Online Review Management

Why managing positive online reviews is important?

Word of mouth and professional reviews have always had a lot of influence on customer purchasing habits, but online reviews impact a business’s sales and online visibility in many unique ways that go far beyond this. This is why online review management is an essential marketing activity for all businesses in the digital age. Before trying a business for the first time, many customers check its online reviews and compare them with the competition. In this situation, the business with the best online review profile gets the customers.

Establishing a great review profile for your business will encourage customers, who compare reviews, to pick your business over its competitors. It will also help more new customers to find your business, as many customers use review platforms as a way of discovering new businesses — especially restaurants. Managing reviews is also a great way for bricks-and-mortar businesses to attract more new customers passing through their area. These days we all use our smartphones along with online maps and reviews to find stores, restaurants and services. Often, when on the go, review scores and a company profile are the only info customers have to inform their choice of business. This is why a well-managed review profile is a great thing for local businesses.

Having the best review profile doesn’t just mean having the highest rating. In fact, many marketing studies show that a score slightly below 5 stars is seen as more trustworthy by customers, an overall rating average on review platforms of 4.5 stars+ is a powerful draw for new customers to your business. Especially if your review profile contains appealing pictures of your business and well-written. The ultimate aim of online review management is to establish this type of positive online presence across all key review platforms and local directories that impact your business.

How to manage and encourage positive review

Las empresas que logran un perfil de reseñas positivo obtienen una ventaja sobre su competencia. No logran esto por accidente. Las reseñas positivas pueden y deben buscarse activamente. Por ejemplo, usar canales de marketing digital como las redes sociales para establecer una relación con los clientes y, cuando corresponda, alentar a los clientes satisfechos a publicar reseñas en las plataformas que pueden beneficiar a tu empresa y a tu estrategia de marketing digital de muchas maneras diferentes. Es posible que estés buscando aumentar tu visibilidad en Google Maps y atraer a más clientes; obtener más reseñas positivas en tu página de Perfil de Empresa de Google te ayudará con esto. O tal vez tu empresa se dirige a turistas que suelen buscar atracciones turísticas, por lo que deseas trabajar en tu perfil de TripAdvisor. Debes asegurarte de que tu empresa tenga un perfil de reseñas bien administrado en todas las plataformas de reseñas y directorios locales que son importantes. Esto causará una fuerte impresión en los clientes potenciales y atraerá a más de ellos a tu empresa al presentarte de la mejor manera posible.

Making sure that positive reviews of your business are posted across the most important platforms will also help to balance out the impact of any other less positive reviews. Timing plays an important role in getting this right. Reaching out to customers who are sharing positive experiences on social media as quickly as possible will increase your likelihood of securing positive reviews because the positive experience and association will still be fresh in the customers mind. A Harvard Business Review study found that businesses who responded to all reviews — good or bad — saw a substantial improvement in their overall ratings. Managing positive reviews is the best way of ensuring that customers' positive feelings towards your business are expressed online, and that other potential customers can see this feedback, which will encourage them to use your products and services and help them to find your business.