The internet has given the power of knowledge to customers.
Customers just need to enter your name in the search engine such as Google and
they will get information about your business. This information can be in the
form of your official website link and/or customer/product reviews. The
customers find this information very useful as it aids them in decision making
and reducing their risk while shopping. As this information influences the
customers in your favor or against you, it can quickly become a major hurdle
for your business. Therefore, it is important to manage your online reputation
when you are dealing with online public relations.
(WOM). Just one customer spreading bad WOM about you can ruin any strongly
created image built through extensive marketing campaigns. WOM, especially
negative WOM spreads like the wildfire spreads in a forest. A customer’s
negative posts about your business will surely damage your image; even if it is
your competitor pretending to be a customer and using deceitful means to damage
your image. In today’s competitive world, image is everything. Therefore, it is
essential that you practice reputation management to create a good image.
losing their market share to competitors, it is important that the businesses
keep a track of their online reputation and work on managing and improving it.
The following are some guidelines that you can use for
image and online reputation management
Find Out Exactly What People Are Saying About You:
not make it go away. Remember, knowledge is power. So, always be knowledgeable
about what people are saying about you. In this case, what you do not know may
harm you. Only when you are aware that a problem exists would you be able to
fix it. You never know you might find good things being said about you which
you can share with others and use to your advantage.
Nobody can be perfect. Do not be afraid to find out what is
out there. Face your fear and ‘Google’ your name to see what is being published
about you. Take in what is good humbly, but, do not react irrationally to any
negative comments about yourself. The negative comments will not do much harm
as long as you handle them responsibly. Handling negative criticism positively
may actually win you more customers. Trouble will be increased if you do not
handle negative WOM professionally. You will end up driving customers away.
Respond To The Negative Reviews In A Professional Manner:
Do not give your peace of mind to a customer who has
published a negative review about you, even if you feel the review is
unjustified. Handle it as a professional. Falling down does not matter as much
as it matters how you get up and going. Customers might not react to a negative
review, but they will be on the lookout as to how you respond to it.
If someone is trying to portray you as negative or having
made a mistake, do not prove him or her right. Remain calm and deal with it
professionally. If you will try to take revenge by insulting the customer
publicly, the complainant will gain sympathies of potential customers. As a
result, your potential customers will avoid doing business with you. You will
end up damaging your online reputation.
This is how you should deal with the situation:
If you have made a mistake, admit it and apologize. Even if
you have not made a mistake, apologize for the inconvenience caused
understand and care
steps to the customer
Express your interest to continue doing business with them
so that they realize they are valuable to you.
All in all, deal with the situation very professionally.
the complainant but you will prove to potential customers that you are
responsible and trustworthy.
Never Ignore Negative Reviews:
complaints will communicate that you lack care for customers. Ignoring
customers will have the same effect as reacting angrily would – you will lose
customers.
feel that the complaint is, in fact, true and that you have no answer for it.
Again, remember that negative WOM spreads like fire. One negative comment can
persuade your customers to do business with your competitors. You should be
ready with a strategy to deal with online complaints. Ignoring is a bad
strategy – being prepared to deal with the situation is a safer and recommended
option.
(as outlined in the tip above)
Invite the Customer to Amend Their Review
try to get the complainant to declare that you have fixed the issue pointed out by
them. Upon resolution of the issue, try that the customer removes their a complaint or at least get them to post that you have handled the issue.
immediate costs, but it has long term benefits. Try to assist the customer as
to how they can remove or amend their negative review. If they refuse to do so
or are unable to do so, try to tactfully publish your follow-up of how you
resolved the problem. Do not offend the customer. If they react further, it
will just lead to more damage to your reputation.
uncontrollable factors involved, which lead to the problem. However, the
customer was re-funded or given a replacement or whatever action that you have
taken to resolve the problem.
benefit you in the long-term. Rather than losing business over a bad review,
you might end up gaining more customers by showing your care and concern
towards customers.
Encourage Positive Reviews from Satisfied Customers
get reviews of satisfied customers publicized. This might also have some immediate
costs but will get you long-term benefits. Encourage satisfied customers to
give positive reviews. These positive reviews will help you to overcome the bad
ones.
Remember that prevention is better than cure. So do not wait
for a bad review before you start encouraging positive reviews. Satisfied
customers are willing to share their experiences. They just need a little push
in the right direction. So encourage them and assist them in doing so. Guide
them as to how they can leave a positive review about their experience with
your business. If you have prepared yourself in this manner, a bad review might
not have as much damage.
experience with you. Assist the satisfied customers and make it easy for them
to post a positive review. Depending upon your industry, conduct research to
identify your target market and understand who they are (e.g. mothers, youth,
business professionals, etc.). Guide them to the sites of their interest so
that they become willing to post their experience.
what is being said about your business. Show the customers the proper sites
where they can drop their reviews and where business-owners can provide
feedback on customers’ review (maybe even offer a reputation management program). This will allow you to avoid entering a situation where there is a
war of words. It will also allow you to control the damage a bad review can
cause.
Never leave fake positive reviews for your own business.
reviews. There is always a risk of getting caught and you might end up causing
even more damage to your image then what a negative review might have had.
happy customers there will always be ones who are unhappy. Unhappy customers
can allow you to bring even more business by offering you an opportunity of
fixing a problem. Fixing a problem will bring you two advantages. Firstly, you
will fix the issue so that it does not happen again and secondly, by fixing the
issue you will prove to potential customers that you indeed care for your
customers.
conducting business. They do not expect you to be perfect but they expect you
to be professional and take responsibility for a mistake. If you accept the
responsibility and make amends, they will feel safe working with you, respect
you and trust you. You will be able to win potential customers as well.
It’s Time to Get Social
benefit. People are spending more time, and are also, relying more on social
media. If you use this medium and make accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., managing online reputation will be even easier. If your interaction on
social media gains popularity, there will more chances of that coming up in the
search engine rather than any site containing bad reviews. Moreover, you can
use social media to get your side of the story heard, in case a bad review
does come up.
There are other sites, which you can use to enhance your
image and online reputation such as YouTube, Blogger, Squidoo, WordPress, etc.
Try to make accounts on as many platforms as you can easily manage. Get on your
plate as much as you can handle because mishandling social media will end you
up in deep waters. If you mishandle social media, you will end up harming your
online reputation. Try to make yourself visible as an active member of social
media. This will not only allow you to interact with customers and make them
sense personalized attention, but it will also allow you to have some control over
your reputation.
Join Industry Specific forums
Customers try to get information about your image from these forums and try to
determine your ranking as compared to your competitors. So, it is a good way of
introducing yourself to customers who previously might not have known about
you. You can even gain credibility by giving guidelines related to the product
or service in your industry. This will enable you to gain a reputation and
respect in your industry.
Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Management
there are increased chances of a search engine pointing towards you when a
customer searches on the search engine. If you make your online presence
strong, it will build your online reputation. So, focus on getting your website
and social media sites optimized for search engines and allow the customers to
find you easily.
getting those sites ranked, on which you are blogging. If a customer searches
your name and is directed towards a well-respected discussion forum with your
participation on it, it will allow them to see that you are well respected in
the industry. It will ensure them of your presence in the market. Of course,
you will have positive words written on your own website or social media sites.
In comparison, if a customer is able to see you in a positive light on external
sites, it will prove to be even more effective in building your online
reputation.
sites ranked which have published a positive press release about you. For
instance, you can get a site ranked high, which shows a positive product review
published in the national press. This can act as a curtain over any other bad
reviews published elsewhere.
Dominate The First Pages By Paying To Rank HigherPay-Per-Click (PPC) is one of the popular ways of
effective online advertisement.
one. PPC gets you dual advantages: it will increase your popularity and gain
you greater visibility and probability of coming up in a search engine. It will
also benefit you by dealing with the possible effects of negative online
reviews. The ability of PPC to create hyper-targeted Ad campaigns provides the
advantage of using the advert to address online reputation difficulty.
amount each time a customer clicks the Ad related to a keyword or phrase. For
instance, if you were in the business of selling flowers, you would want that
when someone searches for florists in your area of business, your Ad would
appear before them. In order to be able to do this, you will decide on keywords
such as the name of your area of business and the word florist in the PPC
campaign. By doing this, when customers will search for florists in the local
area, your Ad will pop up and they can place an order with you.
advertising, PPC can prove to be an influential means to neutralize or offset
the effects of negative reviews and increase business.
Communicate Through Photos And Videos
To create a strong affiliation of customers with your brand,
a good technique would be to familiarize customers with the faces working
backstage. This way, when customers think of your company they do not picture a
building but they picture a personality, just like customers associate late
Steve Jobs with Apple and Richard Branson with Virgin. When you create an
association of a face with your brand through photographs and videos, customers
tend to form stronger bonds and relationship with your business. You can even
build online reputation and improve your search engine ranking if you use keywords to tag your pictures and videos.
Think Before You Post:
Act responsibly when using social media. If you post
carelessly, anyone can take advantage and use your words to damage your online
reputation. You might feel annoyed at some post about your business that you
feel is unfair or false. You may be tempted to lash out.
will have consequences so chose your words carefully. How will the readers
perceive your words? Will it bring more damage than good to your reputation? It
would be a good idea to note down your words and review them once you have
calmed down. You will be able to edit your words so that they do not have a
negative impact on your reputation. Do not post anything that has the potential
of harming your reputation. Your goal is to improve, not destroy your image. So
do what it takes to achieve your goal.
Above all, stay on top of things
online reputation. The speed of online communication is difficult to cope with,
especially if you have adopted a relaxed attitude towards following the
information. Continuously watch your online image so that you are able to react
in time when required. This way you will be able to minimize the possible harm
to your reputation.
Due to their emotional attachment, companies find it hard to
face negative criticism professionally. At times companies do not have enough
time and/or resources to follow and manage online reputation. This is not
because they do not recognize the importance of managing online reputation. It
is because they are busy with day-to-day business. They are not able to find
spare time. Running your business and securing your brand, both have to go hand
in hand. It takes years to build a positive brand image but it could take just
one bad review to damage it. So, you do not want to risk your profits by
leaving your brand insecure.
marketing and business to make a better vision of it. After spending a lot of
time developing informational online destinations in many areas of interest in Online Marketing and Business. We find that people are always on the
search for great information and we try to accommodate them. Make sure that you
check back with us to see our new and informative and information Articles.
