How to Choose an Online Review Management Software in 2021

From “Do online review management services work?” to “how to choose an online review
management software?”things have changed dramatically!

The last time we checked, review management was a part of multi-million dollar
companies. But today, it has become inevitable for businesses of all sizes!

If you find this hard to believe, here’s a screenshot of the massive search results for the
phrase “online review management software.”

This is because an approximate 96% of consumers read online reviews before they buy –
one of the many important online reputation management statistics.
This has pushed both small and large businesses to manage their online reviews. And if
you’re reading this, it’s clear that you are serious about review management – you need a
tool that’ll help manage your online reviews. Well, that’s good for your business!
So, this read is all about how you should choose an online review management tool for
your business. Also, we’ve covered a bit of the basic stuff to make sure that you get a
complete package out of this read!
P.S. You can know more about online review management here!
Let’s get started, shall we?

What Is An Online Review Management Tool?

A review management tool is a software that’s responsible for monitoring & tracking all
online reviews and mentions about your brand.

Today, softwares has become so advanced that you can monitor, manage and even
respond to reviews from one single dashboard – saves huge time and effort. We’ll look into
how a review management software should be in the later sections of the read.
For now, here are the benefits you get when you use a review management tool!

Benefits of Using An Online Review Management Software

1. Build Trust & Brand Image

Every business, irrespective of the field they are in, gets online reviews. And the way they
treat these reviews builds their brand image and reputation.
Review management softwares allows you to quickly know where your customers have
mentioned your brand or said something that might influence your business growth – both
the bad and the good stuff!
Here’s an example where Hifive Cafe, a small restaurant is replying to one of its Google
reviews,

Apparently, the restaurant has been doing this very well and they’ve managed to respond
to 500+ Google reviews.
When you start responding to online reviews (both good & bad), people start to value your
customer service – they appreciate the effort you are taking to make things right for
consumers.

In doing this, you not only establish trust among your customers, but you also build the
“customer-centric” brand image over a period of time.

When people start leaving comments or reviews about your brand, you need to respond to
them. And a review management tool makes sure you respond to every single one of them!

2. Collect Business Insights & Customer Feedback

Imagine you’re launching a new product – the one that your customers have been waiting
for!

When the launch is done, you’re going to get a lot of feedback about your product in all
places – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more!

Two things happen here:

1. You get to know what customers feel about your product – the feedback

2. Their feedback lets you know how you can make the product even better in the future

With an online review management software, you can view all of this in one place rather
than having to shift tabs and refresh the screen endlessly!

3. Increase Online Sales

When you continuously address online reviews and collect customer feedback (and
implement it), over a period of time, you get good reviews pouring in. You can showcase it
on your website and social platforms. This creates a positive impact on your audience and
eventually, the sales figures go up.

4. Reduce Manual Effort

This is one of the significant benefits of an online review management tool. You don’t have
to invest in manpower because the software is able to make things a walk in the park for
your customer service team.

You can even set auto-responses based on the scenario which saves a lot of time and
manual effort. Your support team can concentrate on things/issues that matter!

So, that’s pretty much the benefits you get when you use a tool to manage your online
reviews!

Let’s get to the part you’ve been waiting for – how to choose a review management
software!

6 Features Your Online Review Management Tool Should Have

We’ve come up with the top 6 features your online review management tool should be
having.

You can find them all below!

1. Multi-platform Review Management

Like we all know, the digital space is vast and your potential customers can leave a review
about your business anywhere!

So, make sure that the tool you choose allows you to track reviews on multiple platforms.

The tool should also be able to monitor and analyze reviews based on specific locations,
mobile applications (iOS & Android), eCommerce platforms (Amazon, eBay and custom

platforms) and on popular platforms like Facebook, Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp
and more.

Knowing that a review management software covers a wide range of online platforms is the
first sign that tells you the tool is good to go with!

2. Auto-tag Reviews Based on Sentiments

This is an important feature your online review management tool should have –
auto-tagging sentiments.

Down the lane, your business is going to have increased reviews and the support team is
going to have a hard time manually tagging each one of them. This is where the
auto-tagging feature comes in.

The software should be able to auto-tag reviews based on sentiment analysis (good, neutral
and bad), separate reviews based on the location and the type of issue.

This also allows your support team to focus on bad reviews and answer them immediately
– makes review management easier!

3. Auto-respond to Reviews

Wouldn’t it be great if your reviews are answered by the tool itself? Yes! You heard that
right.

An ideal online review management tool should be able to auto-respond to reviews based
on sentiment. You get to set custom responses for specific scenarios and the tool takes
care of the rest – automate and forget!

4. Custom Alerts Based on Reviews

Some reviews are crucial and some are not! And it is the crucial reviews that make a change
in how the audience perceives your brand.

Bad online reviews are something that should be addressed immediately before they blow
up and sabotage your online reputation.

And a good review management software makes sure this doesn’t happen by raising alerts
on reviews that could be bad for your business.

Alerts can be raised based on set criteria like ratings, sentiment and the type of issues. This
helps you resolve the issue on time and gain back customer trust.

Also, receiving email and SMS alerts for such types of reviews could be handy!

5. Automated Customer Surveys

Another important part of online review management is knowing what your customers feel
about you. And customer surveys are the best way to get this done.

Make sure your review management software allows you to ask your customers’ feedback
when they complete an action.

The most common scenarios where a customer survey would be launched is when a
customer purchases a product, avails a specific service, or to ask about the overall
experience of the interaction.

If your review management software is able to do this, then it’s well and good!

6. Free Trial Plan

This might not seem very important to you but on a scale of 1 – 10, we’d give all 10 for this!
Before you choose an online review management tool for your business, it’s important that
you know what it does.
Though knowing the features is going to help you understand the software, getting
hands-on experience is the best way to go!

Once you’ve chosen a couple of options, see which one of them offers a free trial plan – a
14 or a 30-day free trial should get the job done.
This helps you know more about the tool and make a decision – the features, how it works
and the user experience.
Apart from the above-mentioned, your review management software should be able to
track competitor mentions as well – helps you gain an edge in the race!
So, yes! Those mentioned above are pretty much the features and steps you need to take
before you choose an online review management software!
And here’s the most important thing of all!

Do Your Background Research

It’s simple! You just have to follow the steps you do when you purchase a product online.

You check out the reviews, the seller’s website, their pricing and other important stuff.
Similarly, know everything about your online review management tool before you make a
final decision.

Take the extra mile and book a 1-1 call with the support team and check out how their
services are! What better way is there to know about the product you are going to purchase
if not a 1-1 session?

P.S. If you want to skip the above steps and need a solution right away, check out SimplyReview.
The review management tool is super easy to use and has all the above-mentioned features!

That being said, we’ll wrap it up!

Final Few Words

“An approximate 85% of customers consider online reviews as personal
recommendations.”

We wanted to show you another statistic and there you go!

Online review management is crucial for any business to thrive in this competitive
landscape. And doing everything you can to maintain your online reputation is a must if
you’re looking forward to growing.

Investing in a review management software not only helps you manage online reviews but
also helps build a customer-centric brand image – the one that’s going to increase sales
and loyal customers.

All you have to do is, choose the best online review management software and get started!

Now that you have everything you need, why wait? Start managing your online reviews
right away!

Cheers!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do online review management services work?

Yes! Review management services have been proving effective for companies for a long
time. Companies that use review management tools have witnessed a decrease in
response time and have boosted their brand image.

2. Is online review management important?

In order for businesses to maintain a positive outlook in the digital space, online review
management is important. This helps increase sales, collect customer feedback and
increase loyal audience base.

3. How much does online review management cost?

There are a lot of affordable review management softwares available today. You can find a
review management tool for as low as $50 per month.

4. Do review management softwares need continuous assistance?

No. Review management tools today are sophisticated and advanced. Some even come
with AI assistance making the overall “managing review process” easy for you!