Image by dvchrty99206

The rate and review sites, which are becoming so popular and gaining recent hype (Yelp.com, CitySearch.com, OpenTable.com) are causing business owners to get worked up over every little word. Understandably, they take the criticisms to heart, but is it really worth reading into everything?

Testing the waters using a consumer sentiment report and gauging overall opinions seems to be a better approach, which really is simply checking the pulse and finding out what people are saying…in general. It makes sense to be aware of what individuals are saying in case they need to be directly approached, but an overall sentiment appears to yield the same results and can benefit the marketing and social strategies more than taking the time to review every word and every criticism case by case.

So how do you do this?

• When checking the pulse for clients, we look at the most popular rate and review sites and grab a general sample from the total amount of reviews.
• We average the rating (some sites already do this) and grab an equal sample of lower and higher rated reviews.
• We then pull themes from the reviews and take the frequency of similar reviews into account.
• Each of the reviews are “weighted” in the sense of importance based on the review content, reviewer as an individual (what is their reach and do they have a big “voice”), and when the review was written.
• To summarize and analyze the general consumer sentiment, we prioritize reviews which are negative, positive and neutral.
• The apparent themes are identified and then used for strategic planning.

For example, if we look at the top review sites and find that a company’s unsatisfactory customer service is a recurring theme by influential reviewers, the issue should be strategically addressed both internally and socially. Once the internal issue is addressed, the social outlets should announce that reviewers were heard and the company is changing it’s ways because they listened and reacted positively. Since every single review cannot be analyzed (and shouldn’t be), this seems to be the best and most effective method for checking the pulse and feeling out an accurate snapshot of the online consumer sentiment.

Jen Cohen is a social media and marketing maven knocked down many times in 26 yrs. Something Creative http://somethingcreativemarketing.com

Tags: community, companies, conversation, customer service, customers, Social Media, Strategy, the right way