Protecting Your Rep: 4 Ways to Safeguard Your Online Reputation
Everything you need to know about a business can be found online—what do your search results say?
Today’s Internet is a complicated place. We have access to more information than anybody ever has before, and what do we do with it?
Most of the time, we’re complaining. Just take a look at the nearest Facebook profile and you’ll see; we love complaining about our problems.
We love complaining about our bad experiences.
And we really love complaining about businesses that have let us down.
Because of this onslaught of negativity, an occasional bit of online reputation management may be necessary to keep your public image untarnished. Unfortunately, just being online isn’t the same thing as reputation management. Handling your online presence can quickly backfire if you aren’t smart about it.
Consider the terribly true story of Amy’s Baking Company, where one small business owner answered a critical Yelp review with a tirade of vitriol, insults, and a surprisingly angry demeanor for a local family bakery. Rather than turning the bad review into an opportunity to improve their product and customer service quality, the owner of Amy’s Baking chose to ignore the customer’s experience in favor of a “my way or the highway” mindset.
Coming as a shock to nobody, Amy’s Baking is now closed.
Your online reputation deserves more time and attention than most businesses realize. Here are a few reputation management strategies that will help keep your good name clear:
1. Be Proactive
The first step of your online reputation management strategy is simple—get online!
Most businesses are able to respond to customer service issues and complaints in a timely manner, but fewer have mastered proactive outreach. Don’t just post on your page when your customers need you; post whenever you have something interesting or valuable to share. Regular social posting gives the impression that you take your online reputation seriously, and that you’re interested in reaching out to your customers beyond mere problem resolution.
2. Solicit Feedback/Critique
Of course, we can’t neglect one of the most important parts of your online profiles: the ability to gather feedback.
Before the Internet (heck, even before social media,) gathering customer feedback was a slow and time-consuming process. These days, most businesses have more service reviews than they know how to handle. Use this information to learn where your service is coming up short. Any issues faced by your customers are opportunities to streamline the service you offer. However, gathering this information is just half of equation. The data you collect in step two must be used in our next step…
3. Know How to Respond
Getting feedback on your shortcomings is always helpful, but it isn’t always easy. What’s the best way to respond to negative reviews? And how do you placate angry customers posting on public profiles? Don’t make the mistake of thinking your job is done after your customers provide feedback. Part of managing your online reputation is knowing how to gracefully react to whatever situations may arise on your online pages.
Some customer comments need no response. Others will escalate into a nightmare if not addressed. Examine each case individually and determine what steps are necessary. Angry customers should be addressed ASAP, but quickly move the discussion to private messaging or other secure channel. Data by Pew Research Center found that 81 percent of Internet users feel “not very” or “not at all” secure when sharing personal information with businesses over social media. Social media is great for making businesses aware of problems, but it’s not the best place to get into lengthy discussions about policies or technical support problem solving.
4. Don’t Take Abuse
Finally, some good news on the online reputation front: the customer is not always right.
While negative reviews run the gamut from mild to scathing, they’ll generally fall in the realm of “unfortunate yet acceptable”: your customers had a chance to vent, you addressed their issue, and now you can move on. However, some complaints take it a step beyond into territory that isn’t just scathing, but actually illegal. Examples of this include:
- Defamatory or slanderous language
- Reporting false facts or information
- Specifically designed to damage a company’s reputation
This can be particularly damaging if your negative reviews appear on pages ranking well in search. Data by Edelman Insights found that 65 percent of consumers view organic search as the most trusted source of info about companies or people. While you can’t always get negative reviews removed, reviews containing the above language is a different story. Most businesses have a hard enough time handling their truthful customers—you don’t need misinformation thrown into the mix.
Protecting Your Rep
Your reputation, ironically, is all about other people: other people talking, other people complaining, and other people sharing experiences about your brand. If you want your online reputation to stay pristine, you’ll need to get hands on with your customers. Reach out to them, listen to them, and try to understand what their goals are. As long as your customers feel valued and respected by your business, you might just find that they’ll improve your online reputation for you. Curious about more strategies for handling criticism and your online identity? Check out our free white paper!
