Five Tips For a Good Online Reputation!
Everyone talks about the ideal customer experience, suitable information and offers at all digital touchpoints. But what counts most for a provider’s online reputation is what customers say about it there.
At a time when the Internet influences almost every purchase decision, those who want to attract and retain customers must polish their digital brand image to a high degree. According to several studies, most consumers look at online reviews before making a purchase decision.
Good customer experience, good brand image
So how can companies strengthen the perception of their brand and what role does online reputation play in this? The brand image is a decisive success factor for many companies. The brand makes a promise of performance across locations or branches that must be fulfilled at every single customer contact point at all times.
Under the strategic approach of customer experience management, companies strive to offer customers and prospects the best possible brand experience at every single moment of contact in their customer journey — via personalized marketing messages, individual offers, and tailored services. After all, just one bad experience can ruin a customer’s relationship with the company and the brand forever.
1. Realize that every single contact with the customer counts
This is exactly where Online Reputation Management (ORM) comes in. Even bad experiences can be used as an opportunity to rise again in an individual’s favor through exceptional service. With ORM, a company can improve its brand image at all digital touchpoints.
In addition to the company’s own digital content and offerings, customers also post information about a provider. Brand feedback is available in many places, especially online. These include star ratings on Google, online reviews, comments on social media, entries on digital yellow pages etc.
Keep your entries in all relevant business and contact directories and on Google up-to-date. This is because incorrect or inconsistent data will result in a poorer search engine ranking.
2. You have to be able to deal with criticism
Having as many online reviews as possible not only ensures a better Google ranking, but also strengthens customers’ trust in the brand and the company. Usually, it is mainly dissatisfied customers who express themselves publicly on the Internet, which can distort the mood. However, the more satisfied customers can be activated to provide positive feedback, the less negative reviews will have an impact.
Nevertheless, negative criticism is also helpful. It makes the company’s overall rating more credible and also gives a company the opportunity to identify and compensate for its own weaknesses.
3. Be grateful for every positive and negative review
But how exactly should criticism be handled? It is advisable to respond as promptly as possible to all of negative reviews and most of positive reviews –and to do so in a friendly, understanding manner and, if necessary, with an appropriate proposal for a solution. For example, you can ask a dissatisfied customer to get in touch by phone and then make them a conciliatory offer.
4. ORM is also touchpoint management
The reviews customers post about a provider — and how the company responds to them — affect not only its brand image in general, but also the individual perceptions and purchase decisions of other consumers. After all, customers trust online reviews more than personal recommendations now. So anyone who has already written the topic of customer experience or touchpoint management on their agenda, should definitely include online reputation.
On one hand, reviews are another point of contact with the company, which can create a positive customer experience with the right response. On the other hand, an evaluation of the cross-channel feedback enables conclusions to be drawn about other touchpoints. This makes it possible to optimize both the information offered and the services provided, and thus the customer experience across all contact points.
5. Analyse your online reputation and define clear goals that your ORM should achieve.
That’s why it’s also a good idea to ask for targeted feedback. For example, you can hand the customer a tablet after the purchase with a request to rate their shopping experience and share this feedback online.
Online reputation is a decision-making tool for consumers and also serves companies as a gauge of brand image. Online reputation management is, therefore, the answer to modern buying behaviour and the prerequisite for creating an ideal customer experience. Only those who know and evaluate their customers’ experiences across all sites and use them as an opportunity to improve their services in a targeted manner can create good customer experiences, and thus also generate more sales.
