4 Tips To Repair Online Reputation Management

Are you looking for ways to repair your online reputation? Online reputation is crucial for every business. When a new business is launched, the reputation of that business must gain reviews and maintain high scores. In today’s digitalized world, getting 5-star online reviews can be a challenging. Bad Yelp or Google reviews can slow down sales and getting the review removed is difficult, but it is not impossible. In this write-up, we have listed some tips for you to repair your reputation.

Be Open About it

One of the best things to do is to be open about your company and accepting of the feedback. Some businesses choose to deny the issues, hoping the situation go away. What happens is the situation gets worse, more people leave review or re-tweet the post. So, if there is a problem, accept the feedback and work to improve your processes or retrain team members. Think of a bad review as the tip of the iceberg, one bad review can mean that 9 other people had the same issue, did not leave a review and simply will not come back. A bad review can be the first sign of an issue that needs your attention. Dig in to the problem, ask employees about customer concerns and move quickly to resolve the underlying issue. Accepting of feedback is a great way start your online reputation management.

Apologize

There are two schools of thought on apologize, never and always. The never apologize or never reply companies run the risk of appearing insincere and unwilling to change.  The companies that choose to reply may want to include an apology will appear to care about customers.  A sample reply can be read, “Sue, Sorry that you had this issue and thank you for sharing your feedback. I would like the opportunity to address it. Please contact me at your earliest convenience by phone/email, Sam, Owner.”

After this, you can go forward towards making amends and end the situation.  You have to keep in mind that the apology must be authentic. For instance, you should not use statements like, “I am sorry you did not understand my company’s service.” Statements like these are not effective, put you on defense and just fan the flames of an bad situation. Plus the other customers think they will get treated in a similar way.  

Removing the Content

Another tip for you to follow is to remove the content. This can be from alerting the review company that the review violates their terms of use (Yelp, Google and Facebook will remove reviews) In some cases, you can ask them calmly to remove it, many will. For a few ugly situations, disgruntle employees or competitors, you may need to take legal action.  

Taking the Help of an Online Reputation Management Agency

You can take the help of a reputation management agency. They can come up with a plan to fix your problem as repairing online reputation needs a proper care. If you don’t repair your reputation carefully, it can come backfire. The agencies will monitor everything that is being said about your business. This gives you an opportunity to take action for repairing your reputation. It is recommended that when the customer care is a top priority, all the things will fall into place.

In the end, having a good reputation is essential for every business. Businesses are vulnerable to the online reputation attacks. Being active in preparing for such circumstances will pay off in the long run. You can take the help of a online reputation management agency. What tips will you give for repairing your reputation? Share your views with us in the comments below.