Online Review Management Made Easy with a Virtual Assistant

A survey by Brightlocal shows that 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses before buying products. What’s more, a customer would much rather believe a product review on a third-party website than customer testimonials on yours.

This means two things - you need to ensure your product reviews are on third-party websites, and you need to ensure you have a convincing repository of them.

The easiest way to do this is to have a listing on various third-party websites and request your customers to leave a review after they use your product. Now, you can view your customer’s experiences with product usage in real-time, understand their pain points, and address them. Besides, research shows that doing this consistently boosts your online reputation.

But keeping on top of every new review and reaching out to customers every time they buy a product can be taxing. Fortunately, a virtual assistant can help you with it.

Difficulties in online review management

Let us look at some roadblocks you may face while trying to manage your online reviews by yourself:

Time constraints

Requesting clients for reviews, following up with them, responding to online feedback, and publicizing the reviews – these tasks take a lot of time and are also time-sensitive.

For example, you have to follow up with your clients for reviews soon after they avail of your services. If you put it off for too long, there could be no response.

All this means you must devote time consistently to managing your online reputation. Precious time could mean more productivity or more “you” time to rejuvenate yourself.

Tone and language

No matter how good your product is, you will receive negative reviews for them from time to time. The last thing you want to do is dismiss your customers’ reviews without addressing them. After all, your responses on a public platform are visible to your potential customers as well, impacting their purchase decisions. This is where understanding the benefits of replying to reviews, especially negative ones, demonstrates that you value customer feedback and are committed to improving your product or service.

But responding to negative reviews can be particularly difficult when you’re personally invested in your product and dealing with the reviews after an exhausting workday.

Similarly, you need to request reviews professionally and intentionally. Do anything else and risk putting off a valuable customer.

Keeping up on multiple review platforms

Not all your customers will put up their reviews on established reviewing platforms. Instead, some of them may post feedback on smaller third-party forums. Add to it, you may have trouble finding them.

Keeping tabs on every review posted and responding to them promptly can be challenging. Especially when you have a lot on your plate already. The good news is that you can hire a dedicated assistant for all your review management tasks.

How a virtual assistant helps with online review management

How precisely can a virtual assistant help you in managing your online reputation? The following are some ways in which a virtual assistant can be invaluable as your brand reputation manager:

Quick responses

Reviewers like it when the business acknowledges their feedback. But responding a month after a review makes your company appear sloppy. Besides, if you take too long to respond to a negative review, you miss the opportunity to de-escalate the situation too.

This is where a virtual assistant’s review management skills can help.

A virtual assistant can do routine checks on multiple platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc., and respond quickly to reviews. This will send a clear message that you value every positive or negative feedback.

Professional tone and creative language

Whether you’re requesting your customers to leave you a review or responding to customer queries or negative feedback, you must ensure you use a professional yet genuine tone.

A brand reputation manager has the linguistic skills you need for just that.

They can deal with negative reviews with tact, finesse, and sensitivity to de-escalate the situation. So, when prospects read such thoughtful responses to even bad or rude reviews, your brand image will improve.

Publicize the right reviews

Your prospects can recognize a genuine review from a mile away. And these are the testimonials you want to amplify.

A virtual assistant will scour through all the reviews received via all the platforms and select genuine reviews that show what your business stands for. They can then publicize such reviews and even tag the reviewers on social media with their consent. These little things will enhance your company’s credibility and show the world who you are.

Follow-ups

Following up on a review request or following up with users who gave negative feedback can be tricky. In these cases, there is usually a fine line between being annoying and considerate. A virtual assistant can skillfully handle such situations and obtain favorable outcomes, thus enhancing your online reputation.

Benefits of hiring a virtual assistant

In addition to review management services, a virtual assistant can help you out with many aspects of your business!

Here are some benefits of hiring a virtual assistant (VA):

• It frees up huge chunks of time for you to focus on other priorities rather than being stuck with administrative work.
• It provides you with professional expertise in these areas, which is beneficial for you.
• It ensures the smooth running of secondary activities that are crucial for the functioning of the company but too cumbersome to manage.
• When outsourced to the right people, it takes a huge burden off your shoulders and lets you relax and have a better work-life balance.
• It helps you access professional services at a reasonable price. This is because virtual assistants require you to make no additional spending, unlike full-time employees who need you to cover paid time off, medicare, etc. Besides, you can hire a virtual assistant on a project basis, expect them to have the necessary tools and software, and endure no overhead costs.

To know more about the advantages of hiring a virtual assistant, read 60 Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant.

How Wishup can help

At Wishup, we are dedicated to providing you with the support you need to make your business a success through our virtual assistant services. Here’s why many over 500+ business owners, entrepreneurs, and start-ups prefer our services over others.

Flexibility

At Wishup, you can hire an assistant part-time, full-time, or on an hourly basis, depending on your requirement. This way, you can pay only for what you need instead of wasting money and effort on hiring a new full-time resource on your own.

Affordable pricing

Our highly-skilled global talent comes at surprisingly affordable prices. With prices starting at $9/hour, you can cut down operational costs and save money for your company.

Trained and trusted professionals

We have a stringent recruitment process and hire only the top 0.1% of applicants. We then train them in-house so that they meet our high standards of skills and professionalism. We also thoroughly vet and screen them before hiring and ask them to sign NDAs before starting work. This is the reason the average rating of a Wishup virtual assistant is 4.8 out of 5.

So, you can rest assured that your company and its confidential data are in capable and trusty hands upon using Wishup’s virtual assistance services.

Quick onboarding

With Wishup, you can have your virtual assistant geared up and ready to work for you in less than 24 hours. You can wrap up the entire hiring process in three easy steps -

1. Identify the tasks you want to outsource to a virtual assistant.
2. Schedule a consultation with our sales team for free and hire a virtual assistant who is a good fit for your company.
3. Onboard your virtual assistant within 24 hours of hiring them.

Free trial period

We have a 7-day trial period before subscribing to our services, during which you can test how our services meet your requirements.

Instant replacement guarantee

Most small businesses are hesitant to hire virtual assistants because they fear remote assistants may be unavailable when needed. This is why in case of an emergency or unavailability of your virtual assistant, Wishup will provide you with an instant replacement to ensure business continuity.

To sum up

As an entrepreneur, it may be difficult for you to share your responsibilities with someone else. The most common reason for this is that they may not be as dedicated to your business as you are, or they may not do as good a job.

But when you outsource tasks to virtual assistant services from Wishup, you can be assured that someone dedicated, skilled, efficient, meticulous, and professionally vetted is doing your job.

When such people are helping you out with the running of your business, there is no need for micromanagement, uncertainty, or mistrust. With Wishup, this is the kind of atmosphere we’d like to deliver for you – one where you can do what you do best without worrying about the menial tasks. We can offer you the elusive stress-free and relaxing “you” time you need and deserve.

So, check out our virtual assistants' online review management services today! Book a free consultation with us or send us an email at [email protected].