According to BrightLocal and SearchEngineJournal.com, “The average business on Google has 39 reviews” — incidentally, one short of the 40 needed to establish consumer trust. In certain industries, that number is even higher, with auto dealerships, for example, receiving an average of 106 reviews: more than double the average amount. Now multiply by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of locations, and you can see where multi-location brands face serious challenges to effective online review management. After all, while more reviews can translate to better rankings and increased consumer trust, they can also create more opportunities for disorganization and inefficiency.
In order to overcome these challenges successfully, multi-location business owners need to leverage creative solutions, such as partnering with response scribes to deliver a better and more consistent customer experience. There are also additional steps that multi-location brands should take in order to optimize their review response strategies. Continue reading for three actionable tips on how multi-location businesses can improve their review management methods, from implementing clear review response policies to exploring the benefits of review management software.
3 Review Management Tips for Multi-Location Businesses
Tip #1: Streamline and Simplify with Review Management Software
As every business owner knows, organization is essential — especially when managing the review responses for hundreds or thousands of branch locations on behalf of a regional or national company. Even with years of experience behind you, that’s a logistically daunting task — but with the right technology supporting your business, there’s no need to get overwhelmed. Stay on top of your to-do list with review management software, which makes it simple and stress-free to aggregate, organize, and respond to customers’ online reviews.
Say goodbye to disorganization and hello to improved performance. Our user-friendly software integrates all of your Yelp, Google, Facebook, and other online reviews into a powerful yet easy-to-use dashboard, creating a centralized hub for streamlined review management. Need to track reviews from industry-specific platforms, like Edmunds, Renter’s Voice, or Healthgrades? We’ve got you covered there, too.
Easily search and sort by brand, store, site, or rating, making your focus as broad or specific as you need. Meanwhile, the option to review and request response revisions gives your business an added layer of control over your brand voice, so that you can feel confident every customer interaction is on-message and on-point. Plus, with all of your reviews centrally organized in the dashboard, it’s a snap to identify patterns and trends in customer sentiments, such as dissatisfaction with slow service or excitement around a regional promo. Those are valuable insights your business can use to improve customer satisfaction and drive growth.
Discover what your multi-location business can achieve with better, more flexible review management software in its toolbelt. Explore the dozens of features we offer, or ask for a demo of our platform today.
Tip #2: Establish Clear Response Protocols and Policies
There’s no question that multi-location businesses can benefit from review management software, especially with a platform that offers location-specific data. Technology, however, is only one component of a successful review response strategy. To make that technology work for your business, you’ll need to establish clear and cohesive response standards.
Just as you strive to promote consistency between your locations, ensuring that customers have the same great experience with every visit, you should likewise strive to promote consistency between your responses. No matter where or when they visited your business — or what sort of feedback they provide — all of your reviewers should receive replies that align with your brand’s unique voice and vernacular. For instance, here are some questions your business should address in order to improve its review response strategy:
What phrases or buzzwords do we want to emphasize? For example, many businesses actively highlight and incorporate specific terms in their responses, such as “compassionate,” “helpful,” “friendly,” “historic,” “modern,” or “convenient.” Depending on what type of product or service you sell, you may also wish to highlight specific deals, discounts, or promotions in your responses, such as free delivery, 24/7 service, or money-saving customer referral programs.
What terminology should our responders avoid? Just as it’s important to target key buzzwords, it’s equally vital to identify language your responders should avoid. For example, you might prefer a phrase like “temperature controlled” over “climate controlled,” or “resident” over “patient.” Make sure to clearly disseminate this information to your responders, who all need to be on the same stylistic page — a subject we’ll return to in a moment.
What types of customer sentiments or issues will require special review from top team members? No matter what industry you’re in, you’ll eventually receive a sensitive review. Whether they allege discrimination, a lack of safety, failure to address past complaints, or other potential PR disasters, these types of reviews require special protocols. This is especially vital for multi-location businesses, as an incident that initially involves one location can, if poorly managed, ripple out to all locations, negatively impacting the entire brand. Therefore, it’s important to identify which types of customer issues should undergo review by senior or executive team members, such as customer reviews that involve noise, pollution, discrimination, or safety. Our platform gives responders the ability to escalate sensitive responses to upper management, ensuring that you avoid a faux pas and maintain control over your messaging — no matter how many brands or locations you’re responsible for.
It’s vital to ensure that all of your responders — not just most or a few of them — are portraying your brand appropriately. One way to accomplish this goal and achieve greater uniformity in your responses is to centralize your response system, delegating all response-related tasks and responsibilities to a unified team rather than relying on a potentially disorganized network of responders. This strategy ensures higher quality and consistency between responses, regardless of the quantity of reviews you receive. With our trained responders managing 100% of your reviews across all locations, brands, and review sites, you can feel confident that every customer will receive a thoughtful reply that conforms to your standards — no matter the industry or service.
Tip #3: Work with a Trained Response Scribe
You’ve put in the effort to create clear and consistent standards for responding to customer feedback. You’ve taken control with a powerful platform that can aggregate and organize all of your reviews, pulling in thousands of comments from sites like Yelp, Google, and Facebook. All you’re missing now is a dedicated team of trained response scribes who can craft customized review responses with guaranteed 24-hour turnaround.
That’s where Shout About Us comes in. We have years of experience helping multi-location brands communicate with their customers, building better brand perceptions one response at a time. From parking lots, HVAC businesses, and self-storage facilities to luxury apartments, fitness studios, and nursing homes, our responders partner with a wide array of businesses and industries to deliver bespoke review response solutions.
Manage and Respond to Reviews More Effectively with Our Response Scribe Service for Multi-Location Brands and Digital Agencies
Whether your business has 30 locations or 300, Shout About Us makes online review management effortless and efficient. With our flexible custom dashboards and experienced team of response scribes, we empower you with the tools you need to engage your customers, build your brand, gain valuable insights, and convert leads into sales. Let our responders free up your bandwidth, so that you can focus on taking your business forward.
Find out why Chick-fil-A, Jersey Mike’s Subs, CertaPro Painters, Wyndham Garden Hotels, PostalAnnex+, and thousands of other multi-location businesses trust Shout About Us to manage their customer reviews. To learn more about our response scribe service or additional solutions we offer for brands and digital agencies, contact Shout About Us today.
Emily Homrok is a freelance copywriter with more than seven years of writing experience. She joined the Shout About Us team as a content strategist in 2020.
