What is review monitoring?
Review monitoring is the process of taking control of your reviews. It’s essential to be aware of what people are thinking about your product and use this information to improve the overall reputation of your business.
Customer reviews are a big deal for any business. According to Fan and Fuel, 97% of consumers look at reviews and ratings before making a purchase decision.
Review monitoring ensures that every review you receive is properly analyzed and no review goes to waste. Incorporate the positive and negative feedback collected from review monitoring to improve your product and process as your business grows and evolves.
3 Reasons Why Review Monitoring Software is Needed
#1 Saves Time
Going through and monitoring all review websites regularly is a huge time commitment. You don’t want to miss out on any reviews, and review monitoring software makes this process effortless.
You save yourself so much time and stress by automating the process of going through every website for reviews. Review monitoring software makes the process of collection, analysis, and customer interaction fast, easy, and streamlined.
#2 Celebrate Success
Whether your business is a small team or a larger enterprise, monitoring reviews and sharing knowledge across your team helps keep everyone motivated. It always feels good when your team members can see that the work they’re putting in is providing value to customers.
#3 Drive Customer Knowledge
Sharing customer insights with the whole team helps everyone understand what the customer is looking for. When all team members are aware of customer insights, it helps determine the future path of a product.
Sharing and growing institutional knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in a product will help your business grow successfully. Customer reviews identify what can be improved, what you should be doing more of, and what is already working for your target audience.
What to Look for in Review Monitoring Software
- Platforms supported: It’s important to have reviews from all platforms that are relevant to your business and niche.
- Integrations: Since driving customer knowledge is one of the most important parts of review monitoring, it is crucial that the tool integrates with the communication channel that is used by the team.
- Review widget: Gathering reviews from customers is only half the battle. You also have to leverage those reviews and show them to potential customers. Having a review widget on your site showing positive feedback can push potential customers towards conversion.
- Analytics: Data points pulled from reviews show what customers like and what they want to be improved. A robust analytics tool will help boost your company’s social reputation and identify platforms that need to be prioritized for improving reviews.
What Not to Look for in Review Monitoring Software
- Replying to reviews from the software: Making replies to reviews faster is entirely missing out on the value of customer feedback. Replying with an apology is a lot less important than actually fixing the problem. Reply templates are even worse because all replies should be personalized and tailored to the customer. Second clicking to get to the review takes seconds, so it’s not a big deal if you can’t reply via the software.
- AI analysis/enrichment: Just listen to and trust your customers. AI analysis won’t save you time in the long run. It’s inaccurate a lot of the time and defeats the purpose of using reviews to understand the customer. If you’re monitoring reviews, you should be the one who does the analysis, not an AI.
#1 Podium: Review Monitoring Software for Enterprises
Podium is the most popular solution available on the market, and for good reason.
It’s comprehensive enterprise software, providing tools like a great review generation engine and centralized customer communication. There are also other features like live chat, payment solutions, and text marketing.
There are a few drawbacks to this comprehensive option. Podium’s phone app leaves room for improvement and is often unreliable. It’s also hard to cancel your plan once you’ve signed up.
Podium’s Essentials plan ($289/month) includes instant review capture and payment processing. The Standard plan ($449/month) will get you unlimited contacts, integration capabilities, and automated review invitations. The Professional plan ($649/month) is for more mature businesses and gets you access to all of Podium’s features.
You can try any of the Podium plans with a 14-day free trial.
#2 Birdeye: Review Monitoring Solution for Brick and Mortar
Birdeye is a leading review management platform for brick-and-mortar businesses. It handles listings, reviews, and ticketing.
Birdeye has many useful features, including competitor benchmarking and integrating Google’s private API. There’s even a survey tool that sends conversational text messages to collect customer feedback.
Although Birdeye offers competitor benchmarking, the list of niche competitors is not comprehensive. The software can also be difficult to navigate for new users.
Birdeye’s pricing is based on the number of physical locations you have, which can be pricey. For single-location businesses, the Standard plan is $299/month and only offers the platform’s basic features. The Professional plan is $399/month and adds on web chat capabilities. Birdeye doesn’t offer a free trial.
#3 Reviewflowz: Review Monitoring Tool for Saas and B2B Service Companies
Reviewflowz is an easy-to-use review monitoring platform perfect for Saas and B2B companies. Its dashboard is extremely detailed and it has a robust search to find specific reviews for promotional material.
Unlike most review monitoring software, Reviewflowz supports platforms like Capterra, G2, and Appstores. If you’re looking to cull and monitor high-value reviews, this solution is the way to go.
Reviewflowz doesn’t have Microsoft Teams integration, but it does integrate with Slack. Another small drawback is that there’s no multi-product support.
Reviewflowz offers a great free forever plan that lets you track reviews for up to 2 business profiles. From there, it’s $5 for each additional business profile.
If you’re looking for more, the Pro plan is $50/month and gives you unlimited business profiles, competitor tracking, and social media share capabilities.
#4 ReviewShake: Review Monitoring Solution for Reputation Management Agencies
ReviewShake is a complete toolkit that agencies can use for their clients behind the scenes. They also offer solutions for enterprises and small businesses.
ReviewShake is a favorite because it offers unlimited reviews and profiles, giving greater flexibility. It also has a data aggregator feature that helps with fetching reviews and doing data analysis.
For enterprises and small businesses, ReviewShake has a valuable growth tool and end-to-end review monitoring solutions.
ReviewShake is lacking when it comes to landing page customization and deep analytics. The review widget is also very basic.
Choose your plan based on whether you’re a small business, agency, or enterprise. The paid plan for agencies starts at $199/month and gives you access to all review management tools, as well as profiles for 10 clients/25 locations and 30,000 emails/month.
#5 AppFollow: Review Monitoring Tool for Mobile App Developers
AppFollow is a good tool for app developers looking to enhance app performance. It’s focused on apps and tracks App Store, Google Play Store, iTunes, and Amazon reviews.
Its app analytics features are solid and it supports all major integrations. AppFollow has the perk of also handling app search optimization and keyword research automation.
AppFollow boasts its analytics, but competitor analysis is limited and it doesn’t have active users and revenue data.
AppFollow offers a range of plan options, including a free plan with limited features. The Essential plan ($143/month) provides analytics and supplemental review management, while the Team plan ($634/month) includes review categorization and extended integrations with Slack, Telegram, and webhooks.
AppFollow is substantially more expensive than many of its competitors, such as Appfigures. When you compare AppFollow with Appfigures and other competitors, there’s not a lot of added value that makes the price difference worth it, in our opinion.
#6 Appbot: Best Review Monitoring Solution for Amazon Reviews
Appbot is a review monitoring software best suited for tracking and managing Amazon reviews. Like AppFollow, it’s focused on apps and only tracks Amazon, App Store, Google Play Store, and iTunes.
It’s a comprehensive, easy-to-use software for product managers. Appbot integrates with Slack, Zendesk, and Zapier to make it easier for teams to monitor reviews.
There are a couple of drawbacks to keep in mind. Appbot’s AI-powered sentiment analysis tool is not very accurate. The UI isn’t the cleanest on the market, either.
Appbot is reasonably priced compared to competitors and there’s a plan for the needs of every user. You can get all of Appbot’s key features with the Small ($39/month) or Medium ($79/month) plans. If you need in-software and integration reply capabilities, go Large ($149/month). Their top-tier Premium plan ($449/month) offers the full suite of tools.
#7 EmbedSocial: Review Monitoring Software for Content Marketing
EmbedSocial offers a lot of solutions in addition to review monitoring. Create user-generated content from your reviews with embedded social media streams, stories, attractive reviews, or photos automatically.
EmbedSocial has a library of great-looking templates that make the whole content generation process fast and easy. The widgets look clean and add social proof when added to your site.
Common critiques of EmbedReview are that the software is expensive, the main features are lacking, and customer support response time is slow.
All EmbedReviews plans provide Google and Facebook reviews, email reviews, and a dedicated account manager with a few added features the more you pay. If you want it all, the Bundle Plan ($64/month) will give you access to EmbedSocial’s Feed, Reviews, and Stories solutions.
For just EmbedReviews features, plans start at $29/month for PRO and go up to $49/month for PRO Plus and $99/month for Premium.
#8 ReviewTrackers: Review Monitoring Tool for Franchises
ReviewTrackers offers tools for reputation management, local SEO, local listing management, and more.
Its brand monitoring features and comprehensive guides make it a great option for brick-and-mortar franchises looking to improve customer acquisition and retention. ReviewTrackers also offers competitive market analysis.
The main drawbacks of ReviewTrackers are that the mobile app is lacking and slow, and you can’t reply to reviews instantly. These limitations can be frustrating if looking for a streamlined, efficient workflow.
ReviewTrackers offers plans based on how many business locations a company has, which makes sense considering the target audience is franchise businesses. The website isn’t forthcoming about plan prices, and you have to request a demo first.
ReviewTrackers is an alternative to Yext, another popular reputation management software. Compare ReviewTrackers vs. Yext.
#9 ReviewBot: Review Monitoring Software for Indie Hackers and Makers
ReviewBot is a small and niche solution in the review monitoring landscape, but it’s one of the most affordable options on the market. It covers app reviews, podcasts, and Yelp reviews, making it a great option for makers and indie hackers.
ReviewBot integrates with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zendesk. You can reply to reviews directly in the app store. It offers a great option of getting a weekly or monthly status report instead of individual notification to analyze trends over time.
ReviewBot is a basic tool that doesn’t offer as many features as competitors. Currently, there are no review widgets or quick reply features, but they are coming soon.
Two subscription levels are offered, and you can get started with a 14-day free trial. The Basic plan ($5/month) gives you tracking and a monthly report option. The Pro plan ($10/month) adds on review translation, weekly reporting options, and tracking in almost any language.
#10 ReviewInc: Review Monitoring Solution for Agencies
ReviewInc has many unique features that make it stand out from the competition. It’s great for white labeling, making it a standout for agencies.
You can collect customer reviews from QR codes or build a review microsite on your business website. There is also a contactless office check-in feature, which is not a feature commonly offered in this market.
ReviewInc has a steeper learning curve than other competitors and can confuse new users. It’s not the most reliable in terms of performance, and the initial setup is complicated and time-consuming.
ReviewInc doesn’t have plan prices listed on their website. Plan options include a basic monitoring plan, Pro, and Enterprise plans. Book a free demo and consultation if you’re interested in learning more.
#11 Grade.us: Solution for Mom and Pop Shops
Grade.us offers review management and review generation for small businesses and agencies. This software is an appealing option because it automates the reputation enhancement process and has white labeling for agencies.
Grade.us is a versatile solution and covers a wide range of industries like retail, automotive, legal, and healthcare. Its text analytics are unique and there are pages of resources and information about managing reviews on the blog.
Grade.us lacks rating aggregation, and the customer service response time needs improvement. All things considered, Grade.us is more expensive than competitors Shopping around might be worth your while. Many compare Grade.us vs. NiceJob since their offerings are similar.
You can try out Grade.us for yourself with a 14-day free trial. Subscriptions start at $110/month for the Solo plan, $180/month for the Professional plan, and $400/month for the Agency plan. All plans include unlimited review sites and basic white label. More users are allowed as you move up in plan price.
#12 AppReviewBot: Solution for Mobile App Developers on a Budget
AppReviewBot is a small and focused product whose function is solely getting notifications of reviews on Slack or Microsoft Teams.
This simple and easy-to-use tool gets reviews from all countries and automatically translates them. You can reply to reviews and track as many apps from the Google Play or iOS App Store as you need.
AppReviewBot is pretty straightforward and doesn’t have a suite of features like some other competitors. There are no email notifications and not many review platforms are supported.
AppReviewBot is one of the cheapest solutions on the market due to its simplicity. It’s overall a robust tool for the price. Track 1 app for $5.99/month, 2-3 apps for $11.99/month, and 4-10 apps for $19.99/month. The Enterprise Plan is available for $39.99/month and offers unlimited app tracking and optional invoicing.
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