Negative perception from consumers often results in poorer sales and margins just because of negative search results. The role of online reputation management in today’s business and media landscape is of paramount importance in today’s digital age. Finally there is a cool business that has solved the issue of unfair and biased search results from “Fake News” and the media. The Reputation Management Company has developed programs that can delete unfavorable results and replace them with relevant and real results.
Despite how huge your company is, be it a small medium sized company or a large multi-national company, customers, prospects and potentially everyone are talking about you. They will tweet how much they like about your product or how undesirable your service is on Facebook. Customer experiences are always shared through word of mouth and increasingly on the social media.
This is why it’s crucial for brands to have a professional team of search engine reputation management experts who can identify negative results and get them removed from the web before they cause any damage.
There’s definitely ways to mitigate or prevent such negative search results from affecting your company’s image. Here are some of the top tips to manage your reputation.
Set up Google alerts for your business name
One good thing about Google is that it does you notifications whenever there’s press about your business. Positive press allows you to promote it throughout your business and to consumers, and demonstrate the value you’re giving to consumers. It also doesn’t hurt to SEO good press, so that great press results are always associated with searches about your company. And bad press? Well, forewarned is forearmed, and sometimes you can use reputation management services such as The Reputation Management Company to remove search results from Google that are unfavorable or false and defamatory. You can tackle any bad press before it gets blown up with a strategic program and way to defeat unwanted results if you have a strong offense and defensive online reputation management or PR company on your side.
The Reputation Management Company specializes in helping those who have been defamed on the internet to remove and replace unwanted search results. The company has direct relationships with over 100 different consumer complaint websites where they can completely remove negative defamatory complaints about a person or company.
Reviews from customers
Knowing what your customers are thinking is the key to success. Companies like Google allows you to solicite reviews directly from customers. Some ways include offering discounts for serious reviews or simply including ‘review us’ buttons in your monthly newsletters. This way, you can understand your customers better and at the same time, build a two way communication with them and cater to their needs. Therefore, you build a credible reputation for putting customers always in priority.
Handle online reviews effectively
Try to catch issues before they get posted online. Set up a phone number or Web form for complaints or concerns, and add client satisfaction “check stops” throughout the relationship. Do be understanding and give your clients a chance to vent their frustrations, whether anonymously or face to face.
Gently encourage clients to visit review sites and leave their opinions. However, never ask for a good review and don’t offer incentives. If clients do give good reviews, display positive reviews and their sources on your website and in your office, and hand out materials that encourage new clients to review you.
Link to positive reviews to help people to find good information about you. Also encourage others to write good reviews as people trust online reviews more than any source except word of mouth.
If however clients do give a negative review, you have to respond tactfully and objectively to negative feedback. Don’t take it personally; thank them for the feedback and provide a method for offline contact so that you can follow up accordingly. Internally, learn from accurate criticism. Don’t try to provide excuses, and try to resolve the issue (if appropriate). More importantly, put procedures in place to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
Feedback loop
Knowing what your customers feel or experience from your product and services are the fastest way to eliminate any unnecessary process that they identify to bring about the negative feeling. By addressing their issues, you are also addressing your own company’s issues. Collecting feedback and implementing changes to the weak points that feedback addresses can dramatically aid your business and increase your customers pull. Listening to what your customers want and fine-tuning your business is key.
Keeping calm at anytime
Most of the time when you see a bad press or comments from customers, the first gut reaction is to respond immediately by defending your business. Sometimes, though, it makes sense to step back and wait. While you might need to say something like, “We are looking into this,” it’s important that you don’t get negative, attack your detractors, or in any way melt down. Being in an argumentative state does not put you in a good position, especially in the social media where there are many your more customers looking at how you are perceived to be. Be frank about the mistake, even if you don’t go into detail. Apologize, and describe the steps you are taking to fix it. This could even win you some votes and customers will know that your company is worth that trust.