Curious to know how your brand is viewed online? Head to review sites like Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp and other social media. You’ll find out if people are leaving five stars and sharing what makes your business awesome or if they are leaving one star and a warning to never do business with you. Understanding the sentiment of your customers online is essential to managing your online reputation but with so many reviews scattered across the web where does one begin? An online reputation report.
Thankfully, gathering your online review data is not a task that needs to be tedious or time-consuming. A reputation management software tool, such as GatherUp, can provide an online reputation report for your brand with some simple information. Add your business address and select the online review sites you want to monitor to get started. Your report will include powerful metrics you can act on.
- Overall star rating reflects customer satisfaction
- Star ratings by review sites impact search
- Total reviews by star rating are an indication of consistency
- A decrease in the total number of reviews by month is a red flag
- All your reviews in a single view
- Analyze online reviews using artificial intelligence
Your overall star rating reflects customer satisfaction
The average star rating across multiple online review sites indicates the overall health of your brand’s online reputation. How do you know what’s an excellent rating? Is a 3-star rating good enough for your reputation?
Your overall star rating reflects the satisfaction of your customers. When you take a survey, you typically see it on a 5 point scale with the best score being very satisfied and the worst score being very dissatisfied. Your star rating can be translated on a similar scale:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Excellent Very satisfied
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Good Somewhat satisfied
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Average Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
⭐️⭐️ Poor Somewhat dissatisfied
⭐️ Very Bad Very dissatisfied
Look familiar? Your overall star rating reflects the satisfaction of your customers. Online reviews may be customer-driven (unless you’ve mastered the human ask) but that’s even more proof that they are a signal of the overall health of your brand’s online reputation.
The overall star rating provided by your online reputation represents a high-level barometer of how your business and your reputation are performing. By benchmarking your overall star ratings, you will be able to measure your reputation improvements each week or month. But, this rating is just the tip of the iceberg.
See how star ratings by review site impacts your brand’s search results
Star ratings are a popular and straightforward way to evaluate virtually every industry from restaurants and doctors to roofers and insurance agencies. Most online review sites, with the exception of Facebook Recommendations, use a star-rating system to communicate the customer satisfaction level for a brand to their users. Because online review sites are independent from a business, the customer rating is widely accepted as unbiased and trustworthy.
Ratings from prominent sites such as Google and Yelp are often displayed in search results for your brand and influence the decisions of 88% of buyers. If a single review site displays a lower rating in SERPs, it can negatively impact your business.
Identify your brand’s star ratings by review site with your online reputation report. If an individual site is found to display a lower rating than other sites take a deeper look.
What is the review count? A negative review can have a significant impact on the overall rating if there is a small number of total reviews.
The solution? Drive more reviews to the site. Use a simple email request or promote the site to your customers. A variety of new reviews will neutralize the impact of the negative review. Your star rating will increase and no longer be a negative influence in search.
Total reviews by star rating are an indication of consistency
The overall star rating is found by taking the total stars earned divided by the total number of reviews but it’s the details of this equation that tell another story. Looking at the total number of reviews for each star rating uncovers how consistent your customer experience is.
If 80% of your total review count is shared between two sequential star ratings, it is an indication that your customer experience is consistent. Every scenario has it’s outliers, but most customers receive the same level of customer service, quality, and support. If you want to improve your brand rating, look at aspects of your brand that affect all customers equally such as product offerings or processes.
If most of your reviews are 4- and 5-star but more than 30% of your reviews are distributed between 1-, 2-, and 3-star ratings, it is an indication that the customer experience is inconsistent. Most customers share a common, positive experience but those that don’t aren’t outliers in this case. Something that is otherwise successful is failing to cause a 4-star plus experience to suffer. Find the lapse using feedback in your review content and take action to give every customer the best brand experience.
A decrease in monthly reviews is a red flag
If you are not proactively requesting reviews, customer action (or inaction) is what’s driving your review counts across the web. Our survey showed that 63% of consumers are motivated to leave a review when their experience is either really good or really bad. If you know the average number of reviews your business receives each month, a variance is an indication to take a closer look to see what you can learn.
Seeing fewer reviews than normal? First, check your sales report. If sales are down it makes sense that there aren’t as many customers leaving reviews. But if sales look good, look for an issue with leaving reviews. Is your business profile up-to-date and discoverable on the review sites that are important to your business? Has your brand been flagged for violating a review site’s terms of service by incentivizing reviews? Fix any issues you might find to restore your reviews flow.
You might also notice more reviews than normal. This is a good result, but don’t miss the learning opportunity amidst the congratulations. Take a close look at the reviews. Check for authenticity first (yes, fake reviews can also be 5-star) and then dig into what your customers are loving about your product or service.
Your review content from across the web in a single view
In addition to a star rating, many customers leave a review. This content contains valuable customer feedback about your brand and 73% of consumers value the written review over the overall star rating. Facebook requires users to provide at least 25 characters of content in order to post a recommendation. Your online reputation report brings all your reviews from across the web together into a single view for analysis and sharing.
Is outstanding customer service frequently stated? Track down who is exceeding customer expectations and driving reviews for your brand. Deliver a message of thanks and lend an ear to learn more about their approach and how you might replicate it across your brand.
When a negative experience is shared, take action to prevent it from happening again. Your online reputation will improve over time if you consistently deliver a positive experience.
To proactively reply to negative reviews, use notifications. You will be alerted when a new review is posted so that you can offer timely support. Some customers may even adjust their rating if you are able to resolve their issue.
Taking the next step is to request direct feedback from your customer. With this strategy, you are the first to hear about a negative experience. Customers have a way to communicate with your business which can keep them off review sites. Don’t worry, you can still drive reviews to online review sites in your request. GatherUp’s Ultimate Mode is a great example of how to do it all.
Use artificial intelligence to analyze review content
For a more advanced picture of your reputation performance, use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze reviews automatically, discover keywords in your review content, and display insights into your customer’s experience.
Powered by IBM Watson, GatherUp’s Insights Report uses natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and machine learning to discover the impact, sentiment, and trends of all of your review content. This report brings previously unknown information to light so you can understand what’s delivering a 5-star experience, and what’s not.
Review content can be understood at scale, and with velocity, to allow you to respond quickly to shifts and signals from your customers and take actions that directly impact your bottom line.
Get your online reputation report from GatherUp
Get your online reputation report featuring the overall star rating, star rating by review site, total reviews by star rating, the total number of reviews by month, and a review content summary for your brand.
