Online Reviews As Central Factor For Online Reputation Management
What exactly is Online Reputation Management (ORM)? Online Reputation Management (ORM) refers to the act of monitoring and managing your brand on the internet. It is crucial to any company or individual to monitor how their brand is being perceived by others online. You could call it the online version of public relations.
Properly managed, it ensures that you can control your good reputation online and positively influence your POS (point of sale).
Researchers have found a correlation between online customer reviews, e.g. on Google, social media channels or in directories, and sales in brick-and-mortar stores. If the online reputation of companies, retailers, brands or products is very positive, retailers benefit. Stronger frequency at the POS, preference over competitors, customer loyalty and higher sales are the result.
Eight out of ten customers obtain information online before deciding on a product or service. If you look at the customer journey, there are tons of touchpoints that customers can come into contact with on the journey to making a purchase decision. Here, online reputation can be a decisive factor in the success or failure of customer acquisition.
Online reviews: Important factor for retailers and companies
Negative as well as positive criticism is equally heard online. Anyone who wants to obtain information about products or companies uses search engines. This is also how the user obtains user ratings. If only negative ratings and reviews can be found, the customer quickly switches to the competition.
Within online information and communication platforms, user-generated content can be found that generates dialog and conveys emotional and rational added value. User ratings therefore act as a central link between customer, brand and content. Another positive side effect of good customer reviews alongside well-maintained business directories and review portals, is the ranking-optimizing effect on search engines.
Monitoring tools ensure presence on the web
By continuously monitoring their online reputation on rating portals and the social web, companies, retailers and manufacturers can find out about the current mood on the web and influence it with the right online reputation management (ORM), thus optimizing their position in the market. After all, a good reputation is a success criterion both online and offline — customers not only rate products, but also performance and service.
Online media that can be monitored and managed includes: social media platforms, review websites, article submission directories, blogs, user-generated content, social news/ bookmarking sites, as well as traditional or mainstream websites.
ORM and social media monitoring give you the opportunity to take corrective action, prevent bad reviews and generate positive ones. You can automate and simplify this monitoring and measurement process with tools. These can also map different retailer locations, for example. This is a decisive criterion for chain stores, retail companies, cooperatives or alliances with countless POS locations.
Successful reputation management supports the professional handling of customer reviews that cannot be responded to face-to-face. Ideally, only positive things are said about a company, retailer, brand or product on the Internet. As a result, there is no acute need for action. With ORM, one can actively respond to and comment on customer reviews to help improve online reputation. Nevertheless, not only negative contributions should be reacted to. By responding to positive reviews, you show that you take your counterpart seriously, not only in your local store, but also online. Especially when the customer explicitly sends feedback. ORM requires communication, reaction and presence in real time.
Online reputation management is, therefore, an important component of good corporate communication, it ensures that reviews can be responded to and optimizes Google ranking.
A good and proper online reputation management system will eventually translate into increased sales, personal career advancement, or just gaining a stronger social acceptability. Being mentioned in social media can be damaging if there is criticism, but can also generate benefits if such criticisms are reversed. ORM ensures greater visibility and reach, customer trust and awareness.
