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How to Scale and Execute Multi-Location Review Management

 

As a multi-location marketer, you likely understand the importance of review management. SOCi’s recent research reveals that businesses with higher star ratings are more likely to be chosen by consumers over the competition. Conversion improves by 44 percent when a business increases its average star rating by one full star. Similarly, for every ten new reviews earned, the conversion of Google profiles improves by 2.8 percent.

 

The data speaks for itself. Multi-location review management is a must. 

 

This blog will define multi-location review management, how your multi-location business can manage reviews effectively, and what to consider when purchasing multi-location review management software. 

 

Let’s get started! 

 

What is Multi-Location Review Management?

 

Multi-location review management is when companies with multiple business locations receive and respond to reviews from various local search platforms, including Google, Yelp, and even Facebook, as well as industry-specific sites like Apartment Guide, Glassdoor, and Expedia.

 

When scaling review management, the largest obstacle is managing reviews across different platforms with different logins, layouts, and features. Fortunately, there are tools and software that can make scaling multi-location review management more manageable. It’s essential to find the right software to help you scale your review management process.

 

What to Look for in Multi-Location Review Management Software

 

The right review management tool can simplify receiving and responding to reviews promptly. It should help you scale multi-location review management efforts and offer added features. You’ll also need a bird’s eye view of all your locations in one space — giving you greater insight while saving you time and manpower. 

 

Whether you’re looking to start utilizing software to support review management or want to see if your current solution is up to par, below are seven characteristics you  look for in a multi-location review management platform.

 

The Top 7 Features to Look for in a Multi-Location Review Management Tool

 

1.   The Ability to Receive and Respond to Reviews in One Place

 

Eliminate the hassle and stress of logging into multiple platforms to manage your reviews effectively. Any review management tool worth considering will allow you to monitor activity and reviews on every applicable platform in real-time across all your locations. That means you’ll be able to stay on top of reviews from one centralized platform instead of constantly logging in to multiple accounts.

 

Similarly, the ability to respond to reviews received on various platforms within a single login is a must. For more insight on how to best respond to reviews, download our Multi-Location Marketer’s Guide to Online Reputation Management. 

 

 

 

 

2.   Templated/Brand-Approved Responses

 

The power to respond to reviews using custom replies or brand-approved, ready-to-go responses means you can create a personal, professional voice that reaches your customers. A great feature to look for is the ability to create brand-approved templated responses and bulk responses that let you send a reply to multiple reviews at once. These features save your team lots of time.

 

Machine learning technology may also offer AI-generated responses that help you send replies to any review with a personalized feel. These AI-generated responses savelocal teams time and resources while still making your customer feel seen and heard. For instance, SOCi recently announced an integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to enable instant intelligent responses to online reviews. 

 

3.   Custom Workflows

 

In addition to templated responses, custom workflows may be a feature your organization needs. Custom workflows allow you to send review responses through an automatic review queue. An example workflow might include a corporate team member reviewing a local manager’s review response before publishing it.

 

Some companies and organizations may require this feature, while others only need templated responses. Consider your workflows when looking for the right software to support and scale multi-location review management.

 

4.  The Ability to Support Both Corporate and Local Teams 

 

Along with custom workflows comes the need for a solution to support both corporate and local teams. There are a few models to effectively execute your localized marketing strategy — centralized, decentralized, or hybrid. 

 

The centralized model is where corporate primarily manages and responds to all reviews. 

 

The decentralized model is where individual business locations run all review management efforts. 

 

The hybrid model is a combination of the two above. Both corporate and individual business locations collaborate to execute multi-location review management.

 

We typically find that the hybrid model is the most effective. It combines the best of both worlds: the power of local combined with the oversight and support of corporate. It can get overwhelming if each local business is entirely responsible for its reputation management efforts. 

 

5.   Real-Time Interactions

 

Being able to respond quickly and easily by location means you can effectively manage reviews as they come in. Consumers today demand timely and responsive reactions to their comments and feedback. 

 

Forty percent of consumers expect a response no more than 24 hours after a negative review is posted. Below is an example of a business promptly responding to a negative review it received. 

 

Receiving feedback and providing responses quickly is a must. When considering multi-location review management software, ensure that data is regularly refreshed so that you’re getting everything in real-time and can respond accordingly.  

 

6.  Data Insights and Trend-Tracking

 

Online reviews provide valuable insight into your customers’ wants, needs, and reactions to your products and services. Identifying sentiment trends means you can analyze data and make proactive changes when necessary. Your multi-location review management software should make it easy to see customer review trends at a high level.

 

Similarly, it’s crucial to understand how your business compares when it comes to reputation management efforts. Our 2022 Localized Marketing Benchmark Report can help. It analyzed how top multi-location businesses perform in the three areas of localized marketing, including reputation management. You can use these insights as benchmarks to ensure your business meets or exceeds them.

 

 

 

 

7.   Competitive Analysis Features

 

Many organizations often find competitor data valuable.. This data allows you to gain beneficial insight into what your competitors are doing, understand how fast they respond to reviews, check out their average review scores at local levels, and more. 

 

The right multi-location review management software can give you these insights and a competitive edge that will ultimately help you make decisions that set your brand apart from competitors.

 

How to Choose the Best Multi-Location Review Management Tool

 

To choose the best multi-location review management tool, determine your needs and must-haves beforehand. 

 

As mentioned, for multi-location businesses, the ultimate solution gives access to both corporate and individual locations, with the ability to set individual permissions and a way to track trends and performance.

 

When considering the best multi-location review management tool, take the following questions and requirements into account.

 

 

 

When evaluating a multi-location review management tool, make sure you find a tool that meets all your requirements and can flex with the needs of your company and team. 

 

For instance, does the multi-location review management tool have other localized marketing solutions you can leverage? A social tool or something to manage your local pages? These questions are essential to consider. 

 

Consider SOCi Reviews

 

SOCi’s award-winning multi-location review management tool makes handling reviews more manageable than ever. As a multi-location business with numerous business locations on multiple platforms or directories, SOCi is the only tool you need to make review management the easiest part of running your brand.

 

Through SOCi Reviews, users can view every action taken on reviews and monitor every activity on social media. Your local, regional, and corporate teams will always know which reviews and social engagements are addressed and which ones still require attention to ensure the prompt responses consumers expect.

 

 

SOCi is also the marketing platform for multi-location brands and has the tools needed to scale a successful localized marketing strategy. 

 

Request a demo today for more insight into how SOCi can help you dominate your review management efforts and beyond!