The coronavirus pandemic caused an economic downturn that, for many businesses and agencies, led to dramatically decreased revenue during 2020. According to a Brookings Institution report, small companies experienced a devastating 20% reduction in their revenue from January to August of 2020, when all industries were averaged together. While the U.S. economy is slowly beginning to rebound, most companies can’t afford another bad quarter or slow season.
Even if your brand weathered the pandemic without financial damage, it’s still imperative to maintain your edge over competing agencies — and one of the best ways to get an edge over your competitors is to give your clients an edge over theirs. Read on to learn how you can increase your team’s efficiency, retain more of your clients, meet the growing demand for online reputation management services — and ultimately, drive more revenue — by making review response a bigger part of your agency’s business strategy.
There are numerous strategies for driving revenue and growing your brand or agency, from investing heavily in sales and marketing to bundling, adding, or upselling services. However, for the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on just one: monitoring and responding to the reviews that your clients receive from their customers. If your brand or agency isn’t already utilizing or offering review management services to your customers, here are the top reasons you need to start ASAP.
As of August 2021, the industry market research firm IBISWorld estimated that “the percentage of business conducted online increased 27.9% in 2020 alone, reaching 30.8% of business activity.” Not only are more transactions taking place online, so are more spending decisions, with over 90% of the respondents to one survey saying online reviews influenced how likely they were to use a business (94% for positive reviews, 92% for negative reviews). The same survey also found that 79% of consumers trusted online reviews as much as they trusted their own friends or family members to make brand recommendations. The data additionally revealed that nearly all consumers, excluding just 9%, expected to receive responses to their reviews, with 20% expecting the response to arrive within 24 hours.
Considering statistics like these, it’s no surprise that review management is an increasingly sought-after service, especially in industries like healthcare and hospitality where customer reviews are arguably the most impactful. By offering white label review management services to your clients, you can meet a growing need and distinguish your agency as a trusted leader in the online reputation management space. But don’t take our word for it — listen to what other advertising agencies have to say, like Las Vegas-based 411 Locals. Here’s a quote from COO Roumen Todorov on the benefits of review management for advertising agencies:
Review management used to be an afterthought for our agency because it was time-intensive and unprofitable. That quickly changed when we started working with Shout About Us. They’ve helped us turn review management into one of the primary drivers of growth for our agency.
Think you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to review management? Think again: with scalable white label solutions from Shout About Us, it’s easy and efficient to manage your customers’ reviews — and protect their reputations — no matter how many locations they serve or operate. Our intuitive platform is designed to help agencies support their customers, like Alaina Christy, SEO Director of V Digital Services, points out:
We’ve worked with plenty of white label partners in the past, but Shout About Us is the first one that really feels like they are a part of our team. They build custom features for us, help us sell, and their support team is top-notch. They’ve been a total game-changer for our agency.
Exactly how much can you improve your efficiency? Agencies who use our platform report saving up to 96 hours of in-house work during the first month alone, while simultaneously boosting their revenue by as much as $143,000 during the first six months. Plus, agencies that take advantage of our custom review response service have successfully increased client retention by as much as 43%, when a mere 5% increase has been shown to boost revenue by anywhere from 25% to 95%. If just 5% greater retention could lead to a spike in revenue of 25% or more, what could 43% greater retention help your brand or agency accomplish?
Data shows that businesses which respond to reviews earn 33% more revenue and have 124% better customer retention than average. Help your clients smash their goals and establish yourself as an in-demand industry leader by ensuring all of your customers’ ratings and comments receive a custom, on-brand review reply.
By offering personalized review responses, you’ll make it easier for your clients — and your agency — to rank higher on Google, retain valuable customers, satisfy the evolving demands of consumers, and meet short- and long-term revenue goals in a challenging economic climate. Shout About Us provides all of the tools and resources you need, from your own dedicated team of response scribes to our versatile all-in-one review management platform, which empowers your agency to generate, listen, and respond to clients’ online reviews. We monitor more than 50 review sites, including Google My Business and Yelp, while providing detailed performance reports to help you identify and act efficiently on developing trends.
Start growing your agency and brand today. Book a demo to see our review reply service and review management platform in action.
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.
Done-for-you review management
built for local businesses.
