Applause includes many options for managing Google reviews, ensuring high accuracy and offering flexibility in handling unmatched reviews. This article explains the process, possible causes for unmatched reviews, and management tools available.
Q: How are these reviews handled and what options do I have for managing them in Applause?
Understanding Unmatched Reviews
Unmatched reviews occur when the system's algorithm cannot confidently link a review to the corresponding account. This may happen due to incomplete data, discrepancies between the reviewer name, customer name on the sent request, or other factors impacting the auto-matching process. When reviews remain unmatched:
They appear in the "Reviews" section under Bonuses, or with an "un-matched" indicator in your Reviews page.
The system does not automatically issue bonuses for these reviews, requiring manual action.
Bonus & Manual Matching for Unmatched Reviews
Applause functionalities allow users to address unmatched reviews and ensure bonus payouts as needed. The key options are:
Manually Reviewing and Issuing Bonuses: - Users can manually match reviews when the algorithm cannot. - This offers high precision in ensuring bonuses are issued correctly. - Reviews eligible for this feature are highlighted in the "Reviews" section under Bonuses. You can choose to: - Ignore these reviews entirely. - Manually review and issue bonuses. - Adjust the review date to exclude older reviews from bonus eligibility in your account settings.
No Auto Bonusing turned On: - Applause will always try to match employees to reviews, whether you have the automate bonus setting turned on or off.
New System Functionality for Bonus Adjustments: - A recently introduced feature lets you pay bonuses for updated reviews that were previously unmatched. You can enable the system to look to match and issue bonuses for "updated" reviews in Reviews > settings and Bonus > settings.
System Processing and Algorithm Insight
The review-matching algorithm evaluates several data points and links reviews to accounts only when it is highly confident in the match.
The main matching criteria for an auto-matched review is that we are able to identify a the service worker’s name in the review and then match the review to the rate service request. If this doesn't match, the auto-match doesn't occur due to the name of the customer in the CRM not matching the name of the customer in google/facebook.
If an auto-match can't be matched to the sent request, this can also be a reason why a customer may be asked to leave another review in the future, even though they may have already left one.
The employee's name being left in the Google review is another data point looked at for matching, but it is not the main reason why a review would be auto-matched
Applause also looks at the time the client opened their message from Applause and the time stamp of when the Google review was posted
By prioritizing accuracy, the algorithm reduces the risk of incorrect bonus issuances.
When manual review is necessary, the system ensures unmatched reviews are visible in the "Reviews" section for easy access and decision-making.
Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Unmatched Reviews
To manage unmatched reviews effectively:
Access Unmatched Reviews: - Navigate to the "Reviews" section under Bonuses to locate unmatched reviews. - Review the details and context of the unmatched reviews.
Decide on an Appropriate Action: - Option 1: Match reviews manually to the correct account. - Option 2: Use the system's review date adjustment feature in your Reviews>Settings if aiming to exclude reviews prior to a specific date.
Execute the Selected Action: - Follow the interface prompts to either confirm matches or adjust settings. - Manual matches may require manually issuing a bonus as well, if applicable.
If you have additional questions, connect with our team and we can make sure questions are answered and/or help with any setting configurations.