Review Management Services

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Overview of review management

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• What is review management?
• The difference between gated and non-gated reviews
• How fast do reviews improve?
• What does review management cost?
• Review management strategy
• How the review management process works
• Review management case study
• Benefits of review management
• Differences between review management platforms

What is review management?

Review management improves online reviews and ratings. It can also be used to remove certain kinds of reviews. 

Gated vs. non-gated reviews

Gated and non-gated review management refers to the difference between whether a customer is asked whether they liked the service or product before requesting they leave a review somewhere. 

Gated review management is a two-step process. In step one a message is either texted or emailed to a customer. The message asks if the customer had a good experience, a simple "up or down" vote. If the customer votes "thumbs down" they are connected with a customer service representative to solve their issue. This enables the business to improve service as well as catch and solve problems before they become bad reviews. 

If the customer votes "thumbs up" they are directed to whichever review management platform needs the most help. 

Non-gated review management is a one-step process. The customer is not asked whether they had a good or bad experience. Instead they are simply sent to the review management platform to leave whatever review they choose. In our experience non-gated returns inferior results compared to gated review management. 

How fast reviews and ratings improve

Once the system has been setup, reviews generally start to improve within a few weeks. The fewer reviews already present, the faster ratings begin to improve.

Review and ratings management pricing

Prices are for fully managed review and ratings improvement and management. View this page for other pricing.

• 1-9 locations: $500 per month each
• 10-99 locations: $400 per month each
• 100+ locations: $225 per month each

Strategies for review management

Ratings and review management strategies encompass the following:

• Automated or manual contact input
• Messaging development to get the highest conversion rate possible
• A/B testing messaging
• ToS removals when possible
• Root cause analysis so businesses know where they need to improve
• Monitoring
• Campaign management

Learn more about review management strategy here. 

The review management process

The process for improving reviews works like this:

• Analysis of review platforms that need improvement (Google reviews, Yelp, etc.)
• Analysis of reviews for possible removal (usually violations of ToS)
• Manual or API-based contact management setup
• Development of high-conversion messaging
• Approval of target review platforms and messaging by client
• Initiation of review management campaign
• A/B testing to arrive at the best messaging
• Reviews generally begin to improve within a few weeks
• Monitoring of reviews and ratings
• Reporting of review and ratings improvement

A walkthrough of the process

1. You provide Reputation X with a customer list in Excel or CSV format. Our review management tool sends either a text to their phone or an email and asks them a simple question about their experience.
   
2. If the answer is good, or "thumbs up" we send them to one of three review management sites of your choice.
   
   
3. If the user is already logged in to a service like Google we will usually send them there first. This is because it saves a step and results in higher conversion rates for positive reviews.
   
4. If the answer is not so good, we ask them why. We don't send them to a review site. This enables the customer to "vent" on a site that will not post to Google. We also alert you to the problem so it can be dealt with in a timely and positive manner.

A review management case study

The client was an established online retailer that had undergone a change in ownership and management. The original owner enjoyed very high review star-ratings across most platforms including Yelp, Google Reviews, and others. The accompanying change in management led to a significant decline in quality, product delivery, and customer service. During the six months it took to identify and solve problems relating to the ownership change, the damage was done. The average review had dropped to only two stars. Reputation X solved that problem within a few months. 

Read the full case study here.

Review management services

• Monitor online reviews
• Catch negative reviews before they're posted
• Encourage positive reviews 

25+ review platforms served:

• Yelp review management
• Google reviews management
• Healthgrades reviews improvement
• Improve TrustPilot reviews
• TripAdvisor reviews
• Facebook reviews management
• ... and more

Review management service pricing

Review and ratings improvement services prices start at $225 per location per month. Our service is full-service. We create messaging, setup the system, clean the data, and keep your campaign up to date with search engine and review platform changes. You can find detailed review management pricing here. 

Negative review root-cause analysis

When bad reviews and ratings exist, there is usually a root cause. We can help companies and restaurants find the cause of negative online reviews in an objective way based on aggregated feedback. You can use this information to improve customer satisfaction at the same time Reputation X increases star-ratings.

Benefits of review management

The Reputation X online review management service is fully managed from top to bottom. We manage the messaging, testing, implementation, management and monitoring of your reviews. 

Easy Input with either lists or API integration

We can input prospective reviewers with either a bulk uploaded Excel or CSV list or via API using Zapier integration. The API increases the timeliness of review requests - but both methods result in better reviews for our customers. 

Review monitoring for over 25 review sites

We monitor mentions of your brand on over 25 different review sites, blogs, and social media. 

Reviewer de-duplication

Lists are de-duplicated so the same person doesn't get a request twice within a specified period of time. 

Sending reviewers to the right sites

Reviewers are automatically sent to review sites they already use and are logged in for first. That makes it easy for them because we automatically populate their review with five stars before they write it. If reviewers are not logged in, or our customer needs more reviews on a different site we send them there instead. This way customers get a balanced array of reviews on the sites that matter most to them.

Differences between online review platforms

There is a significant difference between review management services, both in the results and associated costs. This can be broken down into three categories:

Review monitoring services

The most inexpensive kind of review management campaign is simple monitoring. Monitoring alerts you to a problem but it doesn't improve star-ratings.

Automated review management

Most review management is automated. When a survey is generated for a customer, the system sends out an email or text asking the customer to provide a review. Because it's automated, no people are involved (lower cost) but neither is one very necessary ingredient - human empathy.

Human-augmented review management

This is how Reputation X does it. When you add real people to a review management program, you have the best of both human and machine working to improve star-ratings, reviews, and testimonials. A managed review strategy means good reviews can be channeled to the places they're needed most. It also means that problem reviews can be dealt with more effectively.

The net result is better reviews - faster.

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