Today more than ever, your online reputation could be the reason behind fewer sales, fewer visitors, or on a good note could bring in more customers than you might imagine. With the internet, so readily available, anyone can write a review on a company or product which can be detrimental if you have a disgruntled employee or a dissatisfied customer.
It only takes one person to post on a product review website using your company name or your URL to cause you to have a bad reputation. These reviews often show up on search results above your own website which of course anyone looking for your products or your business will surely see.
Such websites as Pissed Consumer and Rip Off Report allow anyone to post anonymously so it can be very difficult to work with the dissatisfied customer.
However, if you learn how to deal with bad reviews and how to get good reviews, you will be able to do your own online reputation management.
Do searches for your products, brand, company
In order to stay on top of your reputation online, you must know how to find good and bad reviews on your company or product. You should do searches for your products, brand, company, and even your own employees and always use other search terms such as fraud, scam, etc.… The types of websites that you will need to keep an eye on include forums, blogs, social media, and of course Google search.
Once you
find a bad review, you will need to take action. However, do not do so emotionally. Always read through the review and see if the post has any true meaning. Did the customer contact you regarding the situation? Was one of your employees rude to a customer? Was the product damaged and how did you or your employees respond? If the review is completely untrue, then you will need to show proof on their post such as providing proof of a refund, sending a replacement, or letting them know that you talk with the employee that was rude.
Create an alert for your company or product
Of course, you cannot spend hours every day searching for all the product review websites and other social media outlets to learn if anyone has given your business a review, whether good or bad. The best option is to create an alert for your company or product at alerts.yahoo.com and google.com/alerts. When your company or product is mentioned and is crawled by Yahoo or Google you will receive an alert. This will help you monitor your reviews.
To receive good reviews to help with combatting any bad reviews, you need to ask your customers and visitors to leave a review. However, do not rely on only the reviews, you need to actually stay in contact and answer reviews on all social media outlets including your own blog. People like to know they are heard so by answering all good and bad reviews you are opening up the communication lines which in turn will give you a better rating among consumers. Showing there is a real person behind the business and not just a website will, in fact, help with your reputation more than you can imagine.
Reputation management is not that difficult, but it does take time and effort on your part, that will, in the end, give you the quality reputation you deserve.