WHAT IS REPUTATION MANAGEMENT?
Reputation management is the practice of actively managing your business’s online reputation, including reviews, social media or forum mentions, and questions on various web platforms such as Google Business Profile or Amazon. Reputation management could also be called perception management, as it not only serves the purpose of keeping existing customers happy but also collectively crafts the perception that future prospective customers will have of your business.
Over 90% of consumers read online reviews before making large purchase decisions. This means that not only is it important to cultivate a strong online reputation, but you must manage it actively, replying to questions, comments, and concerns that you receive. It’s impossible to avoid ever receiving a negative review. Some customers just can’t be pleased, despite your best efforts, and when they go to Google, Facebook, Yelp, or another review platform to complain, the way you handle their complaints will be visible to future prospective customers who are thinking about doing business with you. Not replying will make it appear as if you don’t care when someone has a negative experience while combating the unhappy person’s comments can turn a situation from bad to worse.
In review management, it is important to promptly reply to reviews and questions in a positive and constructive way. Even in the face of negative reviews, replying apologetically and offering to try to resolve the problem offline can hopefully help turn around an unhappy customer’s experience but will definitely improve the perception of potential future customers.
The more reviews you have online, and of course, the higher their average score, the more people are going to trust that they will have a good experience doing business with you. To this end, the other side of reputation management is to try to get more reviews. This is done through a set of efforts, including interactions at the time of sale, prompting a review, as well as email and text follow-ups after the sale.
Our experienced reputation management team will take the burden off your shoulders by managing every mention and review while guiding your time of sale activities and digitally soliciting your existing customers for new reviews.