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Article 5 min read

The role of review management in transforming customer experience management

Discover how companies around the world can make the most ouf of their review management to ultimately improve their customer experience.

By Christian Driehaus, Co-Founder & Managing Director, gominga

Last updated May 16, 2023

As businesses continue to evolve and compete in today’s highly digital and connected world, the importance of excellent customer experience management cannot be overstated. With the rise of social media, review sites and platforms such as marketplaces, customers now have more power than ever to share their experiences with others. As a CX Trends 2023 case study by Zendesk found out, 66 per cent of customers said that a bad interaction with a business can ruin their day.

As a result, it’s critical for businesses to not only provide exceptional customer service but also to manage and respond to customer feedback effectively and be at every possible customer touchpoint. This is particularly important for global platforms such as Amazon and Google. In this article, we’ll explore the role of review management in transforming customer service trends and share insights on how to optimise support operations and improve the overall customer experience. Still, 62 per cent of customers think companies could do a better job personalising their experiences.

Customer service trends of 2023

The customer service landscape has changed significantly in recent years, with customers now expecting faster response times, personalised service, and seamless experiences across multiple channels. To stay competitive, businesses must adapt to these trends and invest in the tools and technology needed to provide exceptional customer service. For example, chatbots and AI-powered tools can help businesses automate routine tasks and provide personalised support to customers, while omnichannel support can provide a seamless customer experience across multiple touchpoints.

Companies that value their customers’ feedback and opinions perform better than those that do not. It is important because customer feedback plays a key role in identifying and rectifying problems with a company’s products or services.

Customer experience management in today’s world

To improve the customer experience, businesses must focus on understanding their customers’ needs and preferences. The internet ensures transparency-whether companies want it or not. Customers express their opinions about everything on the internet, including your company’s products and services. Businesses have to adapt to this new reality. They must listen and act upon feedback on online platforms. Processes and policies need to be adjusted, for example, offering flexible return policies or providing timely and transparent communication throughout the customer journey.

Optimising support operations

To optimise support operations, businesses must focus on streamlining processes and leveraging technology to reduce response times and improve customer satisfaction. This includes investing in tools like customer service software that provides a unified view of customer interactions and enables agents to resolve issues quickly and effectively. Modern customer service must include all relevant digital channels. Besides social media platforms such as Facebook, this means major marketplaces like Amazon, your DTC brand webshop, location platforms such as Google and so on. Why? Because these are the “places” where your customers are—24/7/365!

The role of review management

Professional review management is a critical component of providing exceptional customer experience. By monitoring and responding to customer reviews and questions, businesses can identify areas for improvement and address customer issues in a timely and transparent manner. Additionally, businesses can use customer reviews to inform product development and marketing strategies, helping to improve customer satisfaction and drive business growth.

For example, here are some reasons why review management is essential for businesses:

  • Builds trust and credibility: Positive reviews and engagement with these reviews can help to build trust and credibility with potential customers. A brand with a high volume of positive reviews for products listed on platforms such as Amazon can demonstrate that it has a good reputation and is a reliable provider of quality products or services. Similarly, review management is crucial on direct to consumer brand webshops that are using tools such as Bazaarvoice, eKomi, or Skeepers.
  • Improves customer retention: Reviews can also help improve customer retention by providing valuable feedback on what customers like and don’t like about a product or service. By responding to negative reviews and addressing customer concerns, businesses can show that they care about their customers and are willing to take steps to improve their experience.
  • Increases visibility: Reviews can also help businesses increase their visibility on search engines and social media platforms. Search engines like Google often prioritise businesses with high ratings and reviews in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find them based on the Google My Business reviews.
  • Provides valuable feedback: Reviews provide businesses with valuable feedback on what customers like and don’t like about their products or services. By analysing this feedback, brands can make improvements to their product or service and address any issues or concerns. This is important for fast driven environments such as apps and reviews on the app stores of Apple and Google.
  • Helps businesses to stay competitive: In today’s highly competitive business environment, online company reviews can give businesses a competitive edge. By actively managing reviews and responding to customer feedback, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction.

Overall, review management is essential for businesses looking to build trust and credibility, improve customer retention, increase visibility, and stay competitive in today’s digital age.

5 steps to ace review management

By following the following steps, you can effectively manage reviews and use customer feedback to improve their product. Adopting a review management platform can be especially helpful in streamlining the process and providing valuable insights.

  • Establish review guidelines
    The first step is to establish clear guidelines for reviews. Determine what types of reviews you want to encourage and discourage, as well as any specific rules for how reviews are written or submitted. Make sure your guidelines are consistent across all platforms where reviews may be posted.
  • Encourage customers to leave reviews on online platforms
    Encourage customers to leave reviews. You can do this by sending emails after a purchase, offering incentives for leaving a review, or simply making it easy to leave an honest opinion on your website or social media platforms.
  • Adopt a review management platform
    The third step is to adopt a review management platform. This can help you manage and monitor reviews from different platforms in one place, respond to reviews more efficiently, and analyse your overall review performance. The tried and tested gominga review manager includes more than 300 relevant online platforms and features a proven zendesk integration.
  • Respond promptly and professionally
    The fourth step is to respond promptly and professionally to reviews. Responding in a fast and professional manner shows customers that you value their feedback and are committed to providing excellent service. No matter if it is a positive or negative review. Use a personalised tone and offer solutions to any issues raised in negative reviews.
  • Analyse and act on feedback
    The fifth and final step is to analyse your review performance and act on feedback. Use your review management platform to track trends and identify areas for improvement.

In today’s highly competitive business environment, providing exceptional customer service is critical to success. By investing in tools and technology that enable personalised support and seamless experiences across multiple channels, businesses can stay ahead of customer service trends and deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. Effective support team management, customer experience optimisation, and review management are key components of this effort, and by prioritising these areas, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and drive business growth.

Especially tools such as the gominga review manager enable businesses to stay on top of customer service trends and provide excellent solutions to satisfy the needs of customers. With the gominga Review Manager, all customer feedback and user generated content such as reviews, ratings, and questions can be managed, responded to, and evaluated in a centralised manner on a wide range of platforms. With its dedicated Zendesk integration, gominga enables customer service teams to respond to reviews and questions from within the Zendesk ticket management system.

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