Running a business takes a lot of work! In our current ‘digital era,’ one thing that you need to prioritize is your reputation. Just think for a second. What’s the first thing you do when your friend recommends a restaurant that’s been around for a while, but you’ve never been? What about when you’re looking at places to visit when you go on vacation? You don’t just go to the restaurant or attraction website – you check out their reviews. You want a real, relatable, personable experience without having to deep dive for it so that you know what to expect. Let’s walk through a little guide for reputation management.

What is Reputation Management? Here are the Numbers…

If you run a brick and mortar business, you likely have spent time training your employees to provide a certain level of customer service. You do this because you want a good reputation with your clientele. Through online reputation management, you can shape your brand and seriously push your message out to the public.

As mentioned in the example at the beginning of this post, about 90 percent of people will go online to read reviews before visiting a new business. Almost the same amount of people claim to trust online reviews just as much as a family or friend recommendation. They want to see the good and the inevitable bad! While you ultimately can’t control what other people will say about your services, what you can control is how you respond. 78 percent of consumers trust businesses more when they see a company responding to their reviews.

Why You Need to Provide Positive Outcomes to Negative Situations

Responding to positive reviews is easy. A simple show of thankfulness that someone took the time to write about your business almost goes without thought. But, you need to respond to your negative reviews as well, and in a way that broadcasts a good face for your business! Companies that put a heavy focus on this see an average of a 93 percent boost in customer satisfaction.

How to Respond

When someone has something negative to say about their experience with you, don’t take it personally. Of course, consider their point of view and why they may feel that way, but don’t respond with emotion! Acknowledge their claims and be courteous. You want to make the situation and the relationship right again to potentially bring them back in the future. You also want to subconsciously invite others reading over your responses into your business!

Expand Your Reviews – Professionally

You want to get yourself out there, so you’ll want to have people leave reviews in multiple areas on the internet. The areas that you should push for depend on what type of services you offer. Typically, people steer to Yelp for restaurant reviews and TripAdvisor for attractions and hotels, for example. However, Google accounts for 92 percent of all online search traffic and 97 percent of consumers consider Google when looking for a brand with a good reputation.

Boost Your SEO

Having customers leave reviews on sites such as Yelp, Facebook, and other areas is important. But, Google is where it’s at for boosting your SEO, or search engine optimization. Google reviews are easy to find and easy to sort through. As a company, Google has even recently managed to buckle down on fraudulent and suspicious reviews to make it even more convenient for consumers to see a brand’s true reputation. Recognizing and acting on bots or fake reviews and focusing on new, genuine feedback is key to a high reputation and excellent SEO.

Need Help With Reputation Management? That’s What We’re Here For

At InnovationV, our main goal is to make managing your business easier. We want to amplify your business above your competitors and see you shine in your field! One last statistic for you: about half of the marketers out there find online reputation management hard because they are so busy with other aspects of their business. So let us do it for you! Inquire with us about our digital marketing packages today. We’re excited to innovate with you!