Online reviews are essential to keep your brand’s reputation strong. This is because most customers will decide to do business with your company depending on what your digital reputation looks like. This means that online reputation management is critical to look after so that your business can be discovered, followed, and even recommended. If you are looking for a way to help your company get noticed, ways to improve your search engine rankings, and ways to convince more customers to pick up the phone and call your business, then this post on managing your online reputation is key to read.
It’s important to understand that how you manage your company’s online reputation matters. This is because a brand’s voice is no longer solely defined by the brand, but alsoby public feedback. In the digital marketplace, if you are looking to promote to your customers, the best way to do so is by fact-checking what everyone is saying and stopping anything along the lines of misinformation about your brand. This post is going to show you how to start and keep up with your online reputation management so that you do not damage your reputation.
Online Reputation Management
It’s time to create your monitoring system. With the outburst of social media usage in recent years, user-generated content is more prominent in the marketplace than ever. Yes, this can be “free” advertising if people are saying good things, but if they are saying bad things it can be damaging. Did you know that companies’reputation accounts for 63% of their market valueon average? This means that staying on top of engagement, understanding customers’ opinions, and responding is particularly important. Let’s jump into the ways you can start monitoring your online reputation with three simple steps.
Step 1: Don’t Delete the Negative
Although this might sound backwards to you, it’s critically important that you don’t delete the negative reviews that people have left. If you delete all the negative, customers will only see the positive and it will make you look like you are hiding something. Instead, you can opt for keeping the negative reviews that are politely worded and act fast to address their problems. This could include replying to the post with recommendations, solutions, or asking them to call the store to get the problem solved. When you receive a negative review, look at it as an opportunity to change the conversation. By doing this you show other customers that you care and you are reachable if something does not work out.
Step 2: Ask Customers for Testimonials
After you have served a customer, it’s important that you ask them to leave a review. Whether they leave a good or bad comment is up to them, but both options provide an opportunity to you. If customers leave bad comments, you can learn more about what your customers like and adjust your system to fit the needs of your customers. If your customers leave good reviews (We hope this is the case!) then you can use the opportunity to thank them for choosing you. Good reviews on your page are great word of mouth opportunities, one of the most powerful marketing tools.
You can also share the good reviews on your social pages or add them to your website to advertise! If you find that you are not receiving reviews, it might be time to add a small discount code to those who leave reviews!
Step 3: Early Response
Since your reviews serve as the first impression to many customers of your business, it’s important to make sure you are on top of your game. This meanschecking your reviews dailyto ensure that no message goes unanswered. If you wait weeks until you go back to check, you might have created deal breakers for potential leads who are no longer going to deal with your business. Correcting misinformation or providing a solution to the problem is what potential leads what to see. While you thank these customers for leaving reviews publicly, you are contributing to a positive reputation for your brand because it shows that you care. A little goes a long way in this case.
Improve Your Online Reputation Management
Many businesses are not sure what reputation management is or if they are, they are scared that reviews can do more harm than good. The most important thing to note is that this type of management is aboutspeaking up on your behalfand helping to dissolve any miscommunications. Reviews can also show your business opportunities of where you need to improve in order to help meet the needs and wants of your customers.
Since your reputation management serves as a first impression, it’s important to have the professionals help you. For more information on howsearch engine optimizationstrategies (such as Online Reputation Management) can help your business, contact your local digital marketing agency today.
