Business Reputation 101: How to Create and Maintain a Good Reputation

87% of customers read reviews for online and offline businesses before making a purchase. Nowadays, people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends. Before ordering a product or visiting a local store, customers consult Google reviews (the most popular review platform) to find out what other people say about the brand.

Besides reading reviews, people also like to write them to help other consumers figure out if a particular brand answers their needs. 72% of customers wrote at least an online review only in 2020.

While consumers value online reviews more than anything, businesses aren’t always happy with their online evaluations. Unfortunately, many companies lack the tools and knowledge to deal with a brand fallout due to an incident or public customer dispute. The brand is the most valuable asset for a company because it impacts its performance and success. If a business fails to protect its brand image and reputation, its capital, influence, and social proof suffer.

What is reputation management?

What people post online about your business will haunt its name forever. This is why it’s crucial to follow the best reputation management practices and be proactive about creating a positive image. Reputation management implies positively engaging your audience, removing inaccurate and false information, and tackling negative comments and reviews with the help of win-win techniques. Brand reputation management involves valuing your employees and clients, being transparent, promoting authentic interactions, and investing in PR.

You should be aware by now that everything people say about your brand can end up online. There are plenty of examples of former employees talking about how their employers failed to create safe workplaces and customers disappointed about the quality of the products they received.

There are some effective strategies to control public perceptions you can employ.

Strategies to protect your brand’s reputation

Keep your employees and business partners happy

A major source of reputation backlash is unhappy clients, employees, and competitors who’re looking for ways to shatter your company’s image. You can avoid this kind of negativity if you operate your company honestly and with as much integrity and transparency as possible.

Keeping your business partners and employees satisfied with your relationship is crucial. Studies show that employee satisfaction is an essential part of branding, and it’s recommended to make it part of your overall business strategy.

Have a look at how you can keep your employees content.

– Develop an employee satisfaction program.

– Encourage a feedback culture that helps workers feel engaged and involved in the business’ success.

– Choose a cause to support together with your employees.

– Create a program for volunteerism for a cause that is important for your staff.

Handle

Google your business regularly

Have you ever Googled your business? If the answer is no, you should do it right now. The simple act of typing your business name into the search engine regularly uncovers all kinds of things you didn’t know. When you Google your business, you see your company through your public’s eyes. You read online reviews you didn’t know about because they’re posted on third-party platforms, discover gossips about your business on social media platforms, and read comments from clients who used your products.

If you find bad reviews when you Google your business, so can potential buyers. A single bad comment can ruin your brand’s reputation, so make a task from regularly reading online reviews. Remove any inaccurate information when possible because not all reviews provide genuine information about your brand. If you cannot remove the data yourself, talk with the website owner to see if you can respond to it or have it removed after you have proved its falseness. Drop the negative reviews you cannot remove to lower search status by generating high-quality SEO optimised content.

Manage reputation crises wisely

Any business, no matter the size or industry, is at risk of a reputation crisis when it expects it the least, whether that means a lawsuit, a non-compliant product, or a morality issue. Even a Twitter post can trigger a reputation crisis in today’s digital world. Or, as the experts from AccidentClaims explain, “A simple matter of negligence can lead to a work accident involving your employees and resulting in them looking for legal services to sue you. This can bring a reputation crisis upon your business which can put off investors, disrupt business operations, and, obviously, impact your finances.”

Now, a reputation crisis can happen, even when you think you’ve taken all steps to avoid one. The real question is, “What will you do about it?”. How you handle such a crisis can significantly impact how your brand will go through this, how many loyal customers you’ll have at the end of it, and how big of a hit your finances have taken.

To handle a reputation crisis:

• Analyze the situation and level of damage
• Wisely plan your media communication strategy
• Don’t neglect internal communication
• Use social media for a response (whether that means taking the blame and announcing your strategy to handle it or defending your brand)
• Maintain full transparency

Create evergreen content

Don’t rely solely on customer and employee reviews to build your brand’s reputation. Publish content online coming directly from you because who knows your business better than you? By creating evergreen content about your industry, you can even control the comments and reviews to some extent by engaging your audience on your forums. Use social media platforms to leverage your online presence and show behind-the-scenes glimpses.

Create high-quality content that ties your business to your customers’ journey and addresses negative reviews and complaints.

Keep an eye on your company’s digital footprint

If you want to control the public’s perception of your business, monitor its digital footprint and look for abrupt changes resulting from negative publicity. Search engines and your admin dashboard for hosting should show traffic spikes and enable you to analyse trends.

Protect your company’s privacy

Negative press is one of the most aggressive tools someone can use to sink a business. Security breaches have devastating effects on brand reputation because they expose customers to risk and show how little the company cares for its clients’ security.

You can prevent cybercriminals from breaking your network by educating staff on digital security. Human error is one of the main factors leading to data breaches, so it’s essential to train your staff to safeguard the company’s information. There are some methods to protect yourself from cybercriminals.

– Use a VPN

– Update software, devices, and networks

– Use access control and encryption to limit access to sensitive information

– Use secure hosting platforms that guarantee cyber protection.