Did you know that the impact of customer experience works like a chain? According to a survey, about 71% of consumers on social media platforms recommend a brand to their friends and family, if they have a positive experience. You can drastically gain more website or physical store traffic by offering a memorable and flexible user experience to existing customers.
As you would expect, poor customer experience is a one-way ticket to drive audiences away. When customers react to your business, they unconsciously rate customer service and product quality.
In a study conducted by BrightLocal, researchers found about 97% of customers assess the online reputation of a business before purchasing. Therefore, a business should maintain its online and offline reputation. Sometimes, product quality doesn’t influence customers’ opinions about the business.
For instance, in a restaurant chain, customers won’t visit again because of unwelcoming employees’ behavior, even if the food is good. Therefore, business owners need to understand what customers think about their business.
You need to present your business in the right light to improve its reputation. A transparent relationship with your customers goes a long way for business success and growth. Businesses can gauge their reputation by looking at comments, reviews, social media stories, and open conversations.
What is Reputation Management?
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In layman’s terms, reputation management is about improving and controlling your brand’s perception. Sounds interesting, right? But it isn’t that simple, especially with the huge competition in the market. But there are techniques and strategies for effective reputation management.
Also, you can hire a reliable public relations agency in New York. These reputation management services save significant time and effort, so business owners and employees can focus on their tasks without worrying about improving their reputations. The major goal of these businesses is to improve reputation, which eventually boosts business visibility, growth, and customer relations.
Major Elements of Reputation Management Strategy
Here are five major steps to develop successful reputation management strategies:
1. Monitor Your Reputation
The first step for reputation management is evaluation. Without learning about your current reputation in the market, you cannot create a solid action plan. Furthermore, it keeps you accountable and helps track progress. So, you should listen to the fuss what people say about your brand and social media is one of the best platforms for that.
Social media generate valuable data for business evaluation. Facebook and Instagram offer businesses excellent resources to create better customer relationships. For instance, Facebook allows chatbots to instantly respond to frequently asked questions. Other platforms such as Amazon and TripAdvisor encourage customers to review brands and products, so new customers can easily decide based on business reputation.
Potential customers also check forums and reviews to make an informed decision. If you plan to improve your reputation, make sure you have good reviews and ratings on these platforms. Keep in mind, about 69% of consumers check reviews while making a decision.
2. Create a Response Plan
Check online reviews and feedback on different platforms. When you are aware of the discussions revolving around the market, you can create a response plan. A response plan helps balance the reputation, leading to business growth. Here are some questions you need to answer while creating a response plan:
- What kind of reviews need responses?
- Who will respond to the customers?
- How to tackle different types of responses?
Planning and executing responses would be easier if you answer the above question beforehand.
3. Resolve Negative Reviews Delicately
How would you respond to a one-star review? If that’s what you are thinking, many people would respond with “brush it off”. You don’t have to respond to every negative comment and rating. Simply pretend that this never happened. Agile leaders don’t fret about previous responses. Instead, they create strategies to improve reputation by improving their services to keep customers happy.
However, ignoring isn’t always the solution as the bad review will always stay on your social media pages. A poll hosted by Reputology reported that businesses can win over 80% of their unhappy customers with the right responses. But what is the right response? Here are some tips you can follow to create a positive impact on unhappy customers:
- Always keep a friendly, professional, and polite tone
- Listen and do your best to solve your customer’s problems
- Instant responses can recover harsh reviews
- Solve complaints seriously and follow up with the customer
4. Respond to Positive Reviews
Reputation management doesn’t end by responding to negative comments. You should motivate your happy customers as well. These responses drastically enhance your online reputation. Many companies also offer discounts and other benefits to their customers. Since customers take time to appreciate your business, you must respond uniquely. For instance, if they attached a picture of the product with a satisfactory response, post it on your business page as a gesture of appreciation.
5. Evaluate Your Results
The final step is the reward you get by executing a perfect reputation management strategy, and that is, evaluation. Progress assessment keeps you in the right direction.
If you forget to follow up with the client, now is the right time to do. Share complaint status with the customers and win their hearts. Keep in mind that if you made a promise to the customer as an apology, you can’t let it go. Ignoring could worsen your business’ reputation.
Tips to Choose a Reputation Management Service
Reputation management protects your business from bad information and poor feedback. Therefore, you shouldn’t risk giving reputation management responsibilities to in house team. Instead, you can collaborate with a professional reputation management service to improve business reputation in the market. However, with a myriad of options, choosing a reliable and insightful team can be a significant challenge. Here are some tips to choose a professional team for reputation management:
- Evaluate the strategies that service providers follow
- Assess their skills and experience
- Check their portfolio
- Be sure about transparency
- Check if they have a good market reputation
Final Words
Reputation management is more than resolving negative feedback. It helps understand your customers and create business processes according to their preferences.
