What if you kept losing business because of a bad reputation? Your business reputation is controlled by how your customers perceive you on the internet.
This is the first impression customers get when they find your company online. Your reviews, media, and search results in all factor into the sentiment around your business. A reputation management company can help you to influence this sentiment.
You may not think it's fair, but in today's world, your reputation as a business is absolutely everything. One simple statement taken out of context can send your reputation into a downward spiral.
The good news is that you don't have to sit back and let that happen. With a reputation management company, you can repair any damage to your company's image. And even if your existing rep is fine, brand reputation management can protect your brand, and boost it to entirely new levels.
Wondering what a reputation management company is and how they can help your business? Let's examine...
We've put together a definitive guide for what a reputation management company can do for your business. Before we go any further, it's important to define what such a firm is and its exact role in your business plan.
As the name implies, a reputation management company is in charge of managing (and massaging) your reputation through various platforms across the internet. For example, they can help you strike a perfect first impression with a new client or help bring in new clients through positive press.
If your reputation has suffered in some way, the firm can help repair your reputation. This means everything from burying negative search results online to handling negative online reviews of your products and services.
Ultimately, the firm understands that a business is all about relationships. And they help to safeguard your reputation so that you can have a better relationship with each and every client.
Now that you know a bit more about what a reputation management company does, let's explore a few of the ways such a firm can promote your business and services.
The line is very thin between business success and failure. Why? Because success is about more than providing quality products and services.
Instead, the real secret to success is visibility. Having the best products and services in the world means nothing if most of the world has no idea who you are.
That's why one of the most important functions of a reputation management company is to improve your online visibility. That means focusing on SEO strategies that bring interested consumers directly to your digital doorstep.
A good firm can also help link other websites and directories back to your site and make sure you feature prominently on these directories. If you are a local brick and motor business, this means winning "near me" searches. When the smoke clears, your site will be more visible than ever.
It's always annoying to lose an employee, but it's especially bad to lose your best employees. After all, you spent a lot of time and money on their training.
The solution is simple: you need to focus on employee retention. And a reputation management company can help you do this by improving employee loyalty.
Reputation management companies can help you discreetly discover what your employees are saying about you and your company. This helps you to identify both threats and opportunities regarding your current company culture.
Furthermore, these firms can help manage your online reputation through websites such as Glassdoor. Those websites affect your online reputation and even affect who applies to your company.
With a good firm, you can improve your company in the eyes of existing employees while also ensuring you get a solid pool of applicants for future positions.
Of course, reviews on Glassdoor aren't the only reflection of your company's reputation. Most customers rely on things such as online user reviews to decide whether or not they want to do business with you.
Unfortunately, tracking and managing your online reviews takes a lot of time. If a company CEO or a manager tries to handle this task, they won't have time to take on their primary responsibilities! Ultimately causing your business to lose revenue opportunities.
Reputation management firms can help track and respond to negative reviews in real-time. And while they handle your online rep, you and your employees can focus on what you do best: growing your company.
Does your online reputation management strategy involve customer advocates? If not, then you are ignoring one of the best possible resources for your company's success.
That's because many customers (especially millennials) are wary of traditional advertisements. Frankly, they know you're just trying to sell them something and are understandably skeptical.
Such skeptics prefer to hear about your company from other customers instead. And while this is an easy and proven strategy, most companies don't do enough to enable customer advocates to promote their brand.
A reputation management company can enable those customers and build positive online word-of-mouth. This is ultimately more powerful than traditional advertisements and a hell of a lot cheaper!
Social media is another underused resource when it comes to reputation management. On one hand, social media is a cheap and intuitive way of engaging with your demographic. On the other hand, most businesses don't use social media to its full potential.
Why is that? Take your pick. Some businesses don't know how to adequately build an online community, while others don't know how to keep community engagement active over long periods of time.
With a reputation management company, you can create a powerful online community across multiple social media channels. This is important because anyone who bothers to like, share, and comment on your posts is likely to be a serious customer advocate.
The firm also knows how to craft viral posts and posts to keep people chatting. This is important because every customer who engages with those posts helps expose your company to their friends and followers.
Remember when we said many customers are skeptical of traditional advertisements? This creates a unique opportunity to help your business stand out from the competition.
In short, customers like transparency. They like companies that are upfront about both successes and failures and who aren't afraid to be both honest and earnest.
However, this creates a very fine line for your business to walk. How can you honestly discuss failures without driving more customers away? And how can you present earnestness and passion in a way that doesn't seem commercial or cliché?
Reputation management companies help you walk this fine line and enjoy the best of both worlds. You get to market yourself as an authentic brand who keeps it real while knowing that the firm is managing your reputation among key demographics the entire time.
Sometimes, it just takes a few rookie mistakes to really sink a business. This includes providing incorrect information to online customers.
For example, most companies rely on Google My Business to provide essential info (such as an address, phone number, and business hours) to customers. But many companies forget to change their Google profile if any of that information changes.
As a result, customers may not be able to reach you or may drive to an old address. When they discover you're not there, it can ruin your entire reputation in their eyes.
One of the simpler functions of a reputation management company is that they regularly ensure that all of your online information is accurate. This includes going beyond Google and fixing incorrect information that is featured on other sites and directories as well.
Sometimes, navigating customer reviews can feel very dangerous. After all, only the very happy or very annoyed are motivated enough to leave feedback. And it can get downright demoralizing to navigate a mountain of negative comments about your business.
However, a reputation management company can scan these reviews for the most important resource of all: customer insights. These are the comments that rise above petty complaints and serve as constructive criticism of your business.
It sounds simple, but most businesses don't pay enough attention to these simple insights. With the help of a reputation management company, you can improve every aspect of your products, services, and organization.
No matter how awesome your business is, you will always have competition. And that competition can either deflate your success or help your business achieve new heights.
For example, many businesses focus on competitors' products and services. The goal is simple: to offer better products and services at more competitive prices.
While that's all well and good, it's equally important to pay attention to your competitor's online reputation. Do you know what their social media engagement looks like or how well their automated chat feature works?
With a reputation management company, you can understand your competition's reputation from beginning to end. And you can then borrow some of their better ideas and merge them with your own innovations so that your company always comes out on top!