A frequent customer received an unusually small portion, and many experienced particularly slow service that week.
These kinds of online customer reviews provide direct, unfiltered insights into your customers’ experiences.
But if you don’t take the time to examine and analyze these reviews, you’re essentially leaving your customers unheard. This not only erodes your online appeal but can also lead to a significant loss in business.
No matter the size of your operation – whether you’re a small local restaurant or a large corporation – you can’t afford to overlook what your customers are thinking and saying about your offerings.
To guide you, this blog looks at:
• What Is a Customer Review Analysis?
• 5 Reasons Why Online Review Analysis Is Essential
• Customer Feedback Platforms To Track Reviews
• How To Do a Customer Feedback Analysis: 7 Steps
• Customer Feedback Analysis: 5 Key Metrics To Monitor
What Is a Customer Review Analysis?
A customer review analysis is the process of systematically evaluating feedback left by customers about your product or service.
In online reputation management (ORM), the process involves examining both qualitative and quantitative data from various sources to gain insights into customer experiences, preferences and pain points.
Types of data in a customer review analysis:
• Qualitative data is descriptive and non-numerical feedback, such as comments and opinions.
• Quantitative data are numerical ratings and scores that provide measurable insights.
For example, if a customer posts on X saying, “I love the new look and formula of XYZ product,” this qualitative feedback highlights a positive change.
In contrast, a rating of 4 out of 5 stars on Google provides a quantitative measure of satisfaction.
📗 Related read: A Beginner’s Guide to Online Reputation Management
5 Reasons Why Online Review Analysis Is Essential
Analyzing and collecting customer feedback offers several benefits that can directly impact your business profitability.
Here’s why analyzing online customer reviews is important:
• Know your audience better
• Inform your content strategy
• Improve your offerings
• Provide a better customer experience
• Protect your brand reputation
1. Know Your Audience Better
The most powerful way to understand your audience is by listening to them directly.
Online customer reviews offer unfiltered insights into what your customers value, what frustrates them and what they hope to see more of.
2. Inform Your Content Strategy
You can treat comments on your social media posts as customer reviews. The content of these comments reflect which content is positively resonating with your audience and which might need looking into.
3. Improve Your Offerings
When you tap into customer sentiment through reviews, you gain insights about your products or services. The data allow you to make informed decisions, be it doubling down on a popular product or addressing areas of concern.
4. Provide a Better Customer Experience
Part of effective review analysis involves responding to feedback and recurring issues that may be affecting your customers’ experience. By addressing concerns proactively, you can work towards improving overall satisfaction.
5. Protect Your Brand Reputation
Proactive online review analysis is also about safeguarding your brand. By monitoring online discussions and customer feedback, your business can identify the issue early on and prepare to take the necessary steps.
In the end, this translates into stronger customer loyalty, more positive reviews and, ultimately, better revenue for your business.
Customer Feedback Platforms To Track Reviews
Monitoring customer reviews across different platforms is essential to get a comprehensive view of customer feedback.
Here are some key customer feedback platforms to track:
• Social Media: Customers often share their experiences and opinions on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and X (previously Twitter).
• Review Sites: Dedicated review sites, like Yelp, Google Reviews and Trustpilot, where customers rate and review your product or service.
• Forums and Blogs: Discussions and reviews on forums and blogs, including Reddit and ProductHunt, can provide valuable insights.
• Product-Specific Platforms: App Stores like Google Play and Apple contain reviews and ratings for mobile apps and software.
• Company Websites: Your company’s own data from surveys and feedback forms on your website.
The above is just a general overview of platforms for monitoring and analyzing reviews. There are many, but there are online reputation management tools that streamline the whole process.
How To Do a Customer Feedback Analysis: 7 Steps
Analyzing customer reviews involves several steps, each contributing to a better understanding of customer feedback. Starting with collecting customer feedback, here’s a simple approach to customer feedback analysis.
You can analyze your reviews in seven steps:
1. Collect customer feedback
2. Categorize feedback
3. Analyze sentiment
4. Identify trends
5. Take action
6. Monitor and follow up
7. Use review analysis tools
1. Collect Customer Feedback
If you’re beginning from scratch with minimal feedback, the first step is to build a foundation.
Encourage your customers to share their thoughts by sending out surveys or simply asking for feedback in-store, on your website or through social media, SMS or email.
Once that’s set, start gathering or collecting customer feedback from online platforms we discussed early on, including review sites and social media channels. Gather everything you can – every review contributes to a more comprehensive and informed analysis.
2. Categorize Feedback
Once you’ve gathered customer feedback, the next step is to categorize it into meaningful groups.
Identify the main categories your feedback falls into:
• Product Features: Look for comments about specific features or functionalities of your product. Are customers loving a particular feature, or are there aspects they’re finding lacking?
• Customer Service: This includes any feedback related to the service experience. Are your customers happy with the support they receive, or do they see room for improvement?
• Usability: Gather insights on how user-friendly your product or service is. Do customers find it intuitive and easy to use, or are there hurdles in their experience?
Once you’ve sorted feedback into these broad categories, take it a step further with sub-categorization:
• Positive vs. Negative: Separate feedback based on sentiment. This helps you quickly see what’s working well and what needs attention.
• Feature Requests vs. Bug Reports: Distinguish between suggestions for new features and reports of issues. This makes it easier to prioritize development tasks.
For example, if you notice several reviews mentioning difficulties with navigation, you can categorize them under “Usability Issues.” This way, you can pinpoint problems more effectively and possibly resolve issues broadly later on.
You also want to take note of any suspicious reviews, such as fake or defamatory content, that you might need to flag for removal later on.
3. Analyze Sentiment
You want to have clarity on how customers feel about your brand and offerings, whether their sentiments are positive, negative or neutral.
Sentiment analysis helps you decode the emotional undertone of your customer feedback, giving you valuable insights into how your product or service is perceived.
For instance, a phrase like “the product is insanely good” might include the word “insane,” but in this context, it’s highly positive.
Tools can quickly sift through large volumes of text, identifying key emotional indicators and assigning sentiment scores. This not only saves time but also ensures a more objective, data-driven analysis.
Be sure to focus on both the best and worst reviews. As always, the most glowing feedback can reveal what you’re doing right, while the more critical feedback can pinpoint areas needing attention and improvement.
4. Identify Trends
Recognizing patterns can guide your next move.
Ask yourself: Is there an unusual dip in ratings? Are there any repeated praises or complaints? Is there a particular feature or service that keeps coming up?
You also want to engage with other teams when feedback touches on department-specific topics. Positive mentions deserve a shout-out, so give credit where it’s due. For areas needing improvement, seek input from the relevant teams to find actionable solutions.
When it comes to trends, tools can not only help you detect them but also predict future customer behavior.
5. Take Action
The real impact comes when you take action.
First, respond to your customers to acknowledge their feedback and let them know their voices are heard. A simple, thoughtful reply can go a long way.
Then, resolve any issues brought up in negative reviews.
When you notice popular feature requests or suggestions for enhancements, consider implementing them. This not only satisfies your current customers but also demonstrates that you’re responsive and forward-thinking.
Finally, for any suspicious reviews, flag them to the respective platforms they are on.
6. Monitor and Follow Up
Customer feedback analysis isn’t something you do just once. As your brand grows, so will the type of feedback you receive, so it’s important to regularly monitor and analyze your feedback to ensure you stay in tune with your customers.
If there are open tickets or ongoing concerns, track them until they’re fully resolved. In some cases, you might need to reach out and update customers directly.
Whether it’s letting them know a bug has been fixed or a new feature has been added in response to their suggestions, keeping them in the loop shows that their feedback is valued and acted upon.
You can also revisit your analysis process as necessary.
7. Use Review Analysis Tools
On top of the ability to analyze reviews, you also want to look at other ORM tool features:
• A comprehensive reputation overview consisting of the overall sentiment of your reviews and key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average star ratings and response times.
• Aggregating reviews from various platforms like Google, Yelp and social media into a single, centralized view.
• Tag your reviews according to themes or topics. Prioritize issues and assign them to team members.
• Create and share detailed reports with stakeholders to provide insights into your reputation.
• Design targeted surveys to obtain specific insights on products, services or experiences.
📗 Further reading: What To Expect From Your Online Review Management Software
Customer Feedback Analytics: 5 Key Metrics To Monitor
When analyzing customer reviews, keeping an eye on customer feedback analytics and certain metrics can provide actionable insights.
1. Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer loyalty and potential to recommend your product or service.
2. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Gauges overall satisfaction with a specific aspect of your product or service.
3. Customer Effort Score (CES): Assesses how easy it is for customers to achieve their goals with your product.
4. Review Volume and Frequency: Tracks the number of reviews and how often they are received.
5. Sentiment Score: Measures the overall emotional tone of customer feedback.
📗 Related read: What You Need To Know About Your Online Reputation Score
Don’t Get Bogged Down With Manual Customer Review Analysis
With the help of Thrive Local’s ORM experts, you can focus on strategic decisions rather than getting bogged down in analyzing reviews manually.
Our team employs tools that help uncover the strengths that set you apart from the competition and identify areas where improvement is needed. We also offer franchise reputation management and online reputation repair.
Let’s analyze your reviews and overall reputation — talk to our team.
