Introduction
When we discuss reputation management, we are referring to how your brand is perceived online. Business reputation management is the process of:
- Knowing how your brand is perceived online through its content, reviews, marketing materials, and miscellaneous mentions online;
- Addressing negative feedback or reviews;
- Reinforcing the process and action that produce positive feedback or reviews; and
- Repeating the steps above to ensure rectifying issues does not mean the reputation of your brand will become infallible.
Shoppers and those looking for service-based businesses make a purchasing decision based on reviews, whether a business uses their logo consistently, company bio, and the general content a business puts on the world wide web to attract leads or sales.
Reputation management can have a huge impact on the success of your business, so it’s important to start monitoring and managing your reputation as soon as possible.
There are software tools you can use to:
- Ensure your business description and data are listed constantly online
- Track reviews
- See customer interactions
We will recommend these tools below. However, it is important first to appreciate the process of reputation management as these tools are not free.
What is online reputation?
It is important to distinguish online reputation, which is the perception of your business based on the content that is published about it online. Content includes written content, logo, and images. This differs from your offline reputation, which refers to how people perceive your business in real-world interactions (i.e., face-to-face). Online reputation can be built or destroyed relatively easily since it relies heavily on content. This means it’s important to manage your online reputation properly because it has an effect on how well you’re able to grow your business.
Reputation management is a process
It’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t just about what you do, it’s also about how you do it. For example, if you have a reputation as a luxury brand but still use cheap materials or have poor customer service, people will notice and likely spread their opinions via word-of-mouth marketing.
What is the process of reputation management? It is research, audit, establishing a management strategy, keeping track of what is said about your business, and responding where it’s in the best interest of your business to do so.
1. Research and audit your business reputation
Simply google your business name, its directors, and managers and see what loads in the Search Engine Result Pages. Here, you’re discovering the online communications referring to you, your business, and its managers.
You can also use keywords relevant to your business and its competitors. Don’t get caught sifting through online forums, as there are many trolls out there. But know what the online chatter says.
It’s important to know how your business shows on maps when people search for it locally. The business description, logo, and content need to be consistent and cohesive.
A business audit can be quite encompassing. In the interest of simplicity, follow these steps for your business audit with regard to its online reputation:
- Search for your business and see what comes up. Are there any negative reviews? If so, how do you think the reviewer felt about their experience with you? Do they have a point or are they just being unreasonable? What can you do to improve this?
- Do you have positive reviews online that could help to promote your business more effectively than paid advertising? If you don’t have any positive reviews on Google or similar directory sites, encourage your clients or customers to write reviews for your business.
2. Implement business reputation management strategy after audit and research
It’s useful to know, but action is even more important. Take action that remedy’s the pain points of your brand’s weakness as indicated through unfavorable mentions online.
Business owners, directors, and managers should always look at ways to improve their business, its products, and its services. Often, especially for small businesses, this means shooting in the dark, hoping they are implementing improvements where the business needs it the most. Reputation management research and audit give you a 20/20 vision of where your business needs to improve.
3. Respond to relevant comments and feedback
You should not respond to every negative comment and review online. But pay attention to genuine reviews and feedback, and reply to those reviews in a professional and consistent tone. Feedback and reviews provide valuable information you can use to improve your business.
4. Image Consistent With Reputation
Part of managing your business reputation means making sure that everything you do is consistent with the image you want to project: whether that’s being affordable or high class, eco-friendly or traditional; whatever your niche may be, it’s important to maintain a consistent message across all channels, so customers get the same experience every time they interact with your company (or even just hear about how other companies perceive yours).
5. Rinse and repeat these steps
Reputation management is a continuous process and not something you once without ever needing to redo it again. It should be a key element of your strategy for improving your business or company.
Always research, monitor, and respond to the conversations people have about your business. That way, you can see where your reputation stands, follow up on what works best for you, and act accordingly when necessary.
Most people search for businesses online before deciding
If reputation management seems too daunting, remember most people search for products or services online before deciding where to go or what to buy. They also look at the reviews of other customers. Therefore this is an area that justifies time and resources. Effective reputation management trickles up, down, left, and right of your business. It makes finetunes services/products, improves customer experience, makes operations more efficient, and ultimately grows the business.
Tools for online reputation management
There are many tools available to assist you in managing your business reputation. The following is a list of some of the most popular options. Most of these tools focus on staying updated with your online reviews, though they have additional functions as well.
BirdEye – collects feedback from over 150 online review sources to provide you with a complete picture of your brand’s online reputation in one dashboard. You can also request reviews from customers using BirdEye.
ReviewTrackers – A critical feature of ReviewTrackers is the ability to receive notifications whenever a customer leaves a review, ensuring you’re aware of feedback as soon as possible. It also shows trending issues and topics, so you can see the broader picture surrounding customer complaints. Additionally, it offers competitor tracking analytics to help identify success factors for your rival companies.
Yext Reviews – allows you to fix inconsistent business information available online in one dashboard.
Podium – this is another tool that manages online reviews in one place. It also allows you to request reviews and respond to them.
A good reputation takes time to build
It’s important for your business to have a healthy reputation because that’s what customers, suppliers, and other people in your industry will base their opinions on.
Reputation is like a bank account: you can make withdrawals and deposits. The key is not being afraid of making mistakes (or even doing something wrong), but rather learning from them so that you won’t make the same mistake again. If someone makes a comment about your business online or in person–even if they’re wrong–you can’t take back what they said or did; however, you do have control over how you respond and iterate.
Conclusion
Reputation management is a great way to improve the online presence of your business. It can be time-consuming, but with the right strategy, tools, and diligence, you’ll get there. The most important thing is to have a clear plan that you follow consistently and regularly so that your customers are always getting what they expect from you.
If you need more information regarding digital marketing for small businesses you can always contact us or leave a comment.
