The impact of online business reviews
Online reviews have supplanted word-of-mouth marketing in a revolutionary way. Every year, more people flock to popular social and review platforms like Yelp, Facebook, and Google to both praise and criticize local businesses.
However, for many companies, keeping up with the constant stream of customer feedback is a major time-suck, and understanding how to respond appropriately is a source of confusion and frustration.
Why people trust online reviews
The reputation game has changed. 84% of people now trust online reviews from strangers as much as recommendations from friends. The pace of internet activity today is too fast for people to seek out friend’s advice about every purchase they make, so they place their trust in strangers for an unbiased opinion.
This means that one negative review can do serious damage to a business’s reputation, as it sits waiting to dissuade anyone who’s researching the company. On the flip side, positive reviews provide potential customers with reassurance that they’re making the right decision, and encourage customer conversion.
Review Monitoring
Review monitoring alerts you to new reviews posted about your business on any of the many social and review platforms across the internet.
Business reviews are coming in hot—more than 26,000 reviews hit Yelp alone every single minute of every single day. Monitoring all the feedback that’s being generated online is a major challenge for local businesses, and they need help to keep up.
Businesses that don’t monitor customer feedback may miss negative feedback from their customers, and they’ll miss the marketing opportunities that responding to positive reviews presents.
Having a solution that helps you monitor and respond to every review is essential because prospects are reading both reviews from customers AND the company response.
Reputation Management Executive Reports
Get the high-level view on all aspects of your online reputation through weekly executive reports.