For any type of business, you need to keep in mind that all you are doing is a direct reflection of your reputation. Essentially, it includes product and service quality, as well as your level of customer service. If you have a good reputation, it is going to take you far and help you to grow your business. But if you have a poor reputation, it can be disastrous. It is not easy to build and maintain your reputation; if your mental frame only focuses on providing exceptional products and your service to customers, you are only opening yourself up to problems.
Andrew Knight New Canaan is going to share with you some key points you need to consider while creating a good and effective reputation management strategy.
Monitor your online comments and reviews
Each and every business needs to track the reviews they get online as well as the social media comments. For you to have a good tracking system, use a Google Alert for the name of your business. Additionally, use advanced social listening tools or reputation management tools. If you are not on Google or Yelp reviews sites, ensure that you set these accounts up. For instance, if you are on Google, claim your Google My Business listing. It does not only allow people to review you, you will also be easy to find through Google Maps.
It is very important to respond to comments and reviews. Always respond to comments even if they are not comfortable. Although not all negative reviews are rational or even fair, some are written by customers who are hard to please. There are other comments that are placed by competitors to try and tarnish your name. In other cases, it is good to pinpoint wrong entries of customers who have not placed an order as they claimed. Avoid getting into arguments with customers; and no matter how rude the comments turn out to be, always make reasonable responses. Always remember that you are a public business and there is more to lose than an anonymous customer’s review.
Do not forget to thank people for leaving reviews that are positive. As much as you need to answer negative reviews, you need to show your appreciation for customers who place good compliments. Always take the time to respond to all reviews, however brief you make the responses.
Your reputation is affected by your content and marketing
The management of your reputation overlaps with the PR, marketing and brand management field, and all these impact the image of the company to the public. You will have noticed that some brands have gotten into trouble using inappropriate tweets, insensitive ads or other content on social media. Your blog posts, your ads, videos and tweets and all that you publish contribute to your reputation and public image.
Ensure that everyone in your team has the copy of your policies, including those who create the online content for you, those who manage your social media accounts and those who make any kind of interaction with you in any way. Your brand strategy goes hand in hand with them. Using a consistent tone, style and layout in your marketing help you to make your brand more easy to recognize and build your reputation.
Engage with your customers
You and your customers have a collaborative effort of building your reputation. Some customers will help you out proactively by posting recommendations and reviews to their friends. But most of them need some nudging. Andrew Knight New Canaan would like to share with you some ideas on how you can collaborate with your customers to engage more customers.
Engage on social media: monitor your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram accounts and all other social media accounts you have. The more you stay engaged with your followers, the more you can share your content with them, so that they can share with their friends.
Ask for reviews: if you are listed on Yelp, Google or any other review site, post your website’s link. You can ask people to sign close to the register of the counter for reviews; you can have this on menus or brochures or on any other product.
Focus on the customer: your reputation is dependent on how you treat your customers. People can forgive some mistakes since everyone makes them, especially if a business makes efforts to set things right. That is why employees have to be trained to be helpful, kind and solution baed.
In summary, maintaining your reputation is a long-term objective, your daily actions over time are the ones which endear you to your customers or crucify your brand. Although customers determine the reputation of your business, you need to play your part.