Reputation Management - The Insurance Policy No Business Should Do Without.

Introduction:

There is nothing more important for any business owner than their reputation. I know because it's a question that always gets the same response when asked...What's your reputation worth? And the answer is always the same. Priceless! So it goes without saying that Reputation Management is the insurance policy no business should do without. Your reputation is what makes people want to do business with you and refer their friends and family to do the same. So in the simplest of terms Reputation equals Revenue.

It’s what cuts your ROI when advertising because customers who know nothing about you can put their minds at rest knowing you are what you say you are. Most importantly in this online world of keyboard warriors, it is the safety net that could save you thousands.  We all have Insurance policies and have them to support and protect us from many different forms of damage, correct?

But here’s a question, if your reputation is ‘priceless’ what is your business doing to protect your reputation against malicious, untrue and unjust information? Because no business knows when someone could turn nasty and try to taint their reputation.

Online reputation management protects you against malicious and false information. 👊

Online reputation management is a critical component to your business.  It's a proactive approach to online protection, which means it helps you avoid negative publicity and protects your brand. It goes without saying we would never send a staff member out in a company car if they didn't have a current driver's license or were uninsured to drive the vehicle because they could be the best driver ever but if someone else isn't watching what they are doing the company car could get damaged.

And it may take time to build this reputation moat around your company and fortify it from an online reputational attack but just like the money you pay for car insurances (and many others) the benefit outweighs the cost.

Many companies will be shocked when someone posts or says something negative about them online. Because in some cases, it is not justified or completely blown out of proportion. And from our research it comes when businesses least expect it. Normally steaming from a communication issue or lack of met expectations being the major cause but sometimes it can be things completely out of the businesses control.  But the positive out of this is, it will allow you to address the problem and put a procedure in place to prevent it reoccurring.

The majority of companies, however, have difficulty managing their reputations in general and their reputational risks in particular. Most of their efforts are devoted to addressing reputational threats that have already surfaced. This is not risk management; instead, we are dealing with crisis management, which is a reactive strategy aimed at limiting damage.

Positive online content will help boost rankings on Google but is that enough to protect your reputation?

If your business is spending thousands of dollars on content creation and social posting but doing nothing to generate a positive online reputation from past clients then it may be time to consider adding this to your social media strategy. Otherwise you are leaving your reputation open to attack and no social content is powerful enough to protect you.

When you use positive and relevant content, it will help to show that your company is active on social media. Active social media presence is one of the key factors that Google uses to determine the authority of a website and its ranking in search results. But this doesn't help protect you from someone leaving a bad review, leaving a negative comment or posting something online and tagging your company. 

Overnight you could lose your credibility and this will adversely affect your search results in the future. Especially if it continues to happen.

But did you know that reviews not only protect your reputation but google also uses them for rankings. The words used within a review, if used over and over again become keywords.

Here is an example of a hairdresser client of ours and as you can see the word ‘hair’ is used the most often.

As a result these reviews help this salon rank in the top 3 for the search term ‘hair’ in their local area. Cool right?

Companies are typically subject to negative posts from a wide range of websites, so monitoring these posts is important.

Negative posts about a company are typically dispersed to a large number of sites, so it's important to monitor for negative comments. When you see a comment on one site, search for it across all the major review sites, blog postings and social media. In some cases, monitoring is as easy as using Google Alerts. You can set up alerts to automatically send you emails whenever your company or products are mentioned online.

However, even if you don't use Google Alerts or similar services, it's still possible to find out when a new comment has been posted against your business—by searching manually through these other websites and clicking on every single link that mentions your brand name or any variation thereof (e.g., "Company X" or "Product Y").

The easiest way to start protecting your online reputation is to generating ongoing positive reviews.

You can increase the number of positive reviews by requesting them. The most important thing to remember when asking for a review is that you need to do so in a respectful manner and at the right time of the buyer's journey. A follow up sequence or reminder is also a great way to nudge the memory of a reviewee.  We have found most people are busy and want to leave a review but have run our of time or forgotten.

Obviously, if you're asking customers for a review after you customer may have had a negative experience or hasn't had time to test or use what they have purchased this can come across as pushy or insincere. So timing is everything.

Always remember to take the time to answer their review. Just think of it like inviting someone into your home and then not speaking with them. It’s the same concept but online. 

Then we suggest taking your reviews and sharing them across your other social platforms and put them on your website. Turn them into case studies, blogs and posts. Put them in your email signatures, turn them into a flip book for your sales team. This user generated content is loved by Google because it supports your brand and allows google to see that customers really love your products and services. It’s a win win.

But most of all the numbers don’t lie. The more positive reviews you have then the harder it is to be left vulnerable. Your business is now being proactive rather than reactive. You have now mitigated the risk of someone saying negative things about your business online.

Just consider someone leaving a 1 star review on a business that has 10 reviews compared to a company that has 500. The difference to the business with 500 reviews is minuscule and their overall rating hardly gets affected. Not to mention with 100’s of reviews saying the complete opposite and supporting the good service you provide, the issue looks like a once off. If your reputation is priceless than this concept is something that you should be acting on right now. 

Reputation management helps your company build, monitor and respond quickly.

With our Customer Satisfaction Software, it’s our goal to simplify and generate our clients reviews on autopilot. This allows them to get on with the important things, like providing great customer service and supplying the best products and services that they are known for.

Conclusion

Reputation management is a must in this day and age and a valuable search tool for all businesses. It allows you to monitor your online reputation. And if disgruntled employee, unhappy customer or a competitor decides to attack, you’ll be ready.  So if you’d like to discover how mitigation and prevention is key to protecting your reputation book a call here to find out more.