“Business today consists in persuading crowds”
-Gerald Stanley Lee
You put in a lot of effort, along with your team, to expand your business and satisfy your customers by constantly developing new products and services that fulfil their demands and needs.
Despite providing the finest customer service, a business’s reputation can occasionally degrade. A customer leaves a bad review, or a negative media story about your business goes viral and the world sees it on the internet—all these things can badly affect your reputation and impact your business.
So what do you do now?
That’s where online reputation management comes into play. One can reduce the negative customer feedback and keep the online presence in a positive light.
But what is online reputation management and how does it help?
Online Reputation Management (ORM) is monitoring the mentions of your business on websites and social media and addressing any negative or false comments and reviews.
ORM basically functions by responding to unflattering online customer reviews and stories published in the media (both traditional and social) that cast a negative light on your business.
Nearly half of social media users (45%) would view a brand more positively if it responded to negative comments on social media.
For example, you respond to a negative comment someone makes about your business’s services under a social media post in a way that encourages them and every person that sees it to keep a positive attitude instead.
Why is online reputation management important ?
Today’s customers want businesses to communicate with them organically. They want a one-on-one conversation, like a direct message on Instagram or a reply to a comment.
Negative comments or a low star rating, in particular, must be addressed before they cause serious damage to the business’s reputation.
According to a clutch survey, 72% of people are likely to recommend a company to others if they have a positive social media experience with that company.
However, running a business is already a challenging endeavor, and dealing with ORM on top of that can be difficult, but don’t worry! Online reputation management companies that provide reputation management services can help you with it.
5 strategies you can use for online reputation management (ORM)
You can start managing the online reputation of your business with these 5 effective strategies.
- Respond quickly with compassion.
Quick responses let customers know that they are important to you and that their query or concern holds value. It also stops angry and dissatisfied people from leaving bad reviews, comments, and other mentions.
83% expect brands to respond to these comments within a day or less.
Also, it’s very important to answer them with compassion, as it shows that you understand their problem and are willing to take actions towards solving it.
Using this technique, one can prevent a private message from becoming a negative public remark.
- Come to terms with criticism.
Most people tend to avoid negative comments. After all, who wants to deal with such things? But, as a business, it is important to address all your existing and potential customers, including the unhappy ones.
89% of consumers are “highly” or “fairly” likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews.
You can ask them to talk to you one-on-one and solve their problem by messaging them personally, or even offer them some tempting offers like discount coupons on their next purchase or service if they are unhappy with your business. This makes sure you don’t lose sales. And it also puts your brand in a positive light.
- See the error of your ways.
When a customer addresses an honest and real issue it is very important to not only address the issue but also apologise with the genuine aim to take accountability of it. Also, describe the steps your business would be taking to resolve the issue.
Considering the medium for your apology is also very crucial. For say, if the negative feedback is in bulk on a specific social media platform it would be appropriate to apologies publicly on that platform.
- Take the top spot in the search results.
SEO is generally considered by marketers as a strategy to maintain brand visibility. However, it’s also a crucial tool for reducing the exposure of negative information and unfavorable news connected to your brand.
A way to enhance search results is by encouraging your happy customers to leave positive feedback on review sites. That leads to a higher rating, which attracts the potential customers and leaves a good impression on them.
- Automation of online reputation management.
Use software that automates ORM tasks to save time rather than manually browsing websites and social media.
You can use monitoring tools like Google Alerts and Brand24. These tools will send you notifications whenever your brand is mentioned on platforms like social media and news. That way, you are always aware when your business is being discussed and can promptly respond if it is important.
These automatic tools will save you time that you can invest in building and mending connections with dissatisfied customers.
People evaluate your business based on what they see, hear, and read about it on the internet.
Online reputation management is so important to build and maintain the positive image of your business that you have worked so hard to establish.
You can show your existing and potential customers that you are willing to help them with any problem and that they can trust your business by responding to positive feedback with gratitude and to negative feedback with genuine concern and an apology. The strategies mentioned above will hopefully help you have the best reputation management and an amazing online reputation.