Should you involve points of sale in managing customer reviews?

In the context of consumer feedback, two things are important for consumers acting in RoPo mode (Research Online, Purchase Offline): the quality of the reviews they find on the local pages of establishments, as well as the quality of responses to these reviews. Managing customer comments posted on the local pages of points of sale has therefore become a necessity.

The question that many community managers ask is the following: Should the e-reputation of points of sale be handled by headquarters or by the points of sale themselves?

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Each brand has its own working methods to manage its e-reputation, and both methods have their advantages and disadvantages.

The benefits of a centralized consumer review management

A centralized management is carried out by the brand's community management service. To do this, the brand generally invests in a centralized management tool and arranges to feed all review flows into the same platform.

From a management perspective, this solution seems simpler at first glance because:

• Community managers are professionals in the field, they know the "tone of voice" used by the brand and the activity is natural for them.
• The training to be provided will be fairly simple since it's already their profession.
• The chosen tool will also be easier to implement since all flows (received reviews and responses) arrive in the same interface.
• Reading reports will also be easier since it is done by professionals.

The disadvantages of managing e-reputation in a centralized manner

Two significant drawbacks are felt in managing e-reputation at the headquarters level:

1. The workload can quickly inflate. The number of reviews published on the establishment pages does not decrease. This criterion will vary greatly depending on the size of the network in which you work.
2. As a community manager, you don't have direct field experience. It can therefore be difficult for you to understand the context of the reviews posted. If it is necessary to better understand this context (in the case of negative reviews for example), you will lose a lot of time contacting the point of sale.

The benefits of a decentralized customer review management

Who can better understand the reason for a negative comment than the point of sale for which the review is posted? If you want the responses to match the reality on the ground, you need to involve the establishments. In addition, the additional workload for them will not be enormous, we're talking about a few reviews per week. If your network is large, you'll gain a lot from it.

Another advantage of decentralization: it allows point-of-sale managers to better understand the on-ground reality. By managing feedback and viewing reporting regularly, they will be able to understand how to improve.

The disadvantages of managing local reviews in a decentralized way

The main obstacle you will encounter will be the lack of knowledge of community management principles on the part of sales outlet managers. You will need to take the time to teach them how to respond to customer reviews. You must at all costs avoid them responding aggressively or by blaming the customer or someone else. It is then the entire reputation of the network that could be affected.

Why not a collaborative solution between brands and establishments?

Two factors will need to be balanced in your choice of local review response solution: time and skills. Some tools can help you find a configuration that combines the strengths of the community manager with those of the point-of-sale manager.

For example, community managers could prepare semi-standardized response templates (simple standard is not recommended) that would be used and customized by managers. Similarly, 'macro' analyses can be performed centrally while managers monitor the evolution of their point of sale.

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