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Reputation Management Isn’t a Marketing Problem or an Operations Problem — It’s a Problem/Opportunity for the Entire Company
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t Business Evaluation Services, we’ve been helping brands manage their online reputation for over several years. If there’s anything we know after working with companies from dozens of industries, reputation management cannot, and should not, be owned by a single department within a business. Instead, for reputation management to work, it needs to be a priority for every department and person within a company.
What is Reputation Management? Charles Stiles, Business Evaluation Services Business Evaluation Services was founded by the current President, Charles Stiles. Charles comes from a background in retail; owning several retail gourmet food and gift stores in national malls for over 8 years. Quickly realizing the only way to differentiate his stores and stand out from the competition was to develop a consistent service culture and create a process for measuring the success of the training that was implemented. Through this process in 1996, Business Evaluation Services was founded. Today, BES is an International Mystery Shopper Company with over two decades of experience, serving a variety of industries. 32
Reputation management is the act of monitoring, influencing, and protecting what’s being said about your brand. Today, most of this takes place online. Reviews, social media, images, news articles, and blogs are all places a brand’s reputation can be influenced.
Offensive vs. Defensive Reputation Management Strategies
There are two ways to approach reputation management , either from an offensive or defensive standpoint. A great reputation management strategy will include both. Offensive reputation management considers things like the brand’s online visibility, social media marketing, and surveys. The goal of an offensive reputation is to lead and control the conversation around your brand. Defensive reputation management considers things like customer service and image monitoring. The goal is to prevent the spread of negative or inaccurate information about your brand.
Reputation Management for Marketing The marketing department often owns reputation management initiatives. In addition, social media and PR initiatives naturally lie within the marketing team, while reviews and surveys provide much-needed insight for marketing strategy. It’s a marketer’s job to make sure consumers can easily find and choose their brand over the competition. Reputation management allows marketers to promote the brand organically and provides valuable insight into how customers feel about the brand.
Reputation Management for Operations Reputation management is a key part of operations. Brands can receive thousands of customer questions and complaints in reviews and social media comments daily. Responding to those reviews and comments is vital. Responding gives brands a chance to make things right and take the conversation off of a public platform. Additionally, consumers find that businesses that respond to reviews are 1.7x more trustworthy than those that don’t.
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