How To Manage The Online Reputation Of Your Small Business

Good reputation is built painstakingly but a single negative comment can crumble it in an instant. Not just big businesses, even small business need to safeguard their online reputation. The established and big businesses may have a reputation management setup already in place, unlike small businesses that may not have that kind of budget to have a full fledged reputation management team. So that factor is often ignored until calamity strikes. But big or small, all businesses need to manage their online reputation with care and caution.

Your customers are internet savvy. They rely heavily on feedback and ratings to form any opinion about your brand or business. Word of mouth is given more importance and so before opting for any product or service, reviews are read up on and based on that a decision is made. So there is no way that you can ignore the importance of online reputation. A single positive feedback can bring you 10 more customers but a single negative feedback can work against you. Even if some client may not be looking for your service today, they are actively reading what their friends and associates are saying about your product and in future when they are looking for your service, this information may be recalled and they will surely think twice before opting for your product.

Let us look at some steps you can take towards garnering goodwill for your business and have people talk good about it.

• Remember that your reputation is built by people and the cause of its downfall is also people. So work on your relationship with your customers. Provide good products, give prompt service and keep your customers happy. Customer is king- so do not displease your king. It is not possible to please all and at times, some customer may end up with some complaint; but atleast try and deal with their displeasure and do not ignore them as a pleased customer may not necessarily express their pleasure, but an angry customer will definitely voice their displeasure and this may be picked up by others.

• Always be visible to your customers. Keep track of what they are saying about you; only then can you address their concern, if any. Any negative comment can be converted if handled at the budding stage. But if you are negligent then it may end up causing more damage than you can envision. So stay aware and vigilant.

• Do not ignore any negative feedback. It is fine even if you do not respond to a positive feedback but a negative feedback should definitely be responded to. Do not bend too low or take the aggressive route; adopt a middle path while responding to your customer’s negative comments. It is okay to apologise if you are in the wrong. Do so publicly as it may catch the attention of your prospective clients and will paint you in a favorable light. They will see the authenticity behind your apology and this will earn you brownie points.

• Stay in the limelight always. Creating awareness about your business will only help you diversify it. So keep promoting your product and service. Take the help of SEO experts for this as you may need to concentrate on your business which is yet to strike roots. So let them handle the SEO work for you.

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