No matter what type of business you are running, there may be times when your customers provide you with a negative, public response to your products, services, or business practices that may damage your online brand if left unaddressed. Managing your brand’s online reputation can be difficult and overwhelming at times, but it doesn’t always have to be. Today, we will go over a few necessary steps you can take to ensure that your brand can easily stay on top of its good reputation.
Stay Informed
Keeping yourself up to date with the latest buzz about your company is crucial to staying on top of any potential issues with your brand’s reputation. A great way to keep yourself informed on any published online media about your company is to create a Google Alert for your company’s name. This will periodically sent you an email alert with any information regarding the keyword or name you used in the alert. This is helpful for staying on top of any potential feedback and will allow you time to develop an organized and well-thought response. Google alerts can also be customized to better meet your needs and provide more specific information about news regarding your business.
Developing a Response
Responding to any negative comments online in the right way is your best bet for ethically overcoming this issue and keeping your good reputation intact. Ultimately, the customer wants their needs and expectations about your products or services to be met, and it is your job to facilitate a response that will hopefully do just that. Since timeliness is key for having success with this, your company should work on developing a pre-emptive strategy or response in order to quickly combat any online negativity before it spreads and does more damage. Contacting the customer causing this issue both publicly and privately to see how you can best help them resolve whatever issue they are having will go a long ways in their eyes and the eyes of others who have seen this customer’s online complaint.