Prevent Negative Feedback with these Reputation Management Guidelines

As your brand cements its presence online, there will be more things to track and monitor. While this is a good sign, it also requires you to use proper management to maintain a good reputation and avoid negative mentions. Ensuring that you maintain a good online reputation can be done by acknowledging negatives, being reachable to customers, using social media tool, responding to queries and building credibility.

Be Approachable

Most often, your reputation will be affected when customers are having issues communicating their issues or don’t get proper feedback. In these scenarios the customer will post their complaints on social platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Avoiding this is possible by providing customers with on-site and off-site contact information. At the same time, your response time should be relatively short up to 1–2 days depending on the gravity of the issue. Use multiple channels for communication, as different customers might prefer different ways to contact you.

Investment in good customer service will have a long-lasting positive impact on your brand’s reputation. Setting up a dedicated call centre or expensive contact management system can be costly, but you can use other simpler tools available online for this purpose.

Furthermore include a frequently asked questions are (FAQ) on your website. This part of your website will include answers to questions customers might often have and need a swift method to get answers to.

Acknowledge Mistakes

Making mistakes is human after all and no business has an impeccable track record. Acknowledging that your brand made an error signals to your prospects that you are eager to improve and right any wrongs. After identifying any mistake, proceed to apologize and offer an alternative compensation to the respective customer. Recognizing mistakes can also invite a sentiment of appreciation and sympathy from your followers.

Build Credibility

Check if your social media page and website have testimonials and reviews. If not, you should slowly start collecting and displaying feedback from customers. The positive ones should be added to the testimonials page. Additionally, monitor positive mentions on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter, then include those in your website. Consider to make it as easy as possible for customers to add a product review.

By encouraging users to write reviews you show you are open to both positive feedback and constructive criticism, which builds up your credibility as a business in the process.