Business reputation management on the internet by ericwelke

Articles from EricWelke.com Business Reputation Management on the Internet by Eric Welke

On the Internet, your brand’s reputation is the sum total of all the good and bad feedback it receives. And because whatever is posted about you online tends to stick around, any feedback you accumulate is accessible to everyone – even new customers at a different location. This makes it important to have an active strategy for business reputation management.

Feedback, comments and reviews by customers influence how potential customers see you online. If it is posted on public site, especially on social networks, it will be read by that poster’s contacts. There is a high probability that these contacts are also in the same geographical area as your customer. This usually means that they can become your customers too. Negative feedback cannot be avoided. You have to accept that at any given day you will not be able to please everyone. The problem with negative feedback is that it is given more weight. Successful business reputation management on the internet focuses on how you can mitigate the comments of dissatisfied customers. Doing good on your job and satisfying your customers are considered to be the norm. You shouldn’t expect nor solicit feedback for getting what’s par for the course. Spontaneous and organic feedback comes from consistently exceeding your customer’s expectations. Knowing how feedback influences potential customers and consequently your sales, I’ve put together a list of best practices for business reputation management on the internet. 1. It starts at the very basic level. Aim to consistently exceed expectations. You’re expected to give customers what they want. However, you can also ensure that they get it in a manner that will give the impression you value them and their choices. 2. Make leaving feedback easy. Give them your website address, your facebook

page or your email. Suggest that they follow your Twitter profile.

3. Tell them that their feedback is valuable and be thankful if they do give it to you. Even bad feedback can give you important lessons. 4. Respond in a timely manner. This is especially important for negative comments or complaints. Issues that are left unattended can complicate matters further. 5. Do not discuss issues publicly. Try to defuse the situation and sort it out in private messages. Try to contain the negative and heated discussion. Offer to call if you think it can help. 6. Let belligerent customers vent out, but stay polite even if they are starting to cuss. Your politeness and candor can win them over and this will help you both address the complaint. 7. Set proper expectations and follow through consistently. If you say that you’ll take action on their valid complaint then do it. Don’t be afraid to announce any successful results from the action you’ve taken. 8. Make sure you have a presence on ALL the popular sites that a customer can leave a feedback on. Monitor these regularly and if needed, claim any profile on those sites so you have complete control of them. Aside from these best practices, there are also some less ethical tactics available to those inclined. I don’t recommend doing these but it’s good to know how they are being done so that you recognize it when a competitor uses it in his business

reputation management. 1. Astroturfing is the practice of posting a large amount of positive reviews or comments for your brand. This is done to bury negative comments and in some sites that track ratings, increase the score. 2. Taking action against blogs or websites with negative comments against the brand. This is acceptable if the content is libelous but a few resort to spamming the target site or doing denial of service attacks. 3. Offering freebies to blog sites and commenters. Enticing bloggers and reviewers to publish positive reviews and write ups in exchange for perks and even cash. You will likely develop more detailed action plans when you encounter the need. Just make sure to document them and gauge their effectiveness. As always consistency is critical for business reputation management, especially in monitoring new feedbacks and comments online.