Online reputation management and why take care of online reviews

Why online reputation management matters
Nowadays consumers actively search for goods on different social platforms and services. So, if your business is present there you have a proper advantage over your competitors. However, if the business has a presence on Google and Apple Maps or a few thousand followers on Facebook, it still could not be enough.

Clients would like to look at some sort of social approval from your previous customers - reviews. That’s where reputation management comes in, which could help you increase the consumer engagement level, adjust your business to the clients’ expectations and improve search engine performance.

All sounds good, but there are people who could argue like: “why do I need to take care of what’s being said online? My sales are increasing, I’m doing good and about to expand my business.” Well, so far so good. Any growing business needs to have a PR crisis management strategy intact and there are a bunch of examples when the lack of it led to significant losses.

For instance, United Airlines experienced a loss of over $1 billion in market value because the company couldn’t address a video showing a passenger being removed from an overbooked flight. The video sparked a massive negative reaction online with over a million mentions and a lot of memes.

All of that seriously damaged the company's reputation, which was only amplified due to the lack of PR crisis management. So, you better take care of your online reputation, as having a bunch of negative reviews without any appropriate response could not only scare customers away from a specific location but damage your multi-location business in general.

With that being said, let us just say that customer reviews could be influential and there is some data to back it up:

79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from their friends or family.
90% of consumers stated that their buying decisions were affected by online reviews.
92% of consumers told that negative reviews made them look for alternatives.

So, reviews can leverage customers' opinions about your business and it’s important to take care of them. The next question is how?

How to work with Reputation Management

First of all, you need to establish your presence. Keep your listings correct, complete and up-to-date. Provide relevant information to the searchers. That will not only improve the local SEO performance and increase visibility, but also will help drive more customers to your doors. After all, a positive reputation won’t be useful if potential clients can’t find you online.

So, you’ve set your online presence and need to manage it. As your business could be presented on 50+ directories (and sometimes this number could jump up to 100) it might be hard and tiresome to regularly monitor and address what’s being said online. You would probably need to have some tool that helps you with that and Geojet could be quite handy. For instance, you would be able to filter reviews among all of the directories and work with them accordingly.

That leads us to the next point - don’t forget to monitor all the spaces where your business is being present. As Google’s Public Liaison for Search Danny Sullivan stated: “We’re not a truth engine. One of the big issues that we’re pondering is how to explain that our role is to get you authoritative, good information, but that ultimately people have to process that information themselves. We can give you information, but we can’t tell you the truth of a thing”.

In other words, what really matters is popularity as Google shows anything that is the highest-ranking page for your branded search. Thus, it’s especially important to work with negative feedback as almost 71% of consumers start their customer journey by using Google. If your business would be shown untrustworthy there, your listings on 100+ directories won’t help. That’s why it’s important to work with negative reviews and here’s a small guide on how to do it.

How to work with negative reviews
By properly working with negative reviews you could turn even highly critical clients into loyal fans. As was highlighted by a Lee Resource study, 70% of customers who complained and received satisfying feedback from a business representative will come back and give this business a second shot. Furthermore, a study published by Harvard Business Review describes that if a negative review would be handled in less than 5 minutes the customers would spend more time with your business in the future, which could potentially lead to more sales.

However, replying to negative reviews could be hard. So don’t let emotions dictate the tone of your responses. An angry response to a negative review could only further damage your reputation and thus always keep it professional. Sometimes it’s not that easy, so we would suggest you follow a few simple steps:

Address the reviewer. Don’t forget that your clients are people and would like to be approached as such and not only as digits in your business plan. Thus, it’s important to apply an individual approach.
Don’t forget to thank customers. No one has canceled the magic of a simple “thank you’’. Customers spent some time writing the review, and time is precious. Think about it as feedback that could help you make your job better.
Apologize. There are not too many people who cherish arrogance and the same applies to running a business. People tend to turn away from businesses that are too proud to apologize or too perfect to admit a mistake. Admit it, say sorry, improve it. But don’t make your apologies too cheesy and keep it short and sweet.
Ask for a second chance. So, you’ve admitted a problem that clients encountered, try to fix that problem and invite your customers again. It proves that you’re confident enough and gives you the opportunity to win your customers back.
Be consistent in your messaging. Don’t forget about your tone of voice as that’s also connected to your brand online presence. Are you a barbershop for young and hip college students, a dealership or a bank? Anyway, you got it. Speak to your audience accordingly and follow the general messaging consistency.

Conclusion

Now you know that it’s necessary to manage your reputation online by working with negative reviews. Keep your response professional and use it as a chance to improve your business, as customers would let you know (for free!) about the problems that your business could have. By working with negative reviews you can establish a trust-based channel that is meaningful for both sides.