Reputation Management: Is Your Reputation Hurting Your Sales?
Hundreds of companies are flashed before the eyes of consumers each day. From search engine results to display ads to ads splashed throughout Facebook. When you get the opportunity to capture a consumer’s attention, the last thing you want is bad reviews and feedback preventing you from getting a sale. We’re going to talk about reputation management, what it is, and how you can increase sales by managing your reputation online.
Online Reviews
Online reviews are a great way to validate to potential new customers that your product and service are worthwhile and can help to persuade new prospects to give your company a try. Small businesses and big businesses alike can see a significant boost in sales if they can tap into getting customers to leave reviews regularly. But what about a bad review?
The truth is that negative content on review sites, on social networks or that, can be found when Googling your company name or domain name can hurt your business. Negative reviews can thwart much of your digital marketing efforts. It’s essential to have a pulse on your online presence, allowing you to protect your brand.
Reputation Management Companies
Most business owners believe you don’t need a reputation management company until you have a bad reputation. That the reputation management companies come in and clean up the customer feedback and poor comments making sure only positive feedback is displayed. But the best possible thing a company can do is to hire a reputation management company before they have issues.
A good reputation is built by providing great products with great customer service before and after the sale. Every company should strive to do this, making the customer your priority. Reputation management starts with setting up the listening process on how to measure the sentiment and how people feel about your company and products.
With so many places to post negative and positive reviews on the web, there may be information about your company that is out there that you may not even know. It could all be good, some of it could be bad, but if you don’t know you can’t address it.
Monitoring Conversations
That first step can be to set up google alerts to ensure that you know when someone mentions your company. You will be able to be a part of the conversation at the time that it is occurring rather than letting the conversation, whether good or bad, go on without you.
The second step is to do a few Google searches for your company name, your brands, and your domain name. You’ll have an understanding of where conversations are happening and what’s said.
Another step will be to set up social media monitoring, which allows you to not only be notified when your company or brand is mentioned but to measure the sentiment. Here are just some of the things you’ll want to know.
- Are the conversations going on in social media positive? Are they neutral? Are they negative?
- Do you have brand ambassadors who are consistently spreading the praise of your products?
- Do people post video reviews on Youtube or leave comments on your videos?
Managing Your Online Reputation
This is probably the hardest part and why people hire reputation management companies. Reputation management isn’t about hiding the bad stuff but making sure you’re part of the conversation, responding appropriately, and seeing the negative issues through to an excellent resolution.
The part that is key for businesses is to take this feedback that is received from customers and do something with it. Address customer support issues with your customer support team. Address quality concerns with manufacturers, address delivery concerns with shipping partners. While the conversation online needs to be managed, taking that feedback and turning it into actionable feedback to your internal teams is what will allow you to support the reputation management firm in making sure you look great in the eyes of consumers.
Top Marketing Agency is a successful reputation management agency that can help you with protecting your brand image online. Contact us today to get started at (888) 843-9840!
My business has worked with Top Marketing Agency for the past few years and they have been amazing. Their agency is like an extension of our company, they know what we need and they are driven to help us succeed!