Acquiring and responding to reviews help you grow your business by increasing trust in your brand, encouraging new customers to try out your product, and – as Google points out – even boosting your website's local SEO and rankings.
But while there are countless tools for automating different aspects of your review management strategy, the sheer variety of options can make it challenging to find the best fit for your business.
This short, simple guide will help youchoose the right review automation platform based on your budget, goals, and the size of your business.
It explains which components of your review management strategy to auto mate, such as review monitoring and removal; provides a step-by-step guide to successful Google review automation; and compares three popular platforms for managing online reviews.
There are six steps you should follow to automate Google reviews effectively:
Let’s look at each of these steps and discuss the role automation can (and should) play in your review management strategy. In particular, we’ll focus on automating review requests (Step 3), automating review monitoring (Step 4), automating review removals (Step 5), and automating review responses (Step 6).
There are various Google review automation tools and review management platforms for businesses, such as Shout About Us, Birdeye, and Podium.
We'll cover these services in more depth later on in this guide, but first, it's important to briefly go over what you should be looking for in a review management platform. Be sure to choose a review automation tool that:
Your Google business account is your Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly referred to as Google My Business. As Google explains, your Business Profile is “a free tool that allows you to take charge of how your business appears on Google Search and Maps.
With your Business Profile, you can connect with customers, post updates, list your products and services, share your menu, and more."
To create a Google business account, sign up for Google Business Profile. (Or, if you already have one, simply sign into your existing account.)
Once you're signed in and have verified your business for security purposes, you can edit your Google Business Profile and respond to customer feedback.
We'll explain how you can automate the process of writing and publishing Google review responses in the final step of this guide.
Data shows that customers are more likely to leave a review when asked or prompted by the business. The most effective ways to request reviews include sending a review request email, requesting reviews during the purchase, including a review request on a receipt or invoice, and requesting reviews on social media.
But why lose countless hours completing these tasks manually when automation makes it almost instantaneous?
Automating requests for reviews is an efficient strategy for getting more Google reviews fast, because it enables you to ask every customer during or immediately following their transaction, while a positive experience is still fresh in their mind. To make leaving a positive review or rating convenient for the customer, you can even include a Google review link directly in your review request.
Through our review generation service, Shout About Us empowers your business to collect reviews with ease through the power of automation.
You can send text requests, email requests, and even create custom QR codes featuring a direct link to your review page. The more reviews you receive, the more your business's credibility increases, and the more potential customers will consider trying your brand.
There are countless review platforms other than Google, such as Yelp, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, and the Better Business Bureau. Some of these platforms, like Google, publish all different kinds of reviews, while others, such as Cars.com, are specific to a certain type of business, product, or service.
Some of these platforms, like Google, will automatically alert businesses that opt into receiving review notifications. However, to ensure that you receive these alerts, you must manage your notification settings. According to Google Support, you can choose to be notified about “updates to your account,” “updates about new features,“ and whenever “someone posts on your Business Profile,” including reviews.
Every platform has different notifications and alerts – and managing all of them manually can be a hassle. An omniplatform like Shout About Us enables you to monitor all notifications and reviews from a single, centralized dashboard.
By using Shout About Us to automate review monitoring, you receive alerts and notifications whenever a new review or rating is posted. That means no reviews ever slip through the cracks – and neither do any opportunities to respond.
This approach is especially useful for catching negative reviews quickly so that your team can take swift action.
Automated review tracking tools also offer another advantage: they allow you to monitor all of your review sites from one centralized dashboard or platform. That keeps all reviews highly organized and easy to find – even if you manage thousands of locations.
First, it's important to state that Google won't remove customer reviews simply because they're negative. It will, however, delete reviews that violate the platform's terms of service, such as spam, “deceptive” reviews, or reviews that contain threatening or offensive language.
The benefit of having inappropriate negative comments removed from your review page is obvious. The problem is that it's time-consuming to monitor negative reviews (and follow up on requests for removal).
This is another area of review management where automation offers a solution. Shout About Us' review removal service handles the entire process for you, from identifying reviews that violate community guidelines to automatically notifying you whenever a review is deleted.
That enables your team to save time and effort while simultaneously boosting your star rating.
Manually responding to reviews consumes even more time than tracking or requesting them – especially because, as we've pointed out in previous posts, every response must be personalized to the reviewer. AI tools can accelerate the process by generating responses for you, but even that approach requires you to individually plug each review into the tool – a strategy that simply isn't feasible for large organizations.
Automation enables you to streamline your entire approach. Shout About Us' review response service, ResponseScribe, completely eliminates the cumbersome task of writing or generating responses.
Your business can choose a human-powered, AI-powered, or hybrid strategy for dealing with comments and ratings. The average response time is under 24 hours with a human-powered plan, and less than one hour with an AI-powered plan.
Our team will escalate sensitive reviews to your management, such as reviews alleging discrimination or fraud, and you always have the option to screen each reply before we publish.
Below, we’ll compare three of the top platforms to automate and manage Google reviews:
We’ll look at each platform’s key features and some possible pros and cons.
Shout About Us is a powerful platform designed to simplify and automate review management for small businesses and multi-location brands. The platform, which also offers a mobile app for on-the-go review management, enables your business to:
One of the major benefits of Shout About Us is its flexibility and affordability. Your business can take a holistic approach or pick and choose services a-la-carte to target specific goals, like getting more ratings on Google.
We’ll work with you to design a custom plan that fits your needs and aligns with your objectives. Pricing varies depending on the client, with our personalized review response service starting at just $19 per month.
Podium is a multi-purpose platform businesses can use to automate reviews in various ways. For example, some key features of Podium include review request automation, AI-generated review replies, a mobile-friendly platform, and review reporting features that allow you to track how your reputation changes over time.
While Podium offers a wide range of features, including tools for handling customer transactions, the platform's pricing might be a drawback for smaller organizations or emerging brands. Pricing for the most basic plan ("Essentials") starts at $249 per month, while the most comprehensive plan ("Professional") is $599 per month.
Birdeye, available for desktop or mobile, is a reputation management platform with various use cases for businesses. Some of Birdeye’s key features and capabilities include review generation, review tracking, and AI-powered review response.
Outside of review management, the platform also includes tools for booking appointments, managing customer transactions, and managing your social media content.
While Birdeye is a highly versatile platform, the cost might be a barrier for some businesses. Although pricing is not currently listed on Birdeye’s website, various software review tools report that pricing begins at $299 per location.
Increase your efficiency, improve your online reputation, address customer concerns promptly, and boost customer satisfaction – all with a few simple clicks. Shout About Us empowers you to automate almost every review management task, from sending review requests to monitoring reviews on 75+ platforms.
Learn why more than 10,000 brands trust Shout About Us to automate Google customer reviews. Book your demo today to get started.
Some aspects of your Google reviews can be automated. For example, you can automate tasks like monitoring review platforms, requesting reviews from customers, and even responding to customer reviews. However, one aspect of review management should not be automated: writing the reviews themselves. That’s a task you must leave to your customers, since Google only permits authentic reviews from real consumers.
Google reviews are intended to provide a credible, trustworthy source of information for consumers. It’s a violation of Google’s terms to use a bot – or, for that matter, any other tool or service – for the purpose of generating fake reviews. To quote Google Support, “Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed.” However, while Google prohibits using bots to generate reviews, there is no prohibition against using bots to send review requests. In fact, automating Google review requests is an effective strategy to get more reviews.
It can take anywhere from several minutes to several days before Google customer reviews are posted live. There are various reasons why new Google reviews can be delayed, such as reviews containing inappropriate content or problems verifying your Google business listing. If you suspect that your reviews aren’t showing up or are being improperly removed by Google, you should contact Google Support directly for assistance.
Whether your business is small or large, you can automate many different aspects of your review management strategy. For example, you can automate Google review collection by sending out automatic text and email requests every time a customer makes a purchase. Tools like Shout About Us make it easy to set up automated review requests, freeing up valuable time for your team to tackle other projects.
Discover whether your brand or agency is implementing three Harvard-recommended strategies to address negative reviews effectively, enhancing customer trust and improving your online reputation.
Unlock the potential of Google My Business with our ultimate guide, designed to help businesses maximize visibility, engage customers, and enhance their online reputation through effective review management.
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