HOW TO MANAGE THE ONLINE REPUTATION OF YOUR SMALL AND LOCAL BUSINESS
STARTING A SMALL BUSINESS If you think only big brands need to worry about their online reputation, you are highly mistaken. Starting a small business with no planning of building an online reputation can lead your business to a dead end. Whether you run a dental clinic, beauty salon or a small restaurant, you should diligently monitor your online reviews and comments on social media or other related platforms where content can affect the visibility of your online business.
Many small businesses do not bother to create a well-planned strategy for maintaining their online reputation, thinking of not being able to compete with large scale brands. However, with effective reputation management in Australia, even local businesses with limited and smaller selections can dominate bigger brands in the industry. Besides, it is important to manage online reviews and ratings for every business to determine what people think about their brand and areas they need to work on to drive maximum customer satisfaction. Follow these professional online reputation management tips for your small and local business.
PROVIDE A GREAT PRODUCT WITH SATISFACTORY CUSTOMER SERVICE Most customer reviews focus on product quality and customer service. Both the aspects are paramount to creating a great customer experience. Besides providing product/service that stand for superior quality, make sure you don’t make any false promises about your offerings. Also, make it easier for your customers to reach you with their doubts and queries regarding your business or a product/service.
USE A MOBILE OPTIMISED SITE
The internet has continued to evolve over the years and so have internet users. More and more people are using mobile devices to shop, find local businesses and browse websites, which emphasises the need for mobile optimisation. Having a website that modifies its layout and appearance to look good on any device or screen can be an added advantage for business owners.
Besides, Google prefers mobile optimised content for indexing. That means mobile optimised websites have better chances of ranking high in search results. Also remember that websites are created to provide seamless user experiences, hence should be customer-centric. That said, make sure your responsive website is easy to navigate and read and doesn’t take more than 3 seconds to load.
GATHER FEEDBACK AND PROMOTE THE BEST REVIEWS Get in touch with your customers and proactively ask them to share their experience with you before they post an online review. Doing so will let you know about your customers’ expectations. Also, if everything goes fine and they are happy with your services, politely ask them to provide a review on the business profiles that matter you the most.
Considering that today’s customers largely count on online reviews for making purchases, this is one of the simplest yet effective way to improve your online reputation.
CLAIM AND OPTIMISE YOUR BUSINESS LISTING Another important tip for building a positive online reputation is to claim your local business listings which will give your business more visibility in search engines.
It works wonders for businesses that don’t have a strong online presence. Search engine pulls your information from these business listings to verify your business legitimacy and to provide accurate business information like contact number, address to users.
HANDLE NEGATIVE REVIEWS IN AN EFFECTIVE WAY No business is untouched by negative reviews no matter how good your products/services are. Whether you expected it or not, false or negative reviews from unhappy customers or haters may show up on social media sites and reviewing sites, wreaking havoc on your reputation. Addressing negative reviews with an immediate action is a necessity. Besides, if you feel like the review implies some actual concerns that need to be resolved, revert the same on the public platform as well as personally through e-mail them with a suitable solution. Fast and thoughtful customer-centred responses show your professionalism and improve your business reputation among customers.
THE TAKEAWAY
Use these tips to start monitoring and managing your reputation while your business is small and grow your online presence over time. Assistance from the best reputation management company in Australia can go a long way to maintain and repair your online presence, while giving you an edge over competition.
REACH US Reputation Circle PO Box 6262, O'CONNOR ACT 2602 help@reputationcircle.com.au
1300 760 363 http://www.reputationcircle.com.au