how to stay ahead of the competition, inspire customer loyalty, and drive business outcomes with ratings + reviews, download the guide: 4 ways to boost business outcomes with online reputation management.