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Online reviews are more than ever a central factor in choosing a store to visit. It is not enough to receive them, but you must also respond since today 1 in 3 internet users looks at the responses to online reviews before visiting a Business.
For all networks, whether integrated or franchised, the same question arises: Should reviews be answered from headquarters or should the points of sale be given control? 🤔
At Partoo, we support hundreds of brands and thousands of points of sale on these issues and we see many cases! In this article, we give you some answers, advantages, and disadvantages!
1. Why respond to reviews from your headquarters centrally? 🌍
Customer relationship is a profession, especially in the context of avis Google My Business or Facebook where a response to a review can be read by thousands of internet users.
A key point to understand here is that in the eyes of internet users, there is no central or local response, just a response provided by the company to its customers. It is therefore the company that puts its (e-)reputation at stake.
Here are the advantages of a central response to online reviews:
Professionalism: empathy, spelling, politeness are three key elements of a response to an online review and it can be difficult to enforce a strict policy in this regard with store managers.
Reactivity is essential in this field; however, Business managers have operational issues that may take precedence over managing their reviews; something that will not happen if it is managed and processed centrally.
Finally, there are many SEO implications related to reviews and their responses. Providing a response containing Keywords will allow you to appear in queries related to these Keywords; this is one of the elements that make responding to reviews an essential lever in your digital strategy.
2. Why let Business managers respond to reviews? 🎯
Here are the advantages of a local response to online reviews:
They are the ones who meet the customers and are therefore best placed to respond to a comment, positive or negative, following a shopping experience in their Business.
It is a good way to empower the staff in the store and make them feel involved by confronting them with feedback from their customers.
The workload at headquarters would be reduced.
In reality, it is important to adapt:
To its sector: if you work in sectors with few reviews, central is preferable 😉
To the maturity of its network: in a network where points of sale managers are not very sensitive to this subject, choose a central response instead.
To its relationships with points of sale: take into account the relationships you have with your distribution network (branches, franchisees, partners, multi-brands...)
To discuss client cases, do not hesitate to contact your Customer Success at Partoo.
2. Is there a middle ground? How can I implement this?
Partoo, through its interface, allows you to define the rights of your teams whether locally, regionally, or nationally.
The goal is to allow your store managers to respond locally while keeping control over your e-reputation and compensating for any lack of reactivity. With this method, you take charge of responding to reviews from Businesses that do not want to devote time to it while allowing those who want to handle it 🤩.
Thanks to Partoo, you can:
Create access for points of sale managers.
Easily identify reviews that have not yet been answered using simple filters and respond if needed.
Correct responses to reviews from your points of sale managers (spelling, editorial line...), changes that will be immediately reflected on Google My Business!
In summary:
A local response will be more relevant, allow the manager to feel involved, and help you limit the workload at headquarters. A central response implies a more professional reply, strong reactivity, and maximizes the ROI of this tool through its SEO impact. The choice is yours 😉
If you are a network and want to gather all your reviews on a central interface, or give control to the store, do not hesitate to click below: