Even if you don’t have a great deal of funding to invest in reputation management as a small business, there are things you do have control over. For example, you can control how people react to your services and what they say about you. Below are seven ways to improve your reputation as a small business and ensure that people have a good opinion of your company as a whole!
- Have A Digital Presence
In this day and age, you can’t overlook the importance of having a digital presence. This includes investing time and money into building a reliable website as well as claiming pages on social networks, forums, review sites, and local search results. Wherever you haven’t joined yet, do so! All of these platforms enable you to become part of conversations that can shed light on how people perceive your company and brand. Two fantastic tools for this purpose that come highly recommended include KnowEm and ReviewTrackers. They allow you to manage business conversations and see the reviews that relate to your company and thereby help you to protect reputation according to Velseoity.
- Keep Information About Your Business Updated
When you have an online presence, it is crucial to keep your business information and contact details completely up-to-date. This includes things such as your email address, physical address, phone number, social media profiles, and even hours of operation. You also shouldn’t overlook explaining in bullet points what your business does or sells for a living.
Shockingly enough, even in this digital age, 37 percent of businesses do not have the correct contact details displayed online. This essentially costs them billions of dollars in business every year. If a customer wants to find out details about your company, make it easy for them, or chances are that they will take their business elsewhere.
- Build A Community On Social Media
Social media offers a fantastic platform where you can interact with clients and customers alike. You can build a community for your brand while also keeping them updated on the latest releases, product launches or sales. Popular social media platforms include Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Try to utilize a Instagram verification service to ensure people know it’s your genuine channel and not a copy
- Pay Attention To Online Reviews
Pay attention to what community-based review websites are saying about your business. Platforms such as Google+, Foursquare, and Yelp are great sources of information. When reading reviews, make sure to pay attention to the good and the bad. Negative reviews can offer insight as to how you can improve your services or products, and where you will need to invest more of your efforts for seamless operation. Lastly, make it a point to respond to reviews. Thank reviewers for their positive feedback, but also professionally address any problematic reviews that voice concerns.
TripAdvisor pages are a great example of how a company can make themselves appear more human and relatable towards consumers. If someone writes a negative review about your hotel, for example, acknowledge that they didn’t have a good night’s rest and apologize.
Make sure that your apology is heartfelt and professionally worded without grammatical errors. Taking the time to acknowledge a pain point someone experienced publicly allows your company to manage its reputation well. If you would like to take the process a step further, you may also consider offering compensation of some sort for a bad experience and explain how you will improve future experiences when given another opportunity. The point here is to never get defensive or blame the consumer. Regardless of how wrong or right a person is, they paid money for a product or experience that in their opinion just didn’t deliver as advertised.
- Spread Positive Content
Your reputation may occasionally get hit by a bad review or complaint. In these instances, you can diffuse its negative impact by choosing to spread positive content and messages under your company’s name. Use photos, videos, blog posts, newsletters, and ebooks to build your credibility as a company and of course, to manage your reputation in a well-received manner.
- Avoid Excessive Marketing
Today’s consumers are well aware of jargon, buzzwords, and terms that companies use in order to forcefully market their products and services. Promotional speech and corporate marketing messages are a huge turnoff for many, and ultimately, will make your company come across as cheap. Humanize the perception of your brand and speak in a way that customers understand and find relatable. By creating blog posts and responding to messages in an approachable way, you provide a personality for your business.
- Make Humor Count
In a world filled with competitors and corporations, standing out for a small business owner is no easy feat. You will want to give people a reason to notice your brand and its products above all of the noise. The only way you can stand out and properly distinguish yourself from the competition is by giving your company a unique voice. Your products or services may not come across as terribly exciting, but your attitude and demeanor can be!
Infusing humor into your Tweets, comments, and blog posts is a great way to stand out while humanizing your business. Having a great sense of humor can bridge the gap between the company and the consumer, and it becomes a universal language.
Also Read: Tips And Techniques To Boost Your Small Business
