Looking to boost your online reputation? Managing customer reviews on the web and social media is the way to go. After all, customer reviews are the main influencers of your brand’s online image.
This article will explain why and introduce some platforms for handling customer feedback, covering everything from collection and moderation to analysis and display.
Why Are Consumer Reviews Vital for Your Online Image?
Your online image, or e-reputation, represents how Internet users perceive your brand across digital channels like search engines and social media. It’s your online brand identity, and it matters.
E-Reputation and Consumer Reviews: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Your online brand image is critical for your business’s short- and long-term success. E-reputation heavily influences consumers’ buying decisions, especially online. Customer reviews play a pivotal role in building trust and confidence in your brand and products.
Digitalizing the customer journey has amplified the importance of brand reputation, with customer review platforms and social media making it easier for customers to share their thoughts.
To make e-reputation a cornerstone of your marketing strategy, manage customer reviews of your products and services. This is the first step in monitoring and enhancing e-reputation.
Two Levels of E-Reputation Management
E-reputation is managed in two time frames:
– Short term: Monitor real-time customer reviews on search engines, feedback platforms, social media, forums, and respond promptly to negative feedback. It’s crucial but not enough alone.
– Medium and long term: Analyze customer reviews, particularly negative ones, to identify areas for improvement. This approach optimizes customer satisfaction and your online reputation in the long run, integrating customer reviews into your ongoing improvement strategy.
Genuine Customer Reviews: Post-Purchase Surveys
Collecting feedback from “real” customers is vital. Post-purchase reviews, where brands ask actual customers for their opinions after a purchase, give you the most control. They avoid the issues of spontaneous user reviews on product pages, forums, or social media.
Platforms to Manage Customer Reviews and E-Reputation
Contrary to common belief, you can manage customer reviews using specialized monitoring platforms. Here, we’ll focus on four key players: Verified Reviews, Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and eKomi.
Verified Reviews
Verified Reviews, a Marseille-based solution, covers the entire spectrum of e-reputation management, from collecting feedback to analyzing, moderating, and displaying it on your digital channels. As the name suggests, Verified Reviews certifies the authenticity of customer reviews, fighting false reviews that could harm your online brand image.
Here are some key features of Verified Reviews:
– Verified Reviews Widget: This platform offers a convenient “Verified Reviews” widget that makes it a breeze to display certified customer reviews on your website, such as on your product pages.
– Comprehensive Review Access: Users can access and read all reviews, whether positive or negative, about a brand on a specific page.
– Versatile Feedback Collection: Verified Reviews allows you to collect and showcase various types of customer feedback, including brand reviews, local reviews, and product reviews. It’s an all-in-one solution.
– Customer Segmentation: Easily identify your company’s promoters, detractors, and neutral customers using the platform’s tools.
– Effortless Responses: The Verified Reviews interface enables quick and easy public responses to reviews with just a few clicks.
– Post-Purchase Surveys: You can request customer feedback through post-purchase surveys, ensuring a maximum of reviews from your actual customers.
– Advanced Analysis: Verified Reviews offers advanced features for in-depth customer review analysis, providing a detailed overview of your reviews.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot, founded in 2007, is similar to Verified Reviews. It allows you to collect consumer feedback and display it on your digital communication channels, including your website and social media. Like Verified Reviews, Trustpilot also facilitates automatic post-purchase surveys via email to gather verified reviews from your genuine customers. Skeepers offers a native connector with Trustpilot, allowing you to automate emails to your brand promoter customers to acquire positive reviews and boost your average score.
Trustpilot reviews often rank well on Google, making it a valuable tool for managing your Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) reputation. Trustpilot, like Verified Reviews, complies with Afnor standards for certified reviews, ensuring the quality and authenticity of reviews. However, unlike Verified Reviews, Trustpilot does not grant you ownership of the reviews submitted.
Google Reviews
In contrast to the previous platforms, Google Reviews is free and user-friendly, requiring only a Google Business account to use the Customer Review module. Google reviews appear in the search engine, Google Shopping, and Google Maps. You can combine Google Reviews with a third-party platform like Trustpilot or Verified Reviews to gather more reviews and enhance their management.
Our recommendation is to use Google Reviews, which is both free and essential, in conjunction with a third-party platform like Verified Reviews or Trustpilot to effectively monitor your customer reviews and e-reputation.
eKomi
Finally, eKomi is another user-friendly platform with similar features to those discussed. It allows you to collect post-purchase reviews via email and has a highly responsive moderation team to verify all reviews before publication.
While generalist reference platforms are useful, don’t forget about specialized platforms such as Tripadvisor (for tourism and restaurants) or Capterra (for software). These platforms are invaluable tools for collecting, moderating, and displaying customer reviews, making them essential for managing your e-reputation.
In conclusion
managing customer reviews and nurturing your e-reputation is an essential aspect of your digital presence. The impact of customer feedback on your brand’s success cannot be overstated. These platforms, such as Verified Reviews, Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and eKomi, offer valuable tools to help you collect, moderate, and display customer reviews effectively.
To make the most of these platforms, consider your business needs, your budget, and your long-term goals. Leveraging the power of genuine customer reviews, combined with your dedication to continual improvement, can help you build trust with your audience and solidify your online reputation.
So, as you venture into the realm of e-reputation management, remember that your customers’ voices matter, and these platforms are here to help you listen and respond. Embrace the feedback, engage with your audience, and watch your brand’s online image shine. Your e-reputation is an asset; nurture it wisely.