Recent statistics show that 4 out of 5 customer choose NOT to buy something based on a bad review. With that knowledge in hand, how can your business still choose to not employ some sort of reputation management?
The answer is simple…YOU CAN’T
That doesn’t mean you have to run out and spend thousands per month on the latest and greatest tools. There are things you can and should do yourself. These will not only help you save money, but they will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your customers and your business.
- Set up google alerts. You can choose various keyword to monitor and you will get a nice little email sent right to you any time those terms appear online. This will allow you to keep track of many different variations for your brand name and products. For instance, if your business is called “Walter’s Widgets” you could be alerted any time that string of text appears online…very useful.
- Personally monitor 1 or 2 of the most important sites to your business. People get overwhelmed when they try to monitor all of the social media sites and review sites. At the end of the day not everyone matters equally. If you own a restaurant, then you should monitor Yelp daily, if not hourly. Great scores on Yelp will help get butts in your seats. Meanwhile, great reviews on Angie’s List might take the same amount of time for you to monitor, with no where near the results.
- Pay attention to your Facebook and Twitter. If you are not engaging your customers with those sites then you are probably wasting your efforts. Talk to your customers, not at them. They will feel more a part of your business and will be less apt to crush you in a review. They may even come to your defense.
- This is the most important….Respond to bad reviews in a positive way. If you come off as adversarial it will only lend credibility to the bad review and make you look worse. Remember, you get more bees with honey.
Obviously the above are just some small things you can do to help protect your reputation. Here at Pacer Design Studios we offer Reputation Management consulting that allows you to learn more tricks of the trade as well as full Reputation Management services for those businesses that need to hire a professional.
Wherever you are in your business life, we can help.