Over 92% of customers read online reviews and testimonials before making a purchase. In this scenario, you would like to have tons of positive reviews everywhere, from independent reviews sites to social media platforms.
But not all customers are happy. Even big brands have unsatisfied customers. As a result, they may drop a negative review about your business. Given that nearly all customers trust reviews or testimonials, having negative reviews can affect their buying decision.
Negative reviews can now travel faster than ever, thanks to the ubiquity of Internet-enabled devices.
Negative reviews directly impact your online reputation.
Is there any way to handle those adverse comments?
Enter online reputation management. It is the “practice of crafting strategies that shape or influence the public perception of an organization, individual or other entity on the Internet.” (Source: Techopedia).
Read Also: How Online Investing Increases Your Business’ Visibility?
If you’re thinking it is all about burying those negative reviews, sorry to say you are wrong. Instead, it is the practice of handling those adverse comments in a “positive way”. ORM helps you keep track of your business image over the Internet. Besides, it lets you find out the problems of unsatisfied customers and if you can resolve them.
Here are some key ORM tips to improve your business image across the digital world.
1. What is Being Said about Your Brand?
Some love your brand. Some find it’s just above average. There may be some who don’t like it at all.
The point is here to be aware of what customers think about your brand. Checking their reviews and feedback will help you know their take on your business. Besides, you can use brand monitoring tools like Mention to stay on the top on reputation management. Or you can set up Google Alerts to see other’s post about your business. This is the first thing to do before moving to other steps.
2. Take Care of Your Negative Reviews:
Negative reviews, as we have said earlier, can influence your buying decision. However, burying or clearing them off is not a great idea. This is because your business looks too good to be true. As a result, a customer will think that there is something wrong at the bottom.
Unlike positive reviews, most negative reviews are genuine. People post them because they are not satisfied with your services or feel annoyed. Here you need to understand their issues and assure them that they will be fixed. This will unleash a positive impact over an “annoyed customer”.
It also shows you as a business who really cares for their customer. As a result, a new or potential customer will always have peace of mind while buying from you. Not taking care of negative reviews led Nestlé to close their public page due to huge outcry and resentment.
Read Also: How to Spot Fake Online Reviews
3. Have Profile Across the Relevant Websites:
Your company must have a presence on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Don’t be restricted to there. Go beyond to some additional social media sites or listing sites in Singapore like Hotfrog, Yalwa, Contactme, and Enrollbusiness. LinkedIn is great for B2B businesses while Instagram is suitable for visually oriented products like clothing and food. YouTube is also great for your video or slide-based content.
Having more accounts will help you outrank the negative postings. Having a strong online presence also builds your credibility and helps you reach more customers.
Read Also: How to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Social Media
4. Create Press Releases:
PR helps your brand reputation as it spreads awareness. They can be built around anything, from new launches, recognition, awards, events and more. It also helps you tackled negative press ahead of time. Simply put, the more PR you have across the web, the less likely negative press will be found by your potential customers. Think this as in the ration of—100 positive PR and 10 negative PR.
5. Improve the Online Reputation of Your Employees:
Some businesses are generally known by the name of their employees. For example, for businesses like healthcare or hair salons, perspective might be searching for your services asking their colleagues or friends “Which one do you prefer” instead of “Which business you prefer?”
The friend will tell the name of a person instead of a business. This is why it is important to develop a strong Internet presence on social media and blogging sites of your key employees.
6. Encourage Customers to Share Positive Experiences:
We all know that it’s not complicated. Just give them a gentle reminder or request this way—“Did we live up to your expectations today? Please drop your positive feedback!” This request can be placed at the bottom of webpages and receipt as well. An overwhelmed customer is likely to give instant positive feedback.
7. Keep Track of Your ORM:
Establishing a business reputation is not enough. Once created, it is required to be constantly monitored and maintained to protect a business. Here’s how…
- Use the tools like Brand Monitoring or Trackur.com to keep track of the reviews, online content and tweets mentioning your brand name.
- Monitor your social media accounts and review sites as well.
- Also, check the reputation of your potential partners.
AND
- Stay consistent with the ORM practices given so far in this blog.
So this is how you can improve your online reputation as a business. However, if you are not good at this or don’t have time to keep track of the things, it is better to hand over this task to a professional ORM company in Singapore.
