Francis Santa: Keep Your Brand Shining Bright With Online Reputation Management
The internet has opened up a vast number of opportunities for businesses, from marketing to sales. It’s also built an equally large amount of challenges- and one of them is managing your online reputation. Online reviews have become the modern day word-of-mouth, and with that power comes the ability to make or break your brand.
Positive reviews can lead to higher conversion rates and lower pricing, while negative feedback can lead to lost revenue, increased customer acquisition costs, and even bankruptcy. Read on to learn more from renowned online reputation management expert Francis Santa about how you can manage your online reputation so that it reflects positively on your brand!
The Importance of Online Reputation Management
Online reputation management is important to your business’ success – and it must be done correctly. For example, a single negative review can cost you 6-10 times as much as a single positive one. A recent study found that reviews are the deciding factor for 50 percent of consumers when considering making a purchase.
The internet has opened up an infinite number of challenges for businesses, and managing your online reputation is one of them. With the ability to make or break your brand, it's important that you take your online reputation management seriously so that what people see on their screen reflects positively on your company.
What Makes a Good Online Review?
Online reviews have the power to make or break your brand. Positive reviews can lead to higher conversion rates and lower pricing, while negative feedback can lead to lost revenue, increased customer acquisition costs, and even bankruptcy.
So what makes a good online review? A good review is informative, detailed, honest, and authentic. It’s helpful if the person posting the review has personal experience with your product or service- but not necessary.
How to Respond to Negative Reviews
Negative reviews happen, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them. You need to take the time to address them and make sure your brand is responding in a way that reflects well on the company. It is important to acknowledge that this review happened and how it impacts your business. The good news- you are not alone! You are not the first business to receive a negative review, and you won’t be the last.
Negative reviews can sometimes be due to an unfair situation, like if an order was shipped late or an employee acted rudely- something out of your control. Regardless, your customers need to know that you're listening and taking their feedback seriously.
When possible, offer a solution- even if it's just acknowledging that there may have been some miscommunication or mistake made on your end. And while it might be tempting to delete any negative reviews with extreme prejudice, keep in mind that this could violate the Terms of Service of review sites and could jeopardize your account as well as your reputation.
Another strategy is reaching out privately via email or phone call with the customer who left the review. This will allow time for both parties to calm down and can help you get a better understanding of what went wrong- or what went right!