It doesn’t matter how good the product or service you’re selling is; if you have a bad overall reputation, your ability to profit will be compromised. The fact is that most consumers will choose to go with the company that has the best reputation and reviews, so maintaining yours is a critical aspect of your business.
How people judge you will be based on your overall image, which is built on:
- Online Content Regarding Your Company
- Customer Reviews
- Social Media Comments
What people say about your company online is pretty much out of your control; but that does not mean that you should ignore it. In fact, you should be proactively finding out what is being said about your company.
Then, you should respond to any comments and reviews – both positive and negative, but especially the negative comments. Not doing so could come across to potential consumers as if you don’t care, which is simply bad for business.
For instance, if your business has some bad reviews from customers, then you should talk to these customers and find out why and try to fix the problem. In many cases, this small personal touch can turn a bad review into a glowing one.
The best part is that your potential customers will also be able to see that you’ve worked at solving these problems and that you care about your customers.
Customer reviews are perhaps the most important aspect of your business. Whether they’re customer reviews from your own site, or reviews written about you on other sites, they can be the biggest deciding influence on a customer.
A bad review can draw attention to information you’d rather was private and can give the impression that your company provides bad products and services. However, with reputation management methods you can push these bad reviews down and build a more positive online image surrounding your company.
Online reputation management is a process that revolves around finding out what is being said about your company online, responding to it, asking happy customers for reviews, and publishing positive content about your company in various online locations.
First impressions are everything; by ensuring that potential customers see your company in a positive light, you have a better chance of converting them into paying customers. Otherwise, you could be blocking new customers, which means losing profits, and not even know it.