Small business reputation by ORM UK
When compared with the multi-national corporations in their chosen sector, small business owners are relatively unknown, and therefore less likely to find their professional reputations in the ‘real world’ under attack. However, on the internet, regardless of the size of one’s business, customers can find poor reviews and negative information in the space of two or three seconds by using a search engine. And considering the fact that millions of consumers check reviews of a business online before they purchase anything from them, small business owners simply cannot afford to sidestep online reputation management.
A key point which must be kept in mind when it comes to this topic is that your reputation on the internet doesn’t appear out of thin air; it’s the result of experiences people have had with your company offline. Although it’s true that negative commentary sometimes comes from spiteful competitors, much of the time it’s from a genuinely upset customer. Because of this, the most important step you can take to manage your online reputation is to maintain your offline one, by establishing good relationships with your customers, and providing an excellent service or product.
ORM UK explains it’s also important to stay in the loop. How can you possibly manage your online reputation, if you have no clue as to what’s being said about your or your business? If you run a very small company, this can be done by creating Google Alerts with your business’s name. However, if you run a larger company, or are simply very busy, then it’s worth investing in the services of a reputation management company to do this for you.
Understanding when to respond is yet another vital aspect of online reputation management. If you believe that the complaint is legitimate, then it’s fine to respond both privately and publically to it, provided you do so in a professional manner, and offer an apology, and a refund if appropriate. However, if the comment is purely derogatory and originates from what seems like an unscrupulous source, you’ll need to hire a specialist ORM UK company, who can hide the post from the most popular search engine results.
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