Your company’s reputation matters. So let’s talk about how your business can build a reputation management strategy. Here’s what we’ll cover in this article. 

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What is Reputation Management? 

Remember, your business’s reputation matters. After all, our economy is based on trust. Nobody wants to put their money in a bank if they can’t trust that they can get their money back when they need it. 

These days, customers don’t have to ask their friends and family to find new businesses. Instead, they can find all the information that they need on review sites. Today, 92% of consumers consult online reviews before making a purchase decision. So that means something very simple: The better your business’s online reputation, the more customers you can expect. 

Building A Reputation Management Strategy in 5 Steps

So here’s how you can get started building a reputation management strategy.

  1. Step 1: Collect Authentic Reviews 


    Remember, collecting reviews only works when the reviews are authentic. It’s not hard to tell when reviews are purchased or faked. Customers can spot fake reviews from a mile away and nobody wants to work with a business that resorts to these kinds of tactics to grow revenue. 

    So how can you collect more reviews from your customers? It’s simple: just ask. Send text and email to your customers asking them to leave a review. Remember to link to a review site like Google or Facebook so that the process is easy for the customer. All they have to do is click and write a review. 

    Here’s a couple of templates that you can use to ask your customers for reviews. 

    “[Customer Name], thank you for choosing (Your Business Name). Please provide your feedback by clicking the link below.”

    “Hey (Customer Name) Thank you for visiting (Your Business Name) today. Please take a moment to leave us a review. Your responses will help us serve you better in the future.)

  2. Step 2: Monitor Your Reviews


    Make sure that you’re paying attention to the reviews that you’re getting across the Internet. Remember, a customer can discover your business from any number of different sites. That makes it important for you to know what your customers are saying everywhere. 

    So remember to pay attention to both the major review sites like Google and Facebook as well as smaller, industry-specific sites in your niche. You never know where a prospective customer can discover your business. 

  3. Step 3: Respond to Your Reviews 


    Responding to reviews might feel time-consuming and unnecessary, but it’s absolutely essential. A study by Harvard Business School found that responding to reviews is correlated with higher revenue. The reason for this is obvious. Responding to reviews is a great way to both build customer loyalty and deal with customer problems before they turn into larger issues. 

    So make sure that you’re responding to all of your customer reviews, whether they’re positive or negative.

  4. Step 4: Promote Your Reviews

    Remember, reviews are a great form of social proof. A great review shows prospective customers how much your current customers value your services. So don’t just let your reviews live on your review sites. Share them for the whole world to see. 

    Make sure that you’re sharing your reviews on both your website and your social media profiles. After all, nobody can sell your business quite like your customer. 

  5. Step 5: Use Customer Feedback to Improve 


    Remember, the best reputation strategy in the world won’t help you if you’re running a business where every customer walks out the door unhappy. Remember, the way to improve is by listening closely to customer feedback in order to improve customer experience. So while a bad review can feel disappointing, it can also give you the feedback that you need to improve. 

    Customer feedback isn’t just limited to reviews. You can use surveys to collect the data you need to make improvements. Send surveys to your customers so you can find out how they feel about different aspects of your business. 



Social Media Reputation Management Strategy

But you don’t have to just stop with review sites. Remember, customers are having conversations about your business on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Customers can recommend your business to all of their followers or they can tweet a negative comment. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find these conversations through the vast amount of noise on social media. 

Luckily, there’s a way that you can keep track of your business’s social media mentions: social listening with Birdeye. Don’t let a single customer comment go by. Make sure that you’re thanking your happy customers and preventing potential damage to your brand.  Birdeye will give you a notification whenever a customer mentions your business on social media. 

Finding an Online Reputation Tool 

There’s one online reputation tool that stands above the competition. Only Birdeye gives you all the tools you need to build a quality online reputation management strategy from start to finish. Here’s how Birdeye can help your business. 

Collect Authentic Reviews

With Birdeye, you can collect authentic reviews automatically. There’s no need to send review requests to every one of your customers manually. Birdeye integrates with your business systems, so you don’t have to spend your time typing away review requests. Just set it and forget it. 

Monitor and Respond to Reviews

With Birdeye, you can monitor reviews on over 150+ sites. You don’t have to switch between different review sites. It’s all there in your all-in-one Birdeye dashboard. Let’s say that you want to respond to a review. Birdeye takes care of that too. All you have to do is type out a review response in the dashboard.  

Send Customer Surveys

Don’t take stabs in the dark to find out what your customers want. Find out exactly what your customers are asking for with Birdeye surveys. Birdeye allows customers to send immediate reactions to your service. All they have to do is just click a button. The process is quick and easy for both you and the customer. 

Trying Birdeye for your Reputation Management Stratgey

Start building a quality reputation management strategy with Birdeye. G2 Crowd named Birdeye the #1 review software based on the data from hundreds of customer reviews. Birdeye gives you all the tools you need to both collect and leverage customer feedback. 

Find out how you can build a strong online reputation with Birdeye.

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This blog post is part of our Online Reputation Management Guide:




        

Online Reputation Management