Brand Management Online Matters

The growth of social media has meant that managing your reputation online has become more complicated. Gone are the days when you went for a meal, had bad service and told a few friends, who in turn might think twice about visiting that particular restaurant.

Nowadays, same restaurant, same meal and then have a good old moan on Facebook or Twitter and let your 100’s of friends / 1000’s of followers know about it.

Add to this that in many cases your view of that meal in that restaurant becomes a permanent online review of that particular restaurant. This of course all means that I’m likely to come across that ‘review’ of the restaurant if I am searching for somewhere to eat and use the right search terms e.g. name, location etc.

So what should you do if you come across negative views of your business in social media?

Simple steps to repair your image online

React – Don’t wait for the complaints and negative comments to build up. When you come across some negative comments about your business, do something about it immediately. The reality is that if someone can see that your response to a ‘complaint e.g. on a forum was posted the same day, it gives the message that a) you care, and b) you are on the ball when it comes to customer service. It is important to you. If the issue is an ongoing issue, then at the very least give an update explaining the status, even if there is no progress

Apologise – Whether you think you have made the error or not, your customer felt strongly enough about ‘something’ to say what they said.  If you take the tension out of the situation from the start by offering an apology then the way is clear to start repairing the relationship.

Make up for it – If you got it wrong and you find out about it online, you react, you apologise and then you make amends. You need customers. In the same way the unhappy customer tweets and posts to say you were awful, so they will when you are exceptional and put things right.

Finally practice what you preach. If you make a big deal on your site of ‘great customer service’, ‘best in class product’, ‘fantastic prices’, as do 99% of websites out there, then live up to your promise.

It really is as simple as that to manage your reputation online.