tbk is an agency based in London, Ontario. It makes businesses better by solving business problems with technology. It grows businesses through digital marketing, optimize businesses through custom software, takes businesses to market with branding, build business with web platforms, and share business knowledge with consulting.
One of tbk’s clients has over 60 locations and has been in business for decades. This led to their Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) information being incorrect across various business listings. Regularly updating operational hours on each site, including Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, and Yelp, was not only time-consuming but also prone to human error.
“We noticed that Google would crawl outdated information and auto-update that information. On Yelp, half the addresses were wrong. There were so many inconsistencies across the board.” explains Nishtha Paryani, Assoc. Marketing Manager at tbk.
“We did a manual update across all [locations]. It was repetitive and extremely mundane, but it also introduced human error. Our clients were spending a lot of money for us to go into each citation site and update information.”
Part of tbk’s reputation management offering also includes responding to reviews for its client across all locations.
Nish explains, “I want to be able to have the opportunity to craft responses that are compassionate and preserve the client brand. But if I’m spending time updating opening hours across all platforms, I’m not going to have time to do that. Review responses need a human touch because of their context. Being able to have that opportunity, that time, is so valuable for us and the client.”
To streamline its process, tbk introduced Active Sync for its client. Active Sync centralizes all location information, allowing them to make a single update that automatically synchronizes across all platforms, significantly reducing management time and minimizing errors.
Nish described her experience saying, “Active Sync was great because you make one change and it pushes it out, which was really useful for our team.”
The team at tbk also use BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager tool, and log into the platform every morning to flag, and respond to new reviews. Using the tool’s labeling system helps everyone involved keep track of where they’re at with review responses, and which reviews need additional context from clients.
“We work virtually and flexibly, so I don’t want to have to rely on reaching out to my intern to confirm things, I can just check into the platform at any time,” explains Nish.
By saving on production time, tbk has significantly reduced the number of hours in its Google Business Profile management program. This allows the team to allocate more time to focus on other SEO opportunities and strategies that require more “human” thinking time to craft.
“There are opportunities for us to focus on business goals versus just keeping information up to date. It allows us to open up the time to do so”, explains Nish.
As well as this, working in an agency means getting the team up to speed with new software as quickly as possible.
“It was really great during the onboarding process having the team at BrightLocal support us with the implementation because that’s the trickiest part of getting familiarized with new software, especially at an agency where everything is so fast-paced.
“All in all I was super impressed. By the time we implemented Active Sync, I hadn’t seen anything like it. We’ve tried so many different software. As an agency, we have to test and try. But the biggest issue is being able to onboard your team members and being able to ensure that it’s user-friendly enough so that anyone can pick it up. I stress this—having the BrightLocal team to onboard us and do the groundwork, that was really, really helpful.”
In addition to Active Sync, Nish explained how valuable Reputation Manager was.
“We take responsibility for responding to reviews so we can ensure we’re maintaining and preserving the client’s brand. Having us as a third party, who can be objective about all reviews, allows us to respond in a measured way. That’s really important for marketing and PR. We must have that control, so being able to respond to all reviews through the BrightLocal is great.”
Technology has become an important part of agency life, especially for the team at tbk.
“As you know now with the economy, I feel like it’s so unpredictable, especially now with Open AI. Clients want us to do more with less. We want to be able to do more with less. So, having that opportunity to strategize, and focus on sales and revenue for a client, not just updating GBPs. BrightLocal is super valuable for the client as they don’t have to spend too much on updating citations and responding to reviews. But it’s also valuable for tbk as we have more hours to do work for the agency and other clients.”
