You’d never hire a carpenter to do a plumbers job. It seems like
straight-forward advice but it’s a sentiment that often seems forgotten when it
comes to the world of online reputation management Now a days many companies
take matters into their own hands (or outsource to traditional marketing firms
who don’t deal in social platforms) instead of seeking online reputation
management consultants and the results are often fatal to their online image.
Here are five common mistakes that companies make in online reputation
management that end up costing them a fortune:
1. Nothing is Hidden
Gone are the days when a simple mistake could go over looked, an employee
accidently dropped a glass of wine on a patron? Your customer service staff had
an off day and wasn’t as polite as she should have been? Your sales director
made a snide comment in a meeting with a potential client? Previously these
types of mistakes were just things that were a one off. No one other than the
parties involved had to know about them, but in a world now filled with social
media, review sites and personal blogs nothing is private anymore, everything
you do and say is open to discussion in the digital diaglogue.
2. Formalize an Employee Social Media Policy
It seems pretty common sense, if your employees are extensions of your business
and your brand you would expect them to maintain that corporate integrity in
all their endevours, and while this policy is based around the principle be
proactive, not reactive, it may not always work, but at the very least you are
able to protect yourself legally from fallout if an employee posts something
distasteful on a social media platform, or you need to terminate them due to
their public actions.
3. Separation between church and state
Far too many companies combine business with pleasure and drag
polarizing social and political issues into business matters. Do I care about
my toilet paper companies stance on gay marriage? That’s a trick question, it’s
a company, it shouldn’t have a stance. You and your employees need to remember
that your corporate social media accounts represent your business, not you, not
an affiliation and not a political party, otherwise you risk polarizing and
ultimately losing a large portion of your market.
4. Fuel Sparks Fires
Far too often when an angry patron takes to a socuial media
platform or review platform to voice an angry and negative opinion about a
product, service or person they are met with an equally angry and brutish
retort from the other side. While you may think you are justly defending
yourself in this public argument the only thing you are doing is tarnishing
your reputation in the eyes of alienated onlookers. To not take a defensive or
competitive tone with your customers, level with the customer, register their
complaint, tell them how you plan to rectify it and consider re-establishing
the customers trust via an exchange or refund. Not only does this act help to
re-win a lost customer, but it increases the trust of potential customers as
well. (It may also be important to consider where the complaint came from in
the first place and see if you can take steps to prevent it in the future –
remember all complaints come from a grain of truth).
5. Don’t Dismiss
Many managers think that they can just shrug off online reviews, they won’t
matter, people won’t look for them, and they couldn’t be more wrong. Not only
are most of your customers looking you up online before they get into bed with
you, but they are likely also expecting that you are reading your reviews and
using this to help mould your service. Take the time to respond to negative feedback,
apologize and try and rectify the situation. Customers and potential customers
will appreciate the feedback
Alice Watley is a marketing specialist at Synqk.com a New york based online reputation agency
