How to Use Brand Monitoring to Build Your Business

Successful business requires working hard to keep its customers happy. They need to constantly design and develop new products and services to meet the needs of their buyers, engage with them and meet their needs as and when required. But despite the best customer service, a company is bound to suffer its brand reputation time and again.

When an angry customer posts a negative review on the Internet for all other potential buyers to see, you want a well-implemented mechanism to deal with it. This is where brand monitoring comes into play. By being proactive when it comes to managing your online reputation, you are not only mitigating the negative effects of bad customer feedback but also helping to create positive ones.

Simply put, brand monitoring (web listening) is the process of tracking various channels such as news, blogs, videos, forums, reviews, and more, to find out where your brand was mentioned. Unlike social media monitoring, where you focus only on your social media coverage, brand monitoring covers the entire web.

Why Do You Need Brand Monitoring?

It is important to note that 2/3 of people consider the web to be a reliable source of information about an individual and/or business. In addition, more than 97% of people looking for a local company looking to do business will consult online reviews. If there are too many negative reviews, most of these potential buyers will be turned away.

It’s also important to note that 94% of consumers said that a bad review convinced them to avoid the business. Plus, about 53% of customers expect brands to respond to negative reviews within a week. Nevertheless, 63% also said that businesses never responded to their negative reviews. Finally, 45% of consumers say they would be more inclined to move on to a business if they responded to negative reviews.

eclincher’s web monitoring tool will allow you to track mentions and reviews, see what people are talking about your brand, uncover trends, and user-generated content, among others. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to respond to negative and positive online reviews, as well as provide several templates to help you get started.

Responding to Negative Reviews

Whenever companies get negative feedback, they need to connect with their customers directly. In doing so, they are showing a willingness to empathize and understand their experience. Similarly, companies also provide them with a direct way to reach the business, such as its direct contact information. There are several steps that need to be taken care of while writing a reply to a negative comment.

• Address the reviewer by name – With over 76% of reviews being on Google or Facebook, you’ll usually have access to their first name. Avoid the generic “Dear Guest,” or “Dear Customer.”
• Thank them – even in these circumstances, a “thank you” will go a long way. It shows that your business appreciates their candid feedback.
• Apologizing – Apologizing for the situation, even if it’s not your fault, will show your customers that you are not proud of yourself for your mistakes.
• Take responsibility – it is equally important not to make excuses, even if it is an isolated or unfortunate incident. Also, be sure to assure that you hold yourself to the highest possible standards.
• Offer to fix things – Be as specific as possible about the customer’s experience and communicate what changes or improvements you would make to resolve the situation.
• Take the discussion offline – The best way to resolve the situation is to speak directly to the dissatisfied customer. For this reason, you will need to provide your contact information, such as your phone number or email address.
• Ask for a second chance – don’t turn your back on negative reviews and invite them to come back. This will create an opportunity to change the subject of the conversation and show that you have confidence in your ability to make things right.

Responding to Positive Reviews

Responding to negative reviews isn’t just about online reputation management. Answering positive reviews can go a long way in building customer loyalty, improving the overall customer experience, and even working on getting more sales. But like answering negative reviews, there are a number of guidelines that require all positive review answers to be included.

• Saying thank you – You need to show appreciation for the time your happy customers gave to share their positive experiences. Glowing reviews and high ratings are great examples of social proof that work to attract more business.
• Reinforcing the positive – Most often, positive reviews speak of specific things users enjoyed about their experience. Identify them and mention them in your response. This helps you do a bit of subtle marketing without seeming pushy. 
• Reaffirm your commitment that you want to see them again – Always make happy customers feel welcome and extend them an invitation to return to your business. Not only will you help create a repeat customer but also show to the online community that you’re the kind of business where people like to come back. 
• Mention your other products and/or services – If the situation allows, you can mention another product, service, or promotion that’s worth trying. But be careful not to overdo it, or you might come off as too salesy. Go with something along the lines of “We’re so glad you had a good experience with [product/service]. Next time you’re here, you can try our [other product], as it’s one of our newer offerings and we believe it will be a good fit for you.”
• Use branded and industry keywords – By inserting relevant branded keywords in the form of your brand name, product, service, or industry will help increase the chances that these positive reviews make it to the top of search pages. That said, you shouldn’t mention any of these keywords more than once, as your reply may start sounding like spam. 

Positive Review Templates

• Hi [name],
  Thanks for taking the time to share your valued opinion on [company] with others. We pride ourselves in giving outstanding service to every customer, and we’re overjoyed to receive your compliments and appreciation. We hope to see you here again, and please bring all your friends and family. We will ensure they all enjoy the same quality of service as you have.
• Hi [name],
  Thank You for giving us an opportunity, and even more for leaving us this review. Being a small company, most of our customers are referred to us by existing customers. Like you, all our other customers too loved using [product/company name]. We are also bringing out [new product/feature] in the upcoming weeks. We’re hoping that you will remain a loyal customer – a 15% discount voucher has been sent to your email. Do reach out to us for any suggestions or queries. We are available on [phone number] and [email id].
• We are incredibly grateful that you took the time out to leave us this note, [name]. [Company name] puts customer satisfaction as a top priority, and we are committed to our customers. It’s customers like you that make our job wonderful. We look forward to serving you again.