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What is your business’s online reputation like? While reputation used to be based on word-of-mouth and was often the result of good products, it’s no longer as simple.
Your reputation can go from great to terrible overnight. A bad reputation can ruin even the most established business, so you need to know how to manage it ahead of time.
Keep reading to learn all about how you can improve and protect your small business reputation.
Be Responsive
It’s tempting to push things under the rug when they upset you. When you have a customer who’s complaining on social media, someone asking questions that they’d have answers to if they read the website or anything else that requires some online communication, do you really need to reply right away?
Yes! If you’re not responsive to your customers online, your reputation can plummet.
If someone is unhappy with your business and voices their concerns online, make sure that you have a representative respond to them as soon as possible. Even if you don’t have a solution yet, you want to make sure that they feel heard.
When it comes to questions on social media, keep in mind that they’re not asking out of malice, even if the answers seem obvious to you. Respond in a quick and friendly manner and your reputation will soar.
Follow Through
After you’re done responding, make sure that you actually do what you say that you’re going to do and that your responses are consistent.
If someone complains about service or a bad product, how are you going to handle them? Will you offer them a discount? Are you going to talk to the employee that gave them bad service?
When your customers see that you aren’t offering empty promises, they’ll feel better about your business.
Track Your Online Business Reputation
Monitoring online reputation is key when it comes to making sure that you’re not making any serious reputation mistakes.
There are several ways to track your reputation. The first is by asking customers how they found you. If they came from a recommendation or by seeing your good reviews or online marketing efforts, this is a great sign.
You can also invest in online reputation management to help you determine whether or not your business has a good reputation. You can find out what people are saying about you on the web, even if they’re not saying it in your reviews.
This allows you to make any necessary changes and reach out to people or remove any reviews that are falsified. People do leave false reviews from time to time and this is a great way to find them.
How’s Your Online Reputation?
If your online reputation needs work, it might be time to start applying these tips. You don’t want to let it drag on for too long.
Make sure that you’re attentive to your customers, aware of your online reputation on and off of your review pages, and that you follow through with all of your promises. You’ll see great results.
Are you trying to improve your online presence? We can help. Get in touch with us so we can find the best solutions for your business.