Upholding The Reputation of Your Business

Your business reputation IS your business. If you have a good business reputation, your business will flourish. Conversely, if you have a poor business reputation, you will gradually lose existing customers and find it difficult to attract new ones.

With this in mind you can see why it’s important to have happy customers who come back again and again and send their friends. The customer may not always be right; but the customer is always the customer. The customer is paying their money, as agreed, for something in return and we as business people need to be clear about our agreements. We want to be sure our customers get what they are expecting and that they get it with an attitude of appreciation.

With a philosophy like this running through every part of your business there most likely won’t be any negative reputation to repair. In the long run it’s just easier to take care of our customers, learn from our mistakes and take care of our business than to try to fix bad reviews about our business.

Since your business reputation is so important, you might want to follow these three simple steps to help manage your business reputation online.

First, find out what is being said about your company.

By using Google Alerts, you’ll be able to catch your company’s name as it shows up in various media. Additionally, you can keep track of what is being said about your company in the blogosphere by using a site like Technorati to keep track. The best way to go about setting up a monitoring system is to have one employee to do this job. This trustworthy employee should keep an eye out for keywords related to top employee names, product names, brand names, and your company name.

Second, influence conversations in a positive way.

Create a steady stream of content. You can do this by adding fresh content to your website, by writing regular blog posts, by participating in industry forums, by adding informative videos to video sharing websites, by writing articles for article directories, by guest blogging on related websites, and by participating in popular social media platforms like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Third, respond to critiques.

This may be the most important step. This gives consumers an alternative point-of-view other than what the critique has to say. Suppose, for example, a customer complains on a consumer opinion site that your company is pitifully slow in delivering your products. Based on your research of that customers order, you might be able to point out that the order was shipped out in time but the customer had provided the shipping address of their former residence. Honestly responding to your critics is better than appearing guilty by default. Inaccurate complaints can be addressed with clarifying proof that your company acted in an ethical way.

These tips on upholding the reputation of your business should be helpful whether you have been in business for many years or are just starting out on your own.

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