Today a bad review travels faster than the speed of light. No longer is a bad experience limited by a customer’s circle of friends. Now unhappy consumers can spread their opinions far and wide. Every brand should have a reputation management strategy in place. Most successful strategies include providing impeccable customer services, asking for reviews, and responding to reviews as they appear online. While each of these strategies is effective, preventing a bad review in the first place can eliminate stress and prevent the need for cleanup. How can your brand avoid bad reviews?
- Follow up and communicate with customers. Don’t wait for a customer to go online and share their experience. Follow up quickly after the sale via phone or email to ensure client satisfaction. Identifying potential problems early on can turn potential complaints into rave reviews.
- Provide an outlet for complaints. Your website should include an easy way for consumers to leave complaints. Every member of your company should be open to hearing customer feedback and be able to provide solutions to solve customer problems.
- Don’t make them wait. If a problem arises, and it will, don’t sit on it. Find a solution and communicate openly with your customer. A slow response will only make matters worse.
- Keep tabs on negative online reviews. You simply must be on the lookout for negative online reviews. When you find them, respond immediately with solutions to the problem. Many customers are inclined to remove or provide a positive follow up to a negative review if it is handled promptly and effectively.
- Don’t post fake reviews. Not only do some review sites frown on this practice, it calls your ethics into question. Encourage your customers to leave online reviews, but don’t be tempted to create fake reviews.
- Turn your competitors into friends. It is an unfortunate fact that competitor spam reviews are exceedingly common. Establishing a relationship and regularly communicating with your competitors can limit your exposure to competitor spam reviews.
Managing your brand’s reputation has never been more important. If you are looking for reputation management solutions that make it easy to see and respond to reviews across the web, call Qiigo today at (404)496-6841.
