How to Manage Reviews for Multi-location Brands

Reputation managers are charged with tracking, improving, and protecting brand reputation across hundreds of websites and apps - and often, thousands of locations. The stakes are high, and managing reviews is nonstop.

Meanwhile, customers from every generation — especially Millennials and Gen Z — increasingly rely on new review distribution channels like social media and map apps to evaluate brands. Customers share feedback across first- and third-party sites (like Facebook, Google, OpenTable, TikTok, TripAdvisor, TrustPilot, Yelp, TikTok, etc.). However, reputation management and local teams can struggle to maintain a review management process that ensures quality and consistency.

Local review management is harder than ever - but it's also a major brand reputation and marketing differentiator. In fact, recent research shows review management is a key factor in building trust and driving revenue:

• 71% of customers say reviews are their top brand trust factor.

• 86%* of customers across generations look at online reviews before grabbing a meal or shopping at a store location. 91% of customers report that local branch reviews impact their perceptions of big brands.

So how can multi-location brands manage reviews at scale (without sounding impersonal)?

Brand reputation managers can operate a centralized (corporate-run) or decentralized (locally owned) review management process. Both methods can be valuable for multi-location brands, and sometimes, a blend of centralized and decentralized practices is most beneficial.

On-brand communication

Using a centralized review management process that is owned and managed by corporate teams makes it easy for brands to communicate using a consistent, professional voice. It can also help streamline brand tone and style, thereby enhancing customer trust, and managers can express company values when responding to reviews.

Centralized, accessible data is a critical resource for business analysis, strategy, and growth, and corporate teams using a centralized reputation management platform have at-a-glance visibility into what's happening at every location. Leaders can adjust resources and provide additional customer support, staff training, or kudos as needed. Reputation managers can also directly share or report local data, offering insights to product, customer support, operations, and other teams.

Talk the talk with local context

A decentralized review management process is managed by local teams - including floor, franchise, and regional managers. In most cases, nobody understands a customer's needs and experiences better than the local teams interacting with them every day. When these teams are empowered to manage and respond to reviews, they can help customers feel seen, heard, and respected in a personal way. Decentralized review management allows local managers to operate with the agility to turn real-time feedback into immediate action. That actionable feedback can immediately improve every local customer's brand perception and service experience.

Speed and responsiveness

Decentralized review management isn't a silo; it's a siphon that frees up corporate teams to support locations strategically and efficiently. Because local teams are at the front line of customers' urgent issues, they can respond to reviews directly, insightfully, and quickly. This responsiveness can also reassure customers in situations where the local team needs more time (or corporate support) to resolve concerns.

Respond to reviews right away. Customers trust brands that respond to online reviews, especially brands that respond quickly.

• 6% of customers expect brands to respond within moments of leaving an online review.

• 24% of customers expect brands to respond the same day that a review is posted.

• 39% of customers expect brands to respond within one week.

Respond to both positive and negative reviews. Yext customers see a +0.5 star increase when they respond to 75% of reviews. This increase occurs even when responses are automated or generated by AI. Why?

Over two-thirds of customers will change or remove negative reviews after the reputation team responds to their feedback. Customers double- and triple-check reviews across multiple sites, too. 77% of customers look at business reviews on two or more sites with 41% reading reviews on three or more sites.

What impact do reviews have on buying behaviors?

Reviews have a huge impact on buying decisions and the bottom line. Customers who see an owner or local team respond to reviews are 88% more likely to buy from that business.

Foster organic SEO by managing reviews. It's also worth noting that reviews are full of fresh, relevant, keyword-rich content that search platforms prioritize. With an extensive network of brand content, including reviews and review responses on third-party sites, brands see +186% more clicks from Google. Plus, marketers gain insights into the long-tail keywords customers use in their searches.

Even when review management is decentralized, responding to customer reviews can pull local teams away from in-person sales and customer care. Using AI forone-click responses can drive up response rates — and ratings— while pushing response time down.

With a platform like Yext, reputation managers and franchise owners can contextualize review responses without sacrificing speed or quality. This can be very powerful for brands struggling to manage review responses at scale.

Effective review management is a core strategy for building and maintaining a positive brand image. More positive reviews drive more positive reviews and raise sentiment. Meanwhile, managing reviews improves local search rankings, turning credibility into discoverability.

Click here to learn how to earn more positive and organic reviews, boost and maintain ratings, and improve overall customer sentiment.

*Survey details: The results are from an online survey of 2,312 adults who purchased something online within the past year. The survey was conducted from June 14 to 25, 2024, by Researchscape International on behalf of Yext. Results were weighted by country population, age, and gender. Respondents were from five countries: France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.