Placing your company’s profile on popular online review sites can be beneficial for your business. Having an active account allows you to learn what your customers are saying about you, provide you with another method of promotion or communication with your audience, and can even boost your SEO.
If you want to have success on an online review site like Yelp or Urbanspoon, it’s important that you know to correctly manage the sites. The following tips can help you successfully manage the online review sites to best benefit your business.
1. Dedicate a specific person.
The biggest mistake that companies make when managing their online review sites is trying not dedicating one specific person (or team of people) for the job. Placing the responsibility in the hands of the company owner or in the hands of random employees is not a good idea, as the responsibility will end up on the backburner (or completely forgotten about), and it won’t bode well for your business. When you give the responsibility to one person (or a team of people) managing your review sites becomes their sole focus, so you can ensure it’s never forgotten about.
2. Claim your business.
Your customers can leave reviews about your business whether you claim your business page or not, so not claiming a page on these sites doesn’t help you. It’s always best to claim your page on these sites because it provides you with a few perks. You can add in your own profile information to ensure that everything is accurate. You can add in images or special promotions to help entice users that come to these sites and check out your business. And you can even respond to the comments left about your business, which allows you effectively communicate with your customers.
3. Use the available tools.
Trying to manage all of your online review sites without the use of tools can be difficult. You will spend too much time trying to visit each site and learn if new comments were left. Instead of driving yourself crazy, make sure that you’re using the right tools available to you. Tools such as Review Trackers can provide you with an easy way to track all the happenings on your online review sites. Review Trackers will scout the Internet in search of reviews or comments about your business, and will then send you a summary of their findings, either every week, every day or in real time. This way, you can receive an email alert every time there’s an addition or change to your online review sites so you don’t have to crawl through the entire Internet yourself.
4. Respond to the reviews.
Being inactive on the online review sites is not good for your business. It’s always best for your business if you respond to reviews, both good and bad. Responding to good reviews is a great way to thank the customer for taking the time to review your business. Responding to negative reviews is a great way to calm down the irate customer or to learn more about what made their experience so poor.
Elizabeth Boone is an expert review manager who is currently using Review Trackers to track online business reviews.