Reputation Management

Reputation management – or more specifically online reputation management – is something that every business needs to pay attention to and have a plan to maximize. To be sure, there’s a lot more to managing your reputation than what is done online. Doing right by your customers needs to be at the center of every aspect of your business.

When your business is doing everything right you want to make sure to get all the visibility that you can from positive customer experiences. But if something does go wrong – and inevitably something will sometime – how you respond to it and what you do to make it right can make all the difference.

Why You Should Have a Reputation Management Process

Consider the following statistics:

• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations while only 14% trust advertising
• 86% of people would pay more for services from a company with higher ratings and reviews
• 85% of customers use the Internet to research before making a purchase
• 79% of consumers placed equal weight on personal recommendations and online reviews

These stats paint a pretty clear picture that your online reputation matters. By online reputation we typically mean reviews posted on review sites such as Yelp, Google, your own Facebook page, etc. So, what are you doing to maximize your reputation online?

In order to capitalize on your good reputation and minimize the impact of an occasional misstep, you need a well-defined reputation management process.

At Austin SEO for growth we view online reputation management as an integral part of your overall marketing effort and your Total Online Presence. As with everything we do, having a well-defined process and system to implement it is the key to success.

3 Key Elements of an Online Reputation Management Process

1. Have an efficient way to encourage customers with positive experiences to leave reviews
2. Address negative reviews and turn them into positives
3. Continuously monitor your online reputation

Of course, to accomplish the above you need to know how to identify customers you would like reviews from, how to tactfully and ethically encourage them to leave you positive reviews, how to respond to the occasional negative review, and how to monitor your online reputation with little effort. You also need tools to maximize the visibility of your online reviews.

The Challenges of Implementing an Online Reputation Management Process

Like many things on the Internet today there are a number of tools to help solve the problem of managing your reputation online without spending a lot of time on it. But, if you are like most business owners, finding the right tools can be a daunting task to say nothing of implementing them successfully.

So, the conundrum you’re facing is this: do you ignore the challenge or do you devote time that you don’t really have to it? Fortunately, you have another option.

The Austin SEO for Growth Online Reputation Management System

We can help by putting a system in place for your business that does the following:

• Gets your business listed consistently across numerous review sites for brand awareness
• Identifies happy customers versus dissatisfied customers
• Encourages happy customers to leave reviews on sites that matter to you
• Heads off negative reviews by giving you the opportunity to address the problem before it goes viral on the Internet
• Features your reviews on your website
• Monitors your online reputation and provides periodic reports so you can take necessary actions in your business

Contact us today if you’d like to discuss how we can help with your online reputation management needs.