The last few years have been challenging for many business owners as they have navigated a global pandemic and the consequences this has had on business operations. However, one way that businesses have managed to stand out from the crowd is by having a clear commitment to reputation management which has safeguarded a brands credibility as well as adding vital social proof.
For those of you that are unaware, reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a brand or person when viewed online. This is vitally important as the majority of people now use online tools such as search engines to research a business before they make a visit, purchase or initiate an interaction.
The majority of businesses out there simply don’t have a process or vehicle for protecting and managing their brand. For example, think about local businesses you interact with – how many of them actually prompt you to leave a review or have a clear process to remedy a negative situation?
Business owners can benefit hugely from actually utilising reputation management as part of their business processes and marketing tactics. This is because it affords them the opportunity to capture vital customer feedback as well as protect their brand image long term.
Most businesses spend significant amounts of time and money on building their brand and image. However, a few negative reviews from customers can undo all this hard work and this is something that business owners are now facing.
Reputation management presents the ideal way for businesses to proactively ask customers for a review across any review portal such as Google, Trust Pilot, TripAdvisor etc, thereby increasing their social proof. Indeed, as businesses obtain more reviews they actually experience an increase in their local Google search ranking.
Another big benefit of reputation management is it helps a business to potentially intercept negative reviews before they are published online. By having a reputation management system added on to a website, displayed on social media or inserted into a mobile app, a business can filter customers to leave negative feedback in a web form that is emailed back to the business owner.
Consequently, a business owner can then reach out to the customer on a one to one basis and take remedial action. This helps business owners protect their image long term and affords them the opportunity to really make a tangible difference when a customer has experienced a negative interaction.
In our opinion, every business needs reputation management, especially in an ever increasing digital world where customers are more technology aware than ever before. Having clear ways to obtain customer reviews can only enhance a businesses overall digital presence.
The fact that negative reviews can potentially be captured at source, before they are published, helps businesses respond to feedback and control their online image. For this reason alone, we are big fans of reputation management and certainly recommend this service to clients we work with.
To find out more about reputation management and how this can be implemented for your business, please contact a member of our team.