Bazaarvoice and Nielsen partner to help retailers manage their reputations

Some loyal customers go to a company’s web site and chat with its customer service representatives about a product or service they just purchased. And millions of consumers go to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, and chat away with friends about the latest fad or technology, and review their likes and dislikes. This week ratings and review vendor Bazaarvoice and market research firm The Nielsen Company announced a partnership that will allow businesses to integrate information from both sources.

Bazaarvoice provides companies with software that lets customers provide ratings and reviews on a web site. Nielsen’s My BuzzMetrics service scans the social media universe, and organizes all that chatter into useful data on a customizable dashboard. Now, clients who sign up for both services can have all of the information generated by their Bazaarvoice software integrated onto their BuzzMetics dashboards.

“Brands need to keep an eye on all these conversations,” says Brant Barton, Bazaarvoice’s co-founder and chief innovation officer. Integrating the two services should “give them more of a 360-degree perception.”

Bazaarvoice provides its ratings and reviews product to about 800 clients, mostly retailers like Best Buy, Costco, and Macy’s. Only about a few dozen of these also currently use BuzzMetrics, but if clients use both services, the integration is free and can be turned on almost immediately, Barton adds. “It’s a good marriage,” he says.