Reputation Management Drives Revenue for Small Businesses

Some of the most common problems in order of severity are:

• Industry perceptions
• Corporate scandals
• Personal scandals
• Hate sites
• Competitor attacks
• Complaint sites
• Legal documents
• Bad news coverage
• Trademark infringement
• Fake profiles
• False information
• Negative comments

Successes and Failures

Here are a couple of examples of how monitoring your online reputation and responding is so critical.

1. A customer of Overstock.com tweeted about the online retailer’s customer service.

Overstock re-tweeted the comment to its followers and it inspired a flurry of people chiming in about their positive experiences.

2. In contrast, Prince tried to shut down three fan-generated sites to protect copyrighted material. One fan wrote to prince.org to say, “The more I think about it, I say just drop him, remove all content, let him have his way. It’s obvious he doesn’t want us as fans anymore, so why should we want him.”

​

Prince tried to protect his material but ended up losing some avid fans.

What You Can Do

• Avoid responding online. Adding your comments on sites such as Yelp, PissedConsumer.com and RipOffReport will only increase the visibility of the bad reviews. It is better to respond to issues privately and try to resolve them.
• Act immediately. Resolve problems as soon as they occur and before customers post negative reviews. Offer incentives. The cost of any discounts or refunds is small in comparison to the loss of dozens of new customers that can result from a single bad review.
• Go public. If the problem is severe enough, you can reach out to the media directly to explain and even apologize publicly to affected customers, as well as to announce changes or corrections you’ve implemented to prevent issues in the future.
• Leverage the insight. Negative feedback gives you an understanding of how customers view your company so you can handle situations that arise. Solicit comments by placing a review form on your website.
• Provide help. You should publish useful and relevant content consistently because it counters any negative reviews that might appear. Content should be posted on your website, on social media channels, on guest posts and more.

Reputation Management Services