'Net Features : local

Local Google Carousel in Focus

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:50:00 GMT

Google users, and the local businesses looking to attract them into their stores, have begun noticing the new Carousel layout for local search results.

The search results design feature has been available on Nexus slates and the iPad for a while, but this week Google made the new layout available on the desktop version of the site as well. Users searching with queries with an obvious local intent will the carousel which include images of the listing, its name, overall score as well as the cost scale and the number of reviews. If this doesn’t encourage local businesses to finally complete their local Google listing, nothing will.

Where it gets really interesting is what happens after a user clicks on an individual listing within the carousel. When users select a specific listing, a new search is generated for the name of the business. In our case, that returned a collection of review sites (yelp, urbanspoon, grubhub and the official website itself) on the organic results, in addition to the restaurant profile and details (hours of operation, address and phone), photos (inside and outside) as well as dierctions thanks to a rather tight integration with Google maps.

The carousel feature is currently only available in English at the present time and in the U.S. only, but more languages (and features) are expected over time according to Google.

5+ User Review Websites Critical to Small Businesses

Allison Howen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Thanks to the Internet, word-of-mouth reviews spread like wildfire – which can be both a good and bad thing for merchants.

Since consumers tend to trust the opinions of their peers more than anything else, user reviews are a very influential factor in a customer’s purchasing decision. In fact, a 2012 BrightLocal study reveals that 72 percent of survey respondents claim that they trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations, while 52 percent said that positive reviews make them more likely to use a local business.

That said, it is important for businesses to keep an eye on their consumer reviews, as it will provide them with some insight of how customers perceive their business. Moreover, by monitoring review sites, businesses can learn what areas of their enterprise need improvement (customer service, product selection, cleanliness, etc.), as well as share their most favorable reviews with fans and followers. In order to do this, however, merchants must first know which user review websites are the most critical to their business. This will allow them to monitor the consumer feedback, and in some cases, even give a response to the reviews. To get you started, Website Magazine has compiled a list of five user review websites that are critical to small businesses, regardless of industry:

Yelp

Yelp is among the most popular user review websites. In fact, this site received more than 1 million new reviews in January 2013 alone. That said, the best part about Yelp is that business owners can claim their establishment on this site and not only monitor their reviews, but also interact with their customers through the platform both privately and publicly. Moreover, Yelp provides tools to its business users that allow them to track how many people visited their page, create deals to attract customers and view other stats and charts to measure the performance of their business page.

Google+

Google’s acquisition of Zagat has user reviews not only incorporated in the search results, but also on the search giant’s social network. In fact, when a consumer conducts a search and then clicks on the business’s Zagat review score they are automatically directed to Google+. This is one of the many reasons why businesses should maintain a presence on this site.

Facebook

Every social network’s newsfeed sees some sort of word-of-mouth advertising from its members, and Facebook is no exception. In fact, Facebook Business Pages have a recommendation section where customers can leave reviews that business owners can monitor. Moreover, these reviews, along with likes, comments and other interactions, are expected to increase a business’s visibility when the social network’s new Graph Search feature comes out of beta and is open to the public.

Foursquare

This location-based social network is all about the reviews. Upon checking-in to an establishment, consumers have the option to rate the business and leave tips (reviews) about their experience. Businesses can monitor these user reviews by claiming their establishment on Foursquare, and can also leverage the platform’s business tools, including engaging customers with updates, attracting customers with specials and measuring success with analytics.

BBB

While consumers typically don’t go to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) website to write positive reviews, the platform does allow consumers to do so on its accredited business pages. That said, accredited businesses aren’t the only ones who should monitor this platform, as any business can receive complaints through the BBB website. Businesses are notified from the BBB about their complaints, and have the opportunity to respond and close the complaints to maintain or improve their BBB rating.

And More…

The aforementioned are among the most influential user-review sites, yet they are far from the only platforms where customers go to review the products and services they receive. Here are a fifteen more sites to keep on your radar:

Citysearch

This popular listing site features user reviews for a variety of industries, including arts and entertainment, construction and remodeling, financial services, food and dining, health and medical services, home and garden, personal services and retail stores.

Yahoo! Local

Yahoo! Local enables users to discover, rate and review local establishments and events.

Local.com

Consumers can use Local.com to discover, rate and review nearby businesses, events, deals and activities.

Insiderpages

Insiderpages provide local reviews for the health and medical, home and garden, hair and beauty, auto services and pet industries.

MerchantCircle

Consumers can use Merchantcircle to find local businesses and deals, as well as rate and review businesses from a multitude of industries.

Judy’s Book

This website calls itself a “social search tool.” It allows consumers to search for local reviews, recommendations and revies, as well as share places and recommendations with friends.

Angie’s list

Consumers can go to Angie's list to rate and review service providers, including home, outdoor, health and auto services.

Manta

Consumers can go to this website to review and rate everything from small businesses to products and services across a variety of industries, including business services, consumer products and services, food and berverage, industrial, health, technology and communications.

Yellow Pages

The Yellow Pages aren’t only for finding local businesses anymore, because consumers can also go to this site to look for deals, as well as review and rate businesses and services.

Cityslick

Consumers can visit Cityslick to find coupons and browse local business information, including ratings and reviews, for numerous industries.

localPages

Similar to many of the aforementioned services, localPages allows consumers to discover local businesses, deals and coupons, as well as rate and review businesses and services.

Buzzillions

This user review website focuses on products instead of retailers. It featuers reviews for a wide variety of products, has a robust filtering system and allows consumers to compare products side-by-side.

Epinions

Epinions also focuses on products, however does include some store reviews as well. Moreover, this platform features a robust filtering system as well as numerous review categories.

ExpoTV

Consumers can go to ExpoTV to upload a video user review for new products and earn rewards in doing so.

SiteJabber

If you want to know what people think about your website, check out Site Jabber. This platform allows consumers to discover and review sites across the 'Net.

These are far from the only user review sites that can be found on the Web. If we missed one of your favorites, let us know in the comment section below.

Kenshoo and CityGrid Team Up for a Local Partnership

Allison Howen — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:15:00 GMT

A new partnership between two local marketing platforms aims to help brands better manage, monitor and optimize their local listings and ad campaigns.

Digital marketing provider Kenshoo has teamed up with local content network CityGrid in a move that will help marketers manage and optimize ads on the CityGrid ad network within the Kenshoo Local platform.

The partnership makes Kenshoo Local the first integrated local platform that is capable of directly managing CityGrid Places and reporting on CityGrid traffic alongside search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. This means that marketers can leverage Kenshoo Local’s automated reporting suite to create and analyze CityGrid and SEM campaigns side-by-side. Moreover, the Kenshoo/CityGrid offering provides additional benefits for local marketers including ease of onboarding, bulk campaign management, enhanced reporting and optimization across all SEM and local listings in a single dashboard.

“SMBs and multi-location brands like major retailers want more phone calls and in-store traffic, and plugging Kenshoo Local into CityGrid’s hyper local and mobile traffic source enables our clients to achieve these goals and offers opportunities for more holistic optimization,” said Will Martin-Gill, general manager of Kenshoo Search. “This partnership plays to the key strengths of our companies: CityGrid’s leading local network and Kenshoo’s leading user experience for campaign creation, reporting, analysis and optimization.”

Circl Links Online Promotions to In-Store Traffic

Allison Howen — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:42:00 GMT

A new startup is helping local merchants link online promotions to in-store traffic.

Local business promotions platform Circl helps businesses convert Facebook fans, Twitter followers and email subscribers into measurable customers, which helps business owners make better marketing decisions by showing them which promotions and channels are the most effective at driving foot traffic.

“There are many companies providing marketing tools for local businesses, but very few actually close the loop and show businesses how many customers or sales are generated,” said Soso Sazesh, co-founder of Circl. “As someone coming from the online marketing world where metrics and ROI are critical, it’s clear there is a lot of catching up to do in terms of showing local businesses the results of their online marketing efforts. That’s exactly what Circl does, and we will continue to release new features focused on this problem.”

Circl tracks where customers come from by using the mobile browser of the customers’ smartphones. Similar to a Foursquare check-in, this allows the company to access the location of the customer. Moreover, Circl offers businesses a dashboard that enables them to distribute promotions and specials to Facebook, Twitter and through email. This same dashboard displays which promotions and channels are the most effective, and can even be leveraged to discover which days had the most activity. It is also important to note that based on customer visit data, Circl provides campaign recommendations that allow businesses to launch online promotions or sales with just a click.

Over the past three months more than 1,000 businesses, ranging from local businesses to large national retailers, have already requested beta access to the Circl platform. Additionally, the platform has received interest from a variety of businesses in the U.S. and abroad, including clothing stores, restaurants, cafés, auto dealerships, electronics retailers, and other walk-in businesses.

“Because Circl is not consumer-facing, our strategy is very different from other companies in the local space. We don’t need to expand one city at a time and we are able to target our sales and marketing efforts in a more effective manner because of this. We can work with a business in San Francisco just as easily as we can work with a business in Austin or London,” said Neej Gore, co-founder of Circl.

New Google Places for Business Dashboard

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:00:00 GMT

Last week, Google revealed a new look, feel and (most importantly) functionality for its Google Places for Business dashboard.

The changes will roll out over the next few weeks, but let’s take a closer look to see what all the buzz is about.

What’s most interesting about the updated platform is that it features far better integration with Google products. For example, local business owners can now take advantage of social features like sharing photos, video or posts from within the dashboard. Those businesses using Adwords Express and Google Offers can manage their ads and promotions from within the dashboard as well. Plus, users can even check results and make edits directly from the dashboard.

Google noted that it may continue to moderate changes to ensure the “highest quality local experience,” but most edits made through the interface will now appear on Google Maps and within Google’s suite of other services within 48 hours.

Google Updates Local Listing Guidelines

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:25:00 GMT

Google has updated its local business listing guidelines to include support for individual departments within hospitals, universities, local governments and, of course, businesses; that is, as long as each department has a unique phone number and “forward-facing presence.” This means that, for instance, a large clothing store’s Men’s Department can now be listed on Google separately from the rest of the store.

Some readers may remember that this “new” policy is actually a return to an original Google policy that changed around a year ago, and it should open up many opportunities for multi-department businesses.

In addition, this update will formalize a policy that has existed in Google Places, but not MapMaker, that officially allows practitioners with several offices/locations to have a unique listing for each one; however, they’re only listed for the hours that the practitioner is actually present and “directly contactable” at a specific location. Individual practitioners must also be public-facing about their relationships to their parent organizations. If these rules aren’t followed, the listing(s) could be rejected for non-compliance.

Most SMBs Don’t Stay Current with Local Listings

Allison Howen — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:35:00 GMT

A new study from Constant Contact’s local discovery platform, SinglePlatform, reveals that even though 85 percent of small businesses (SMBs) believe it is important for their company to be discoverable on major search sites like Google, Yahoo and Yelp, less than half of SMBs actually update their online listings.

Perhaps the reason for the lack of updates is that, according to the study, 70 percent of SMBs say they don’t have time to manage listings on all of the sites that their consumers use. However, this poses a problem, because if businesses aren’t updating important information like hours and location, they will undoubtedly lose out on some potential customers who leverage search to find nearby businesses. In fact, the study notes that two-thirds of consumers use local search on a weekly basis, and that 70 percent of mobile searches lead to an action within one hour.

However, updating listing isn't the only problem, because the study also found that half of SMBs have seen inaccurate online listings for their company. This is why it is important for businesses to not only update their online listings on a regular basis, but also monitor their listings in order to ensure accuracy. One way that businesses can manage their online presence is with services like SinglePlatform or Yext. Both of these services help businesses get their correct information to appear in local search results on a variety of sites throughout the Web.

Other noteworthy findings from the study shed light on the growing importance of mobile for the small business sector. For example, 84 percent of SMBs believe that having a mobile-optimized website is important, while only 25 percent know how to create one. Moreover, 62 percent of the survey respondents also think it is important to be seen on major mobile applications. This is likely because more and more consumers are using mobile apps like Yelp on a regular basis to discover local businesses. In fact, earlier this week Yelp announced that more than 9 million users leveraged the company’s mobile app in January alone.

4 Ways to Go Local on Google+

Allison Howen — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:30:00 GMT

While Google+ is not the most popular site on the 'Net, when it comes to social networks, it is certainly one of the most important.

This is especially true for local businesses, because maintaining a profile on Google+ not only helps brands connect with customers, but also makes a brand more visible in the search results. In fact, in May, the search engine giant integrated Google Places into Google+, which allows consumers to find, share and review local businesses on the social network. However, in order to get the best ROI from your Google+ profile, you must first optimize it with a local state of mind.

1. Optimize the About Section

It is vital for Page managers to optimize the About section of Google+ Pages, because this is not only where important information is displayed, including business descriptions, hours of operation and contact information, but it also provides Google with specific information about your business. That being said, it is important to note that Google launched some new updates to the Local Business/Place Pages in Google+ this week, including an update that allows businesses to once again add categories to their Pages. By maintaining a correct address and category information, businesses will be much more likely to show up in the location-based search results on the Web, as well as the search results that appear when someone uses Google+’s “Local” tab to search for specific types of businesses near a specific location.

2. Strive for Good Ratings and Reviews

Most consumers take reviews and ratings into strong consideration when making a purchasing decision, which is why it is important for local businesses to not only leave a good impression on their customers, but also encourage positive consumer feedback. And with the integration of Google Places into Google+, this is more important than ever. This is because Google now prominently displays the Zagat ratings and reviews for businesses both on Google+ and in the search engine’s result pages. In fact, when searching for businesses through the Local tab on Google+, users can even filter the results based on top reviewers or by reviews from people in their circles. This means that consumers who search for your business on the ’Net are also most likely reading a few reviews about your company, whether they want to or not, because the reviews are readily available. That being the case, a multitude of reviews can help businesses not only benefit in the search results, but can also help encourage conversions.

3. Start a Community

Google+ announced the availability of Communities at the end of 2012, which allows Google+ users to create social groups based on specific topic or interests. The best way that local businesses can take advantage of this feature is by creating a public Community to help them foster relationships with current and potential customers. In fact, brands can even further connect with their customers by creating Community Events or by participating in Hangout video chats within their Community members. Furthermore, chances are that content from public Google+ Communities could eventually make their way to the search results, especially since we all know how much Google likes to interconnect its services.

4. Participate in Google Offers

Although daily deals aren’t nearly as popular as they were a couple of years ago, it is safe to say that consumers still love a good deal – when they see it. This is why it is a good strategy for local businesses to launch a daily deal through the Google Offers platform. Not only does Google promote the offer through email and mobile apps, but the offers also show up in Google+'s Local tab search results (remember how we said Google likes to interconnect its services?).

Stay Tuned

It is safe to say that Google has more updates and tools in store that will make it easier for local businesses to reach and connect with consumers in the future. In fact, Google’s Places for Business website states that the company will be making a lot of changes over the next few months to improve the local listings experience and bring the community, identity, sharing and relationships of Google+ to local businesses. The best way for local businesses to prepare for the updates is to optimize their current profiles and continue to engage their customers.

Yelp Adds Health Scores

Allison Howen — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 15:00:00 GMT

Would you eat at a restaurant that scored less than perfect on a 100-point health score? What would be your cut off; ninety, eighty? Thanks to a recent Yelp announcement, you may have to decide.

According to Yelp’s blog, the company worked with the cities of San Francisco and New York to include restaurant hygiene scores onto Yelp’s business pages. While the Health Scores can already be seen on some San Francisco business pages, similar scores will also be coming to restaurants in New York soon.

“This is huge news in itself, but perhaps the bigger news is what we’ve created to enable this new business attribute: a new open data standard – the ‘Local Inspector Value-entry Specification’ or, simply, LIVES,” states Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in a blog post. “The LIVES standard was co-developed by Yelp and the technology departments of the cities of San Francisco and New York. The standard was created with the guidance and encouragement of the White House.”

With LIVES, local municipalities can display their hygiene inspection data as a business attribute on Yelp. Although San Francisco and New York will be the first cities to have this functionality, Yelp hopes that other cities will follow suit.

The Health Score is featured directly below the menu option on a restaurant’s business page. Moreover, consumers also have the ability to click on the score to discover additional inspection history data.

Ranking Facebook Pages by Country

Allison Howen — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Brands can now see how their Facebook Page ranks with local fans thanks to the new Local Page Ranks tool from Socialbakers.

The social media analytics provider released the tool to help companies discover where the majority of their fans (and their competition's fans) are geographically located. To view the local ranks of Facebook Pages, users simply need to visit the company’s Facebook Page Statistics page and use the “country” dropdown that is now available. Furthermore, with this analytical tool, brands can click on a competitor’s name to view more specific geographical data about that Page's fans.

“After much anticipation, we now have access to local page rankings on Facebook. We are pleased to be the market leader in offering deep Facebook analytics and know this information will serve as competitive benchmarks for marketers who want to conquer the world’s biggest social media platform,” said Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab. “It provides companies with insights into how they are doing in various countries, so they can see the effectiveness of their campaigns or spot markets where they need to increase their efforts.”

Walmart and Target, for example, are the number one and two brands with the highest number of U.S. Facebook fans. Additionally, Starbucks, Amazon and Coca Cola all saw gains in their rankings of total U.S. Facebook fans, which made them fourth, fifth, and eighth on the list. However, Walt Disney World and Reese’s both dropped out of the top ten.

“Brands that previously found themselves on top of the rankings in terms of fans in the U.S. have dropped,” said Rezab. “For the first time, companies have a tool that not only shows their own place in the Facebook popularity ladder, but also that of their direct competitors and other global brands.”

Going Local on Facebook in 2013

Allison Howen — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:35:00 GMT

As the social Web continues to expand with more ways for brands to connect with their customers, there is still one network that outperforms the rest – Facebook.

This is because the world’s largest social network allows brands of all sizes to reach a user base that includes 1 billion active members. However, in order to reap the benefits of such a large user base, businesses must first foster a community of fans and then work hard to stay visible within users’ newsfeeds and the search results.

However, the strategies for becoming more visible on Facebook vary greatly depending on the size of your business. For example, global brands need to focus on providing relevant information to fans around the world, while small businesses should be more interested in engaging their loyal consumers and attracting a larger number of local fans. Luckily, Website Magazine has put together a guide to help both large- and small-sized businesses find Facebook success with a local audience in 2013:

Big Businesses

Facebook made the localization process much easier for international businesses back in October when the company launched Global Pages. The Global Pages structure allows brands to provide a better-localized experience to their customers because fans are automatically directed to the best version of a Page based on the country where those users reside. In fact, Global Pages enable brands to offer localized cover photos, apps, milestones and “about” information to their audience members without taking them away from the brand’s global community.

Each brand’s Global Pages structure includes local Pages for specific markets and a default Page for all other markets. Users from all countries see the same Page name translated in their local language, and each brand uses only one URL to promote in off-Facebook campaigns. Furthermore, Global Pages provide businesses with global insights for fans in all countries. Moreover, brands that currently use a multi-page strategy are able to transition their existing Pages to the new Global Pages framework. Companies like Kit-Kat and the Holiday Inn are two companies that already leveraged this capability.

However, it is important to note that the Global Pages structure currently only works for countries and not for the state or city level. This means that businesses with multiple locations in one country, such as the United States, will need to continue using other strategies to reach local customers within various regions. These strategies could include posting geo-targeted status updates, launching region-specific advertisements, occasionally including a placemark within posts and maintaining updated location information for all brick-and-mortar stores within the “Map” app on Brand Pages.

Small Businesses

While Facebook made the localization process easier for global businesses in October, the company helped level the playing field for all brands in December. This is because Facebook updated its “Nearby” feature within the company’s iOS and Android applications to make it easier for users to discover nearby places while on the go.

The updates enable users to discover local destinations that friends recommended, checked in at or liked when they tap the Nearby tab within the app’s vertical menu bar. After checking in to a location, users can share information about their experience by rating or recommending places. This is good news for businesses with an active social following because results become more personalized based on the amount of people who rate, recommend and check in to places – meaning that local businesses can move up in the search results with positive reviews, ratings and frequent check-in activity.

Local business owners can optimize their brand’s visibility within the Nearby search results by maintaining a Page that includes updated location information and the correct category listing. Furthermore, Page owners should encourage or incentivize their fans to like, check in, rate and recommend their places on Facebook. It is important to note, however, that even though optimizing your Page to show up in the Nearby search results should prove to be profitable, small businesses can also implement some of the aforementioned big business strategies to attract local customers, such as posting geo-targeted status updates and advertisements.

Mobile, Social and Local in 2013

Due to mobile's rising popularity and use, expect localization to be among the top trends of 2013. That said, many consumers leverage social networks on their mobile devices, which means that appearing in the local search results on networks like Facebook will be more important than ever for businesses of all sizes. This is why it is vital for brands to maintain a presence on social networks to not only communicate with customers, but also to be found.

Two Last Minute LOCAL Holiday Ad Suggestions from Google

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:25:00 GMT

It doesn’t take a digital guru to see that local advertising is a wildly popular topic for the Web business community.

Since most small businesses generate a strong percentage of their new business from the ‘Net , it only makes sense to stay up to date and in the know about developments in the local digital advertising space.

Google lent a hand last week with a two rather valuable suggestions for those looking to amplify awareness locally in time for the holidays.

Airport Targeting: Did you know that it’s possible to target travelers in more than 350 airports around the world? As travelers spend hours in and around these destinations, they will be on their smartphones and tablets making it the perfect time to promote applications.

Location Extensions plus Sitelinks: Once those Web users leave the airport they’ll likely start searching for things to do, places to eat. Local advertisers can show the specific address (linked to a map) alongside one line to three line sitelinks in text ads.

Google has made some serious headway in the local space over the past few months, offering larger and more useful maps, improved local matching, and its geo-targeting and location extensions are now available in more countries.

Google+ Finally Goes Local

Allison Howen — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:15:00 GMT

Google is finally putting last year’s acquisition of Zagat to good use.

The search engine giant added a new local feature to its social network, Google+. The Local tab, which is located on the right-hand side of Google+, enables users to discover and share information about nearby places – including scores and reviews from Zagat, a restaurant guide company that Google acquired in September of 2011.

The local feature also incorporates reviews from a user’s friends, as well as displays business information such as address and business hours. Currently the system has more than 35,000 reviews, and users can also easily submit their own reviews with their Google+ name.

This new feature is just another reason why every business should create a presence on Google+. Even though the social network currently lacks an audience as large as Facebook or as devoted as those who use Pinterest, it is still a valuable tool to leverage because it can increase a business’s visibility on the Web.

Report Shows Consumers Getting More Personal

Michael Garrity — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Local Corp. has unveiled the preliminary data from its report that shows that the modern consumer takes a highly personalized path to purchase and utilizes a wide variety of devices to do so, including PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Still, 90 percent of the shoppers surveyed said that a physical store was still important in the purchasing process.

However, as evidence of a changing landscape, 60 percent of respondents said they researched products or services several times a month using a mobile device of some sort. Meanwhile, PCs are still a major part of the purchasing process.

The survey’s results were culled from the responses of 1,026 consumers and explored their behavior across an array of mobile devices, including asking about preferences and plans for researching and purchasing multiple types of products. Ultimately, the survey reveals that due to the proliferation of available devices and channels, consumers are more frequently displaying pre-purchase behaviors based on their individually specific needs and interests.

Other interesting highlights from the survey include:

- 28 percent of researchers used two devices at a time to find information

- Over one-third of shoppers have made a purchase on a mobile device in the past six months, with tablet shoppers using their devices to shop more frequently

- 47 percent said they use smartphones to search for local information

- 42 percent of respondents said they use the Web to check inventory prior to shopping at a brick-and-mortar store

- Ratings/reviews and search listings top the list of most influential things to the shopper’s choice of destination at 41 and 37 percent, respectively

- 31 percent of shoppers expect to research products and services more on their smartphones in the next year, while 41 percent plan to use tablets more for research

Improve Customer Experience One Location at a Time

Michael Garrity — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Working with customers can be difficult, and no one knows this more than location managers who often have to act as mediators between a company and its patrons.

That's why it is always nice to have a little help, which is what makes customer experience management (CEM) solutions so useful.

Empathica delivers solutions to over 200 major brands. The company is looking to go a step further now with the launch of Empathica Local, a new CEM product designed to help location managers provide positive and consistent customer experiences at their brick-and-mortar locations.

Empathica Local is built for brands that run multiple locations, such as restaurants, grocery stores, banks and retail locations, to help them find insights on what aspects of their operations can be changed to improve customer experiences and provide actionable plans and best practices to achieve that goal for each specific location.

Moreover, the product is intentionally designed to provide a simple interface that eliminates the need to drudge through multi-layered, complex reports, allowing location managers to focus on the most important local issues by defining what needs to be fixed and how that can be accomplished. It achieves this end by leveraging patent-pending prescriptive reporting technologies to set focus areas.

Empathica Local was built to meet the day-to-day needs of location managers and helps them by providing not only a user-friendly interface, but also location-specific focus, editable action plans, social sharing of best practices, status monitoring and performance insights. In the end, the tool will not only provide insights and information but also strategies crafted around a particular location’s unique needs to help managers improve their customers’ experiences and maintain that level of quality.