As a business, you know how online review sites like Foursquare and Google+ Local are playing an important role in the purchasing decisions of consumers. And as a business, you know that it’s equally important for you to know what is being said about your company, products and services on these sites. This is why you need to invest in online review monitoring tools.

Sure, you can take the time out of your day to visit every single online review site on your own and see what’s being said, but that will take you a very long time, and as a business, you have more important things to do. Instead, you can invest in tools like Review Trackers, which are programs designed to scour all the review sites for you and provide you with an alert any time a new review is listed. This allows you to focus on your job.

There are different online reviews monitoring tools that you can use, but it’s important that you use the right one for your business. Here are a few things to consider when choosing an online review monitoring tool.

Price

The first thing that you need to consider when choosing an online review monitoring tool is the price. You don’t want to end up choosing a program that is too expensive, as you’ll want the price to be within your budget. On the other hand, you may want to be weary of those programs that are very cheap, as you may end up losing some valuable benefits or other perks that you could get if you spent a little more with a different company.

Alerts

You’ll also want to pay attention to the alert schedule for the monitoring company. Does the company only alert you once a month about online reviews, or do they give you the option to choose your own schedule? If you really want to stay on top of your online reviews, then you’ll want to choose a company that gives you alerts on a daily or in real-time basis.

Along with the frequency of alerts, you’ll also want to know how exactly the company will alert you. Are they just going to send you an email, or will they call your office? If you’re always connected to your email, then receiving alerts via email is acceptable, but if you’re always checking emails at the last minute, then you may want to choose a company that provides alternative notification methods.

Review Sites

Some online review monitoring companies will only check a few select websites, and then there are those that will check every single website on the Internet. If you really only care about a few sites, then you can go with a company that only checks a few, but if you want to keep an eye on your company’s overall online branding, then you’ll want to stick with a company that will provide you with insight on all the websites it possibly can.

Caroline Jones works for Review Trackers.  She is often found blogging for business and educational purposes and recently wrote about online review monitoring tools.