Your Business’s Online Reputation is Hard to Build and Easy to Destroy

“Online reputation management” is a buzzword thrown around by every marketing company out there. Everyone says they can do it, but what does it really mean?

Online reputation management means interacting online with customers and potential customers to make sure that they’re satisfied with your services. This ongoing process includes procedures like:

• Monitoring social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook for customer input and feedback
• Responding to customer feedback on appropriate channels
• Soliciting reviews and testimonials from customers

But Why Do I Need to Manage it? Can’t I Just Let Customers Review Me if They Want to?

That’s a good question. And you definitely don’t want to make people review you, or manipulate their reviews. But there’s a problem with just sitting and waiting for customer feedback: it puts your business at a disadvantage.

1. Less than 2% of customers regularly write reviews

While most people read reviews before making a purchase or going with a service, very few of those people write reviews. According to a study by MIT’s Simester, only 1.5% of customers write a review online after a transaction. This means that most people will end up trusting the opinions of a very small percentage of customers.

2. People are more likely to talk about bad experiences

Think about this in terms of common sense. If you go to a restaurant and experience terrible service and bad food, you are more likely to tell all of your friends and family to avoid that restaurant. But if the restaurant has good service and good food, you might tell your closest friends, but you probably won’t go any further. The service and quality were expected, so you don’t feel the need to go above and beyond to tell other people.

The same thing goes for online reviews. According to a Dimensional Research study sponsored by ZenDesk:

Customers who have a good experience just aren’t as motivated to write a review for your business, which not only makes your business look bad, but also doesn’t accurately represent of your company. Read this article to learn how to encourage satisfied customers to review you online.

Without making an effort to manage your reputation, you won’t see results. Online reputation management makes sure that when your customers search for you online, they see an accurate and trustworthy representation of your business.

Anne LaPlante is a copywriter at Catapult Creative Media. A graduate of LSU with a degree in advertising, she spends most of her free time posting pictures of her dogs and cats to Instagram.

Work with Catapult Creative Media Inc.
Catapult Creative Media Inc. is a digital marketing and design agency serving south Louisiana and headquartered in Baton Rouge. Founded in 2007, Catapult provides digital, social and mobile marketing solutions backed by relevant strategy and measurable results. Catapult works the web to their clients’ advantage, launching them to their next level of success.