Why Reputation Management is Important for Your Business
We live in an era of constant social-local-mobile interaction. Every local business is bound to receive its share of negative reviews. A profile with nothing but glowing reviews can look suspicious to your customers.
Over the past few years, the prevalence of review sites has grown exponentially, which is why negative reviews constantly threaten business owners.
If you’re one of them, this article will provide some insight.
Reputation management involves replacing undesirable content with new content that paints a given business in a better light.
The only thing worse than under-engaging in online media is handling social media poorly. No one can damage you as seriously as you can damage yourself (or one of your employees) if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Regardless of your niche, managing your business reputation is no longer optional. You need to do it if you want to grow, of course.
In what follows, we’ll walk you through several important reputation management subcomponents that you must actively maintain for your business.
Improving Your Customer Service
We’ve been in this business for over 15 years now, and one thing that we can tell you from the get-go is that customer service is always the front line against a bad online reputation.
Most unhappy clients will discuss their problems with you before spewing bad things about your business. If you do a good job of alleviating their problems, only a small portion of them will decide to denigrate your brand online.
Customer reviews generally cover only three things:
- Product/service quality
- Product/service performance
- Unresolved customer support issues
Knowing the customer experience is necessary for providing excellent customer service. Get personalized feedback from your customers and employees (if you have any).
Also, there are many industry-specific practices that you can implement to improve the process and make things easier for the people who bring money into your business.
The bottom line is to make it easy for the customer to get help for you and your business. The easiest way to do this is to hire someone who really cares about your clients or do it yourself.
Claim all Relevant Social Media Profiles
Building a healthy social media presence on your customers' social networks is a powerful and effective marketing tactic that any small business can benefit from. Even if you don’t have the time and know-how or aren’t ready to start, you still need to participate on a fundamental level.
At the bare minimum, you must protect your future social media efforts and online reputation by claiming your business and personal names on social media sites.
In the same way, social media sites help small businesses be found online; reviews and local directories show up high in search engine rankings, providing more exposure for your business.
With this in mind, claim your profiles on these high traffic sites:
Provide your locations, photos, business hours, description of your services, payment options, and categories to provide all your information to potential customers and build citations for your business.
Use Client Feedback to Improve Your Reputation
When responding to online complaints or bad reviews, seriously consider that your process may need to be improved, especially if you frequently receive negative feedback about a specific issue.
The popular phrase “the customer is always right” is your friend here. When dealing with clients who have already purchased something from you, don’t be inflexible. Find a creative way to give customers what they want without creating friction.
Over the years, we’ve certainly tried business processes that were working or service fees that just made customers feel like they’ve been gouged. But just because you can pressure people into paying more doesn’t mean you should.
Before you mistreat your clients, consider that you could be driving existing or potential customers into the arms of your competitors. The extra money you make on that annoying fee could be canceled out by business loss from those who see numerous complaints about it online.
Don’t Get Into Arguments
There may be many cases where your customer is in the wrong. You will find it is only natural in those instances to argue back in an effort to protect yourself and set matters straight in front of others.
But usually, the more heated an argument becomes, the more likely you are to say something that you will regret. These types of comments can be impossible to erase, especially if they are made on public forums such as social media profiles.
It is very difficult and requires a great deal of maturity, but it is far better to simply apologize sincerely and shut down any potential debates before they can damage your reputation.
Don’t Get Into Arguments
Some of your customers will write an online review whether you ask them to, but most will not take the time to do so.
Unless they’re business owners, they don’t realize how critically important those reviews are. But as we know from the research, most of your happy customers will do you this favor if you ask, assuming you do it at the right time and in the right way.
Always use FaceTime with your customers to show them you are responsive, conscientious, and competent.
Then, contact them later on while they’re still thinking positively about the interaction and in a good mood to write a favorable review.