Post-Crisis Practices: Repairing Your Company’s Reputation The Right Way
A bad review here, a client complaint there; it’s not uncommon for businesses to experience some kind of setbacks regarding their offline and online reputation. Then there are cases where the slip up is too big to remain limited to an agitated user’s response in your Facebook comment section.
Reputation downfall happens to the best of businesses. From an angry ex-employee going on a rampage online to a misunderstood incident at the retail outlet, something happens and the internet notices—and not in the good way.
Before long, you’re bombarded with messages from customers and general public, and top Google search engine posts about your business deliver bad news.
So what do you when that happens? Here we will be discussing the ways you can rebuild your company’s reputation.
Understand how reputation affects business
In fact, understand what business reputation is: it’s everything you do. Every single word you say on your website, in your blogs, on your social media posts, or even to a customer in an Instagram direct message—it all matters.
Approximately half of adults in the U.S. have said that they Google a business before considering buying from/working with them. Every step to take, every change that occurs—whether it’s the color scheme of a new product on the brochure design for a new service—has a role to play in your reputation.
Business reputation also involves everyone who is a part of the business. Collaborating with celebrities with a bad media image has proven to be damaging for businesses, even if their own practices are void of any unfair, unethical practices.
Your business reputation is that pervasive.
Research what started the reputation downfall
In order to restore your company’s reputation effectively and minimize any surprises,get your facts straight. Limit potential surprises. You may want to start reputation building by first eliminating the factors that deteriorate your reputation—otherwise you’re rowing a boat that essentially trying to go forward with weights pulling it back.
Have your PR team and marketers research the facts before they go public. You’re not only looking for what happened from your point-of-view, but also how the public perceived it.
Do not delay responding to customer complaints
Before the speculation gets out of hand, before the real story becomes populated with rumors, clarify the situation and apologize to whom you owe the apology. Responding on time is not going to fix everything, but it is a start.
Here is the thing: a happy customer will tell five of their friends about their experience, whereas an unhappy customer’s audience is doubled. The longer you delay your response, the more people get to know about the problem, and the more business you risk losing.
Make your comeback with specific content
As much as we love the content internet for its ever-lasting nature (unless it’s deleted or temporary), it’s not as charming a quality when you’re working on rebuilding your reputation. You’ve issued your apologies and are working hard to reverse the problem, but the news, social media content and user reviews are there to stay. Removing them isn’t the solution.
Creating content that beats it is. Here are a few online marketing strategies you can invest in:
SEO-Based Content Marketing
Consumers today have stopped trusting ads, trusting in the “real information” which is a few clicks away, i.e. a Google search.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is particularly useful for small businesses that do not have the means to repair their reputation via traditional marketing or events. It’s valuable tool for small-scale B2Bbusinesses too; SERPs (search engine result pages)happen to be B2B buyers’ #1 resource for research, and online content effects 9 out of 10 business-to-business purchases.
An expert SEO service such as SearchBerg can help you return your company to a position trust by improving your content’s rankings. Google-friendly link building improves ranking both onsite and offsite.
Social Media Marketing
Social media, if navigated right, is the platform where billion dollar-worth businesses are launched and run. Studies reveal that over 95% of online adult users (ages 18-34) today get invested in brands because of their social media reach than most other forms of marketing.
With a combination of right paid and organic social media content, you can reestablish your target audience’s trust in you in a more personal way. Keep interacting with your followers and potential customers. Post about what’s hip and happening. Humanize your brand; people are more understanding when “corporate-speak” is not involved.
In short, take control of the social conversations about you.
Reputation Management
In addition to conventional online marketing strategies, go for reputation-building experts who can help you put your best side on display. Trust, reviews, and recommendations all result from the right reputation management.
This includes positive branding, not just through website content and social media, but other means, including guest blogs, press release publication, as well as analytics services to monitor the progress of reputation management campaigns.
Reputation management companies do not just create content, but do so with the right “tone”. When it comes torestoring the brand’s image, a single out-of-place word matters, which is why in-house content creation is usually not advisable.
SearchBerg, in addition to an array of online marketing services, also specializes in aspects of content-based reputation management. The experts identify all negative data about the business circulating on the internet and create and implement multi-tiered strategies to shine a positive yet not-so-drastic light the business through targeted content.
Rely on customer reviews and testimonials
“Real people, real things”—it’s popular phenomenon on the internet. Between influencer review blog posts and Instagram story-based reviews, people trust content shared by other people.
Research reveals more than 84% of people read online reviews trust the information in these as much as they trust the information provided by a friend.
That being said, reviews and feedback are your new best friends on your journey to repairing your company’s reputation. Encourage your customers/client to share their opinions. In addition to testimonials on your website and social media ratings and review, rely on third-party sites such as Yelp and Google My Business (GMB).
Reward customers and supporters
In midst of the reputation dilemma, there will be people who come forward and give you a chance and speak out in your favor. Do not take it for granted. Reward them with recognition, and discounts and freebies on your products and services.
Give it space when needed
There’s a thing such as trying too hard, and it applies to reputation management. Dish out positive content, be proactive and solve problems when they occur, communicate with customers, encourage positive reviews—and do it all at the right pace. At times, leave some breathing space; the public will forget and forgive if you maintain the right balance of pushing and giving then time to think over the matter.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Every next move should be made with regard to the situation at hand. Stay consistent with investing in reputation management measures and monitor the changes consistently. Leverage the preexisting good things, get legal help where necessary, and involve everyone to your team to contribute.
Remember, it’s all about cleanup.
