Use Reviews to Build Your Multi-location Brand

Online reputation management for multi-location businesses is no small task. 

Each location generates its own reviews and customer interactions, making it difficult to maintain a cohesive brand image.

Still, a consistent reputation management strategy is essential to multi-location business success. With the right reputation management strategy, you will: 

• Align your locations
• Establish consistent practices for handling customer-facing interactions
• Build a stronger, more unified online brand presence 

In this post, we’ll cover strategies for effectively managing your multi-location reputation to equip you with the right tools to resonate with customers at every touchpoint.

Review Data Collection 

Review data provides invaluable insight into your operations, revealing patterns in customer experiences, highlighting discrepancies between locations, and identifying strengths/weaknesses in your service.

However, to harness review data effectively, you need a solid data collection plan. 

The approach you choose—outsourcing to a reputation management partner or assigning an in-house team—is less important than ensuring your strategy is applied consistently across all locations. 

A successful review data collection strategy should incorporate the following key elements:

1. Centralized Data Collection: Implement a system that aggregates reviews from various platforms (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) for all your locations. Centralization allows for easier analysis and comparison. 
   
   
   Tip: Do your research before choosing a reputation management partner. Look for tools or partners that integrate data from multiple sources into a single dashboard/report to ensure your review strategy is consistent. 
2. Regular Data Updates: Ensure your review data is updated frequently—daily or even in real-time. This will help you stay on top of emerging trends and respond promptly to customer feedback.
   
   
   Tip: Set up alerts for negative reviews or sudden changes in rating (such as a spam event.) Responding to feedback promptly (within 24–48 hrs) is best practice for review management; automatic notifications will ensure you never miss a review. 
3. Standardized Approach: Develop a consistent review management method. Categorize reviews based on sentiment, topic, and specific mentions (e.g., staff names, products, or services) for cross-location comparisons and trend identification.
   
   
   Tip: Provide your teams with review response guidelines to ensure brand consistency and accuracy across your locations. The more resources you provide, the more cohesive your brand’s voice will be. 

Review Trends 

Once your data collection strategy is in place, you can identify patterns and trends across your reviews through topic/sentiment analysis. 

For example, let’s say Location A consistently receives positive reviews mentioning "efficiency" while Location B struggles in this area. 

By analyzing this review data, you might discover:

• Location A has implemented a more efficient customer management system
• Staff at Location A have received additional training in time management
• Location B is understaffed during peak hours.

This comparison helps identify best practices from your high-performing locations while pinpointing specific areas for improvement in underperforming locations. You gain insight into what is working well, and how you can improve down the line, to elevate all locations to the same standard across your brand. 

Centralizing Control

For Enterprise and multi-location businesses, having control over comparison reporting is essential. 

This is where a reputable management partner can make all the difference. 

The right partner will provide the tools you need to streamline your review data reporting and give you control over how you measure your location's success. 

Widewail offers advanced features such as Location Labels, which categorize and organize reporting based on your business needs. Labels are 100% customizable and can be assigned to any location, allowing for more targeted review analysis and comparison. Your team gets its own set of unique labels to roll up real-time metrics for regional, corporate, and executive use. 

For example, if you want to cross-compare locations by state, you can set “state” location labels and assign them to each storefront. Compare Massachusetts locations to each other or compare them to New York, Vermont, Connecticut, etc. Gain insight into which regions perform best and why. 

All labels are tracked in a centralized Enterprise Report, where you can measure a wide range of KPIs across locations.

Whatever you're looking to measure, Widewail can help. 

Takeaways

Maintaining a consistent and cohesive brand identity across multiple locations is essential for enterprise businesses looking to establish trust and credibility with their customers. Your reviews are a great place to start. 

By implementing a comprehensive reputation management strategy and investing in the right tools for your business, you ensure that each of your locations is aligned with your overarching business goals, increasing your chances of delivering a seamless and positive customer experience.

For more information, read our recent blog post: What is Enterprise Reputation Management?