Financial brands like you are leading the charge to help communities during the COVID-19 pandemic – and your customers are noticing. In times of crisis, the way brands and customers change the way they interact with each other significantly. While reviews have always been an important metric for businesses to track, now is more important than ever to show how you are there for customers when it matters most. Make the most of this opportunity to respond to their requests and reviews; this will help strengthen both your community and your brand.
While some sites have temporarily suspended reviews, customers are still providing feedback elsewhere. They may start to leave reviews on other sites or engage with you through private channels such as email or direct message. With this is a new dynamic for reviews, here’s how you can effectively manage them during these uncertain times.
Monitor More Sites
There are more options for reviews and locations management than ever before. While many know of Google, Yelp, and Facebook for reviews, there are thousands of sites for locations across the web; this means conversations about your brand could be happening on more sites than you think. While we discussed how to effectively manage your online reputation in one of our previous webinars, it’s important to create robust systems to detect reviews on even more spots. You can’t accurately evaluate your customer crisis response performance without this crucial feedback. The first step to managing reviews is to detect them.
Pro Tip
Set up alerts on many different review sites to get notifications of new reviews. If you want to manage your reviews all from one place, in addition to ensuring the accuracy of your digital listings, learn how Social Assurance can help. We recommend you start claiming your pages on the following sites: Google, Yelp, Facebook and Bing.
Take Action Immediately
As soon as you receive a new review, the next step is to take action on it as quickly as possible. Whether it’s a positive compliment or a severe concern, get into the habit of responding to all customer reviews as soon as possible. Not only will it help solve the reviewer’s particular problem faster, but it also shows your online community that you are listening to them. If you see a common theme in your reviews — like your Payment Protection Program loans making positive impacts in your community — use it to also help guide your brand’s overall strategy.
Pro Tip
Create internal workflows to help you respond to reviews faster. Building a team to handle the unexpected and setting preapproved responses can help you address customer needs quickly.
Encourage More Feedback
During a crisis, you should focus on more than just the first review. After addressing initial concerns, follow up with the customer and ask them if there are other ways you can help. The saying “it’s better to overcommunicate” is true for reviews as well. Enable frontline personnel to inquire about additional ways to help customers and you may find a thread that leads you to a new way to strengthen your community as a whole.
Pro Tip
Listening to reviews during times of crisis paves the road into converting a reviewer into a customer for life.
Don’t forget – you’re not alone. We are here to help. For more information and insights on how you can help your community, check out the resources below.
