Whether looking at restaurants, online shops or even doctors: There are multiple user opinions all over the internet, arising from almost every industry you can imagine. However, reviews are not always in favour of a company – users often leave complaints that can seriously damage the reputation of a brand. Our review management serves to protect you from a loss of reputation due to negative ratings online.
Our self-developed tool includes monitoring and analysis of all relevant rating portals.
Well established and time-proven strategy development to generate reviews from relevant target group.
Fast and effective moderation of reviews and adequate community management.
Customised action plan and acquisition of the status quo by your personal contact.
Our experts not only help create individual reviews, but they are also moderating your reviews. A quick reaction may help you to prevent further spread of negative comments or defective content regarding your brand or your company.
Every company should have a great interest in maintaining their reputation trough positive reviews on the web. Those reviews are not only interesting for users. Authentic and positive content can be of benefit when it comes to acquiring new customers as well as to maintain satisfaction of regular customers.
Throughout media online, be it on social networks, review portals or other sources: our experts at reputativ will monitor all reviews about your brand, serving a wide range of sources. In case of any changes, you will be notified as soon as possible so that you can keep track.
Nowadays, many purchase decisions are based on reviews customers read online. If there are negative reviews about a company, most users refrain from making a purchase. Reasons therefore may be the fear of bad experiences. That is why review management as a marketing tool is very important. As soon as a negative entry becomes visible publicly on websites or the commonly known portals, it can have a negative impact on the reputation of a brand or a company. Negative opinions may unexpectedly appear on recommendation portals at any time and damage your reputation. However, with our review management, you ’do not have to worry: We help you to restore your positive reputation.
Brand marketing backs on time and progressively creates authenticity, credibility, and expertise on your topic. Messages can be transported to the consumer through innovative impulses and content that you want to put emphasis on, may be conveyed.
In this way, it is possible to several of your products to each other, t, aligned with new services benefiting from the already established good name. All of this makes cross-selling easier.
With increased interest and awareness of the brand, the buyer readiness stage also increases among satisfied customers. This paves the way for you to sell them other, higher priced products or services in a next step (up-selling).
If you establish your brand, this is attractive to other business areas, and beneficiary to your efforts (brand links) in SEO. In this way, several factors intertwine to further strengthen your brand, which may lead to a better ranking.
Your own brand strategy offers a variety of possibilities. In a first step, together we evaluate which unique features of your brand to put into focus. The possibilities of your own brand strategy are manifold and together with you we first find out which unique selling propositions may come to the fore.
Various analyses and comparisons with potential competitors will provide valuable information: Where are potential intelligent placements of your brand? In which direction should your brand marketing go?
One central question arising at the beginning is about your target group. Who do you want to address primarily with your services or products? Which core competences are suitable for whom and are there other potential groups of interest?
Based on this knowledge, brand communication can be coordinated, and goals or missions can be set. Sometimes the journey is the reward, Therefore, continuous effort- for example in increasing your brand awareness – is important.
Authenticity is a key factor for you to be perceived as a credible contact.
To be perceived as a credible contact, authenticity is elementary. Make your own name a flagship as an expert in the respective field and appear self-confident by offering expertise and background knowledge.
In brand marketing, the already acquired authenticity of your brand is strengthened through emotions.
The acquired authenticity of your brand is further strengthened in brand marketing through emotions. A passionate appearance and the clear communication of values (e.g., environmental awareness, reliability, always the latest procedures, etc.) help to establish yourself as an authority.
External communication is becoming increasingly important and serves to invigorate your position, to set your brand apart from your competitors and to enter dialogue with your customers.
Another important factor may be described as memorability. The measures for this are highly comprehensible, but not always easy to implement.
Here we are talking about decisions early in the process of establishing your brand, concerning its visual and verbal appearances. Seemingly small elements, such as a simple logo, a special colour or certain colour combination, slogans, and other details, help to create affiliation and to establish the basic framework for further brand marketing.
To specifically address the desired target groups, various channels must be used to ensure sufficient reach. Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or newer formats like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are worth mentioning here.
The question of which channels are relevant for you, and which are less suitable also depends on your marketing strategy, brand and product.
The significance of customer ratings – and consequently also the need for professional review management – is increasingly on the rise. Before customers decide upon of a product, a service, or a company, they first do some research online. Be it on Google, a separate dealer platform or any rating portal: hardly anything else has as great an influence on the purchase decision as online ratings. Current surveys show that 50 percent of respondents more often tend to do without a certain product if they have read a negative review. On the other hand, positively rated products do sell better. Any customer rating, review or test report has a direct impact on sales and ultimately on the reputation of a company.
Customer ratings are important feedback for companies that present themselves on the Internet. They reveal strengths, but even more so weaknesses in products and services and additionally provide opportunities for improvement: satisfied customers rarely leave reviews. Those who have had a bad experience, however, do often leave a negative review, as they are disappointed. Active review management makes it possible to moderate and control ratings and customer opinions and may intercept negative developments and effects at an early stage.
As a component of online reputation management, it can increase and improve the perception of a brand or a company on the internet. In addition to online reputation and effects on image, customer reviews are an important factor in Local SEO. In Google search, the platform displays received reviews are in a company’s Google My Business (GMB) entry. The GMB entry plays a decisive role especially in the context of mobile web search and search via Google Maps. For local searches, GMB entries that have a high number of reviews, and a positive review score are likely to be indicated preferably in the local rankings.
Review management involves all online channels and responds to relevant entries. In almost every industry, internet users can share their experiences with products, services, or companies on specific or general rating portals. In the form of comments, reviews, test reports, star ratings, recommendations or complaints, users leave their feedback, whether positive or negative.
Employees rate their employers on kununu, holidaymakers can share their opinions and experiences on holiday portals such as Holiday Check, Trivago or TripAdvisor. On ecommerce platforms such as Amazon or eBay, sellers are directly dependent on the ratings and opinions of customers. There is also a multitude of other sources for reviews: online forums, for example, whether on the company’s own website or other branch-specific forums, or even online shops: entries and reviews can be found here just as regularly as on social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
One of the most important rating channels, however, is Google. As a reference: 90 percent of Germany’s population use the search engine on their computers, and even more than 98 percent on mobile devices. Google reviews score at all points with an exceptionally high visibility, concerning feedback whether for doctors, hotels, restaurants, companies as employers or online shops. Negative reviews and a low star rating score are particularly critical here.
Even worse than receiving one or more negative reviews is to just leave them online by ignoring them. Therefore, it is much more effective to actively manage them to show customers that the company appreciates feedback and acknowledges the opinion of its customers. As a marketing tool, professional review management offers a broad scope of action for strategically proceeding against negative ratings on the internet.
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To be able to react specifically to reviews, it is necessary to identify them first. The prior steps in review management are therefore profound rating analysis and detailed monitoring: Where do users share experiences, ratings, and opinions that effect your company and/or brand, especially negatively?
Companies are usually featured on a multitude of rating portals – often without actively knowing it. Therefore, stocktaking is the first step in monitoring. This means, the most relevant and most visible portals in web search should be identified and continuously observed. In addition to the evaluation of the score and the number of received reviews, the monitoring also includes the tonality of and the reason for reviews. A well-positioned and strategically evaluated rating monitoring enables the company to identify problems regarding the product, service or processes offered and to take them into account accordingly.
An effective yet simple way for a company to keep track of its brand’s mentions on Google is to set up a Google Alert for relevant keywords. The implementation of a consistent monitoring of all relevant evaluation portals is the basis for a successful evaluation management.
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Positive posts and reviews can outweigh negative mentions and make them disappear in the mass of reviews. The more reviews a company can collect, the less impact individual reviews have on the rating score, which is prominently displayed to users. In consequence, the acquisition of reviews is another important step to improve the online reputation.
The development of an appropriate strategy to motivate customers to give an individual rating or review is yet another essential component of review management. Specific and targeted approach to the customers is necessary since reviews are usually written on the customer’s own initiative, most often following negative events or experiences. Therefore, a lack of acquisition can lead to leave customers with a distorted assessment image of a company. Positive and authentic, and most importantly user-generated content not only improves the ranking in search engines and is of interest to other users, but it also has positive effect on the company’s customer loyalty and acquisition of new customers.
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Other essential procedures in the context of review management are commenting on and moderating ratings. Regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative, the prompt and public reaction to a contribution conveys closeness and authenticity: customers feel that their concerns are taken seriously. For favourable reviews, a small thank you can have a motivating effect which briefly addresses individual aspects of the feedback. An apology on the other hand, and/or the admission of mistakes can soften the mood of an angry customer. This also takes away the explosive nature of negative evaluations. Acting quickly and responding constructively to criticism through moderation is a targeted preventive measure to avoid further negative comments and content.
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A particularly sensitive and considerate approach is required when dealing with reviews that contain violations of personal rights and false allegations. For companies, unjustified comments imply a considerable loss of reputation, which may have consequences up to threatening their existence. If there is no way to contact the customer directly and ask for the inappropriate review to be withdrawn, removal requests are an effective way to improve brand perception again.
Untrue statements of fact, insults and abusive criticism are illegal and officially not tolerated on review portals such as Google, Amazon or kununu. Entries that violate the conditions of the individual platforms can also be requested for deletion. For example, on kununu, a rating portal for employers, reviews are only permitted from people who have worked or applied at the respective company. A deletion of Google reviews can be requested if it violates the established guidelines of the search engine. Within the framework of professional review management, consistent action can be taken against this type of rating.
