A good name is everything in business, but keeping a reputation maintained can be a little harder than it might seem.
Years ago, a good reputation was developed by word of mouth. A friend would recommend a company, that person might go on to recommend another friend, and the company’s reputation would grow. These days, a good reputation has mostly moved into online reviews, Google searches, and mentions on social media, so instead of getting recommendations from a friend, a potential customer will instead be searching for what others have said about a company.
These kinds of reviews are easy to ignore, and, if your company has had a few negative reviews, it can be easy to trivialize this kind of online reputation. However, online reviews have been shown to impact customers’ buying decisions. It’s impossible to say how many potential customers are turned off by a bad online reputation, but fortunately, there are a few things to do to maintain a solid online reputation.
Paying Attention
The first step to better reputation management is being aware of what people are saying about your company. Closely monitoring review activity can act as a measurement for your online reputation. Also, getting on social media and blogs to see what people are saying can also help you keep track of your online presence. These mentions can also drive people toward or away from your company, so knowing what people are saying is half the battle. Of course, paying attention on its own is not enough. The other half of the battle is engaging.
Engaging
Ignoring online reviews and social mentions can send the message that the company doesn’t really care what people think. That is not a way that you want potential customers to think of your business, so it helps to engage with the comments. This is easier for positive reviews, but it helps to respond to negative ones as well. A quick note saying that you are sorry a person experienced things the way they did can go a long way in helping your company maintain its reputation.
All of this might seem like a daunting task, but here at Empowered Pulse, we help make reputation management easy for you. Our reputation management service can help you monitor and improve your online reputation. How does it work? We do the paying attention and engaging so that your company’s reputation is always the best. Feel free to contact us for more information on our services.