Warren Buffet put it best when he said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” It’s important to build and maintain a positive brand reputation. The way your brand is perceived influences whether consumers will try your business for the first time and whether they will return. With the majority of people checking online reviews, the way your brand is perceived online is crucial to your brand’s success. While there is a myriad of tools and techniques on the internet for reputation management, here are our four best practices for reputation management:
Respond to all reviews
Online reviews are a great way to close the gap between how your company perceives itself and how consumers perceive your company. Effectively responding to reviews builds trust with your past and future customers. Responding not only shows that you care what your customers think, but also that you are committed to customer satisfaction.
Plus, responding to Google reviews helps your local SEO with 15% of Google’s local search ranking factors being based on review signals; in other words, the quality of the reviews left, review velocity and review diversity can improve your search rankings.
2. Be active on your social media channels
The only thing worse than not having social media is not being active on it. Posting regularly on your social media account increases brand awareness and visibility. Whether “staying active” on social media means posting twice a day or once a week, pick a schedule and stick to it. Social media consistency builds trust.
3. Ask for your customers to leave reviews
If your business does not have many recent reviews or any at all, don’t be afraid to ask your customers to leave a review. When asked to leave a review, approximately 71% of consumers will leave a review for the business. Send a follow-up text or email with a link for them to leave a review, making the process as streamlined as possible.
Reviews are critical to a local business’ success (or failing), so don’t overlook them. When judging local businesses, consumers pay the most attention to the overall star rating, the sentiment of reviews and recency of reviews.
4. Handle Negative Reviews Privately
It’s heartbreaking to see customers leave impactful negative reviews about your business. While it may be tempting to argue with them, delete their comment or burry their review, negative reviews are a great opportunity. The way that you respond to negative reviews says a lot more about your business than the negative review itself. If you play your cards right, you may be able to convince that customer (and others reading the review) to give you another chance to convert them into life-long, loyal fans.
When responding to negative reviews, apologize, state the facts (if necessary) and invite the customer to send you a private message where you can look further into the issue and make amends.
Building and maintaining a positive brand reputation is critical to your business’ success as it converts customers into lifelong fans and encourages potential consumers to try your product or service.
Do you have any questions about improving your brand’s reputation? Email Josh at josh@jamiascreative.com!