The business of protecting your online reputation should be a priority. Most business owners assume that a lack of an online reputation is a positive thing. In reality, it is actually not good as potential customers who can’t find any mention of your business online can easily assume you don’t care about what your customers say or that have something to hide. This is too risky because the first negative review of your business is enough to ruin your reputation.
Nowadays, the reputation of your business depends on having a positive online presence. This starts with defining your business identity with positive content through a professionally designed website, where you can paint a positive image of your business and highlight your accomplishments, goals, and mission. Then, register or claim your identity on business and review directories (like Google and Yelp) social media before someone else does. But what steps do you need to take if customers post online negative reviews about your business, service, or product?
One thing you need to accept as a business owner in this day and age of social networking: bad reviews happen. There is really no way around them once they make it online. However, at Maxeemize, we believe that bad reviews open up surprising opportunities to improve your business and build a stronger relationship with your customers. We can help your company build positive reviews and counteract negative posts to protect your online reputation. We can help you prevent negative reviews, assist you when you respond to those that transpire, and show how you and your company can learn from them in the future.
Encourage Your Satisfied Customers to Share Their Experience
The first step in managing your online reputation is by providing a high-quality, memorable customer experience! Post a Yelp or Google review badge/icon that links back to your relevant business page. You can also display a “Find Us on Yelp” sticker at their place of business which will encourage visitors to go to the review site.
Be Active on Social Media
By being active on social media, online users will regularly see your presence and interact with you on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Your online content and blogs can gain authority and give more people a reason to follow you, which will help you boost your brand. Regularly posting more content on your online pages also gives you the opportunity to quickly drown negative feedbacks. You can swallow up bad reviews by a barrage of interesting Facebook positive, motivating Instagram pictures and funny tweets on Twitter.
Listen and Respond to Every Negative Feedback
Get to know your customers and listen and pay attention to what they are saying about your business, good or bad. You can counter the negativity of unfavorable feedbacks by giving a public response that apologizes for their unfavorable experience. In the same response, invite the client to contact you directly and see how you can fix the problem. Respond accordingly and answer differently depending on who has given you the negative feedback, whether they’re your competitors, customers, or former employees, even fake reviews.
Track Your Reviews and Ratings Regularly
There are various online review tracking tools that you can use for free or for a small cost. You can try our Online Reviews Management service to help you monitor your online reviews and ratings, ensuring that you are always updated with the latest reviews monitoring add-ons that can be used to keep your ratings at an optimum level.
In the meantime, there are a lot of business owners who are doing their due diligence but are beset with bogus reviews. With years of experience helping businesses thrive online, we have learned how to spot fake reviews. Below are some of the tale-tell signs of fake reviews:
- The review is too general and does not contain details about an actual experience
- The reviewer’s profile is blank or empty
- The reviewer does no respond to your reply
- The reviewer gives generic, preset comments
- The reviewer gives incorrect or irrelevant information
- The reviewer has written similar reviews for other businesses/companies
To help improve your online reputation contact Maxeemize at (949) 431-0431 for more information or click on our Contact Us page to schedule your free online reputation management consultation.
