Imagine your business is thriving. Customers love what you offer, and reviews keep rolling in. At first, you're thrilled as it’s a clear sign of business growth. However, when the incoming reviews overwhelm you, spending countless hours crafting responses becomes routine. If this sounds familiar, review automation might be the solution you need.
Three ways automation can help
Let's explore how Zoho Publish can save you time crafting manual responses.
1. Auto-reply to new reviews
Make sure every customer feels heard and acknowledged. No matter how many reviews you receive, automation ensures that each one is addressed. You can set up template-based responses that are automatically sent out whenever a new review is posted. All you need to do is define the rules, and every customer gets a timely acknowledgment.
Set up as many automations as you need to manage a large number of reviews easily. For best practice, customizing responses to match your brand’s voice adds a personal touch. Explore how to set up this automation
here.
2. Auto-reply to updated reviews
While customers can only leave one review per Google account, they can update their original review as their experience evolves. For instance, a customer might start with a negative review—a dreaded 1-star rating—but after you address their concerns, they may update it to a 4-star or even 5-star review.
Often, businesses fail to update their original response to reflect this change, missing an opportunity to reinforce a positive outcome. This seems like the response is out of place and irrelevant to what the review describes.
Automation solves this by automatically sending a follow-up response to updated reviews, ensuring that your engagement stays current without additional effort. Explore how to set up this automation
here.
3. Assigning reviews to the right team member
When a customer is frustrated and letting his words out angrily, what happens when the response is a simple apology without a solution or explanation? This may add further fuel to the fire, which is likely to happen when you rely wholly on automated responses.
The best way to tackle these sensitive, nuanced, one-misstep-bigger-problem reviews is to depend on the most intelligent as well as empathetic creatures on the planet—humans.
Assign reviews with 1- and 2-star ratings to your most experienced team members. This way, you ensure the best person tackles the worst situation! Explore how to set up this automation
here.
Wrapping up
Responding to reviews is essential for any business. It’s an easy way to show appreciation, make customers feel valued, and strengthen relationships. Not many would argue against the importance of responding; the challenge lies in doing it effectively.
From a customer’s perspective, a delayed response loses its impact. They may have already moved on from the experience. The key is to respond promptly, and automation helps you achieve just that. Effortlessly maintain an optimal response rate, showing customers that your business is always there.