If the counter staff at your local shop were rude or simply ignored you every time you went in, you’d soon take your business elsewhere.
It’s easy to remember the old adage about the customer always being right when you’re dealing with people face to face but in the online world, it’s easy to let it slip from your mind. Follow these tips to make sure you and your business have a reputation you are happy with.
Take stock of yourself
Few people get through life without having at least a few regrets but it’s only in the past decade or two that evidence of our least proud moments has been forever captured in the world of social media.
The perception of your business is intimately tied to your personal reputation, so the first step should be to scan through all your old social media accounts and delete anything you feel might compromise your corporate standing in years to come. Once your feeds are clean, you can open them up to the public, inviting them to see the human side or your operation without having any worries about what they might find.
When it comes to information that you are unable to change, see if you can add replies, corrections of clarifications to the original material. That way, at least anyone stumbling across the site will have both sides of the story.
Take security seriously
Hardly a week goes by without news of another major data breach or quality control issue hitting the headlines. While major corporations have sufficient resources to enable then to ride the storm of such scandals, such a revelation could prove fatal to a smaller enterprise. Keeping tabs on what people are saying about your business online and responding in the right way can ensure your business continues to thrive in the future.
Invest sufficient time and resources into ensuring your company has a high enough level of security to ensure a data breach is extremely unlikely. At the same time, don’t be so complacent as to assume it will never happen – plan out a response to such a breach well in advance so that everyone involved in the company knows exactly what to do in the worst-case scenario.
You can also take more basic precautions such as setting up strong firewalls, limiting access that employees have to company systems when using their own devices and establishing a fully secure payments system so that the financial information of your customers is always protected.
Deal promptly and respectfully with negative reviews
Every business owner has experienced that crushing moment when they get their first one-star review. No matter how angry or upset you are by what has been said, hitting back right away is rarely the best way of protecting the reputation of your enterprise.
Respond in a way that shows you are taking note of the criticism and that you will use whatever lessons you learn to improve your goods or services in the future.
Many review sites allow users to post their reviews anonymously and this too should be respected. Though you may be able to track down the person responsible, showing you have done so will not do your reputation any good.
In any case, studies have shows that consumers actually prefer a mixture of good and bad reviews as it makes a company seem far more genuine and trustworthy than one that has nothing but five-star accolades.