Think about the last few things you bought or restaurants you went to. How many times did you look up user reviews before going through with the purchase or booking your reservation? How quickly did you decide against a company that had a ton of bad reviews or less than a four-star rating? The internet has empowered consumers to make smarter decisions, but there are a lot of brands that are buckling under all that information being shared.

 

Today, a business’ reputation can be built or broken by word-of-mouth and customer reviews. Smart businesses stay in their customers’ good graces by actively monitoring and managing their reputation. They also know what to do when they come across a particularly bad customer experience. Additionally, they dig deeper to find out what’s truly going on with their business to treat the root of the problem.

 

Business Leaders Should Be Available to Customers and the Public

In addition to recognizing a brand, customers should also know the person behind the brand. Business leaders should be recognizable and available; they’re the metaphoric face of the company, and that face should be seen. Leaders should show up for the public when things are going well and when they’re going poorly.

 

What happens if the leader of a company remains behind-the-scenes? There’s a gap in public knowledge, and people will fill in that gap however they want. Assumptions will be made that could be more damaging to your company than the truth. When a leader is available and seen, they have the chance to shape the narrative.

 

Manage Your Online Reviews

Today’s consumers have free reign when it comes to talking about their experience with a business. While you can’t control what others are saying and where they’re posting it, you can be in the loop. Modern reputation management includes monitoring what people are saying about you online. You can then use the information you find in a few ways:

 

• Figure out what you’re doing right and then maximize on it. For example, if there’s a product people love, promote it more or create a similar, improved product.
• Figure out what you’re doing wrong so you can improve.
• Direct people to leave reviews on the sites where a majority of your positive reviews are.
• Take the opportunity to reply to reviews publicly. You should address all sorts of reviews, positive and negative.
• Seek out customers who may be great brand advocates or who are a good fit for your VIP program.
• Contact customers who have had a terrible experience so you can set it right.

 

There’s so much power in simply knowing what others are saying about you, the good and the bad. You can’t manage your reputation without actually knowing what your reputation is.

 

Upgrade Your Customer Support

It’s common for customers to turn to social media to complain about a business if their complaints have been ignored elsewhere. Most of the time, social media isn’t their first step – the more commonly used support channels are email, live chat, and phone. If a customer is heading to social media to air a grievance, it’s likely because your customer support has failed on the other channels.

 

Yes, you have to deal with the customer who just Tweeted negative things about your company, but once that’s handled, you should take a good look at the customer support you’re offering elsewhere. What’s lacking? What aren’t customers getting? Do they feel like their issues are only taken seriously if they’re made public? If that’s the case, the impression is that you care more about your reputation than serving your customers – and that can truly ruin a company’s reputation.

 

Try to Edge Out the Negative Content

You can’t exactly force new content to replace the content that’s already living in the top search results, but you can try to drown it out or move it down the list with new, authoritative content of your own. If there are negative reviews or articles about your company, this is the time to start pumping out interesting, high-quality content that people will want to read. The CEO can write an open letter explaining an issue. You can put together glowing testimonials and include them in new blog posts. Have one of your experts write a long-form article explaining a concept or answering pressing customer questions. Content that your customers will want to read will help replace some of the bad info that’s floating around.

 

Wrapping Up

Reputation management is about keeping your business in a good light so that you can attract new customers and retain the ones you have. And while companies are always happy to get a new customer, your current customer base is the most important – it costs less to keep them on board than to snag new customers. Reputation management can improve customer loyalty so you can keep improving your bottom line.