Did you know that 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business? Reviews are a customer’s first impression of your brand. In addition to your star rating, your reviews tell a story. Reviews give prospective customers insight into your other customer relationships; they can see how much you care. That’s why monitoring your reviews is an item that should never get lost on your to-do list! Luckily, software like Synup can help you get the job done.
Incorporating review monitoring into your brand’s local marketing strategy enables you to effectively communicate with customers, troubleshoot problems, and attract new buyers. Having a 4 or 5 star rating is great for attracting customers, but getting reviews is only the first step. To see bottom-line impact, you need to properly manage your online reviews.
After all, a 5 star rating doesn’t tell prospective buyers much about your business. When consumers read reviews, they’re searching for the nuances in your customer experience. Your reviews need to show prospective buyers that you value their thoughts and experiences. Customers who feel cared for are more likely to become repeat customers, recommending your brand to their friends and family. Creating brand champions starts with great communication. And by responding to reviews and following up with your customers, you can build strong customer relationships and earn loyal customers for your brand for years to come!
Monitoring your reviews doesn’t have to be hard. Read on to learn the best practices for monitoring your reviews - and how to do it with Synup!
On the Synup platform, click over to the “Reviews” section at the top. From here, you’ll be able to effectively monitor your reviews.
Let’s start with review generation; click over to the “Review Acquisitions” tab.
Reviews are phenomenal for social proof. And it shows: customers spend up to 31% more on companies with excellent reviews. That’s why review generation should be the cornerstone of your review management strategy. Using a review management system like Synup makes it much less stressful to generate reviews.
Your review strategy needs to focus on acquisition. Without a steady stream of new reviews, you won’t have much to manage in the first place. If you’re not getting a lot of reviews - get fired up about it. Your online reputation is critical when it comes to attracting new customers. Once you start generating reviews, they serve as a gateway to conversing with your customers and fostering loyalty!
On the Synup platform, you can directly ask for reviews from your customers via email, text, and more. Whether customers had a great experience or a negative one, sometimes they just need a little reminder to write a review for your business. Here’s how to do it with Synup:
Click on “Acquire New Reviews” on the Review Acquisitions page.
With Synup, you can generate new reviews with two different methods: SMS/Email or via a Review Page.
To send a prompt to your customers over text or email, you’ll just need their contact information. This is great if you have a list of customers who recently placed an order or signed up for your mailing list!
Creating a Review Page is great, too. You can set up a QR code on your receipts or in-store, or you can link customers to it when you send them email or text communications.
From there, you can customize the page to fit your brand’s voice and style.
Acquiring reviews improves your business, whether or not you have a high rating. Customer feedback makes your brand better, whether it’s positive or negative. After all, no business is perfect - and reviews provide a nuanced insight into your customer interactions.
That’s why customer feedback is valuable. Even if a customer has a negative experience with your brand, it’s important to field their input and address their concerns. It also gives you the chance to resolve issues on your own terms, signaling to future customers that you care. Here’s how to manage review responses with Synup.
On the Reviews page, you can see all of your reviews across locations and channels. Let’s start by focusing on negative reviews.
From there, you’ll be able to view and respond to all of your negative reviews.
Responding to reviews is an essential part of any reputation management strategy. When you receive a bad review, it’s critical to respond as soon as possible - within 24 hours is an acceptable cutoff. This might seem strict, but a tight turnaround time makes it so a bad experience doesn’t fester. And it opens up a conversation, showing your customer that you value their experience.
Sometimes, all it takes is a short dialogue to resolve a customer’s concerns. That’s why 33% of customers who receive a response change the star rating of their review. So don’t fret if you get a negative review - think of it as an opportunity to show customers that you value them!
Synup enables automatic alerts whenever you get a new review - so you can respond right away. You can do that by going over to the “Automations” tab. Here, you’ll be able to see all the automations we have for reviews.
You can set up automatic responses, get notifications when you receive reviews, and more! Plus, we’re always adding helpful automations to make managing your reviews easier. Setting up email alerts ensures that you’ll never miss a review. When you’re monitoring your reviews, making your customers feel heard and cared for is essential!
As seen above, Synup also enables auto-responses.
You can set up several different responses for positive reviews, so you can spend less time responding and more time implementing customer feedback.
While you can also enable auto-responses for negative reviews, we suggest taking the time to personalize your responses! As you gather more feedback from your customers, it’s important to actually take their opinions into account. If there’s a problem with your business, your customers will be the first ones to notice.
Don’t forget to implement the feedback you receive. Customer experience should be at the center of your brand; neglecting your customers will only hurt your business in the long run. And if there’s an issue with your business, your customers will be the first ones to notice.
Luckily, Synup also provides in-depth sentiment analysis, sorting through your reviews to tell you the highlights and provide actionable insights. Review highlights help you leverage customer feedback, giving you an overview of what customers are saying across all of your brand’s locations and review platforms. That way, you can get a sense of what customers are saying - without sorting through hundreds or thousands of reviews.
To see review highlights, head back to the “Reviews” tab.
Clicking on any of the review highlights will show you reviews that mention that particular phrase. Centering customer feedback in your business begins by understanding your customers’ needs and goals. Synup’s helpful automations and reminders help ensure that customer feedback is always on your mind, whether you’re on the platform or not.
Encouraging honest feedback, responding to negative reviews, and centering customer experience will help your business attract customers, foster loyalty, and ultimately increase your revenue!
Synup makes review monitoring simple. Synup sends you notifications for new reviews so you never miss customer feedback - even when you‘re not logged into the dashboard. Take action on new reviews immediately to show customers that you’re focused on them. Whether it’s a glowing review or a criticism, rest assured that customer feedback won’t slip through the cracks when you use Synup.
Loyal customers are invaluable. And actively managing your reviews across platforms empowers you to start building meaningful relationships with your customers. Showing customers that you care is the first step to creating champions for your brand who will support you for years to come!
Investing in review monitoring helps you earn loyal customers and increases revenue over time. But building a solid online reputation shouldn’t consume your time - have a review management platform like Synup do it for you!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is review monitoring important?
Monitoring and responding to reviews helps build customer relationships and foster loyalty. Customers who leave negative reviews are more likely to change or remove their review if you respond and address their concerns.
At the end of the day, customers want to feel cared for. If you show your customers that you value their experience and opinions, you’ll attract more customers, raise your online reputation, and ultimately increase your revenue.
Why should I use review monitoring software?
Monitoring your reviews is an essential part of any business - but it takes time. Using a review monitoring software like Synup enables you to bolster your online reputation without sacrificing the time and energy to monitor reviews manually. From alerting you when you have a new review to automatically responding to reviews for you, review monitoring software saves you time every week.
Manually monitoring your reviews requires you to log in and out of various platforms. And directories don’t alert you when you receive a new review - so new customer feedback often slips through the cracks. For multi-location businesses, manual review management takes even more time, since you’ll need to log in for each business location.
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