Do you know what your business’ online reputation looks like? Do you have any idea of what would be considered a good reputation or a bad reputation? And do you have an understanding of what this reputation could be doing to your business? You only need to look at the reputation management consultant reviews to see just how many people had no idea what their online reputation was doing to their business and for those reasons they were incredibly impressed by the service that they were given by the rep management company. You are not alone in your absence of knowledge about this area of the business, but it is something which you must learn about because these are just some of the consequences of having a poor reputation online.
Brand Damage
Customers find it difficult in today’s world to place trust and loyalty with any particular company simply because the volume of competition is so high in almost every industry. What your company needs to do then in order to gain loyalty from its customers, is to have a powerful brand image which they can believe in. The tricky thing with a brand is that it can be difficult and time consuming to create, and it can be destroyed in a matter of seconds. If you have a negative reputation online because of slander, your entire brand image could very well be in the pits.
Lower Sales
The most damaging aspect of having a poor company reputation is that your sales will be significantly lowered. What is worse about this is that if you aren’t aware that you have a negative reputation online, you may not know why your sales are decreasing. Word can travel very quickly online so if you have a negative reputation then it will not be long before your existing customers decide that maybe you aren’t the best bet, and this will simply cause them to go elsewhere, seeing you lose valuable market share.
Acquisition
Search engines are now the number one place where consumers go to find a product or service that they are looking for. Even if the customer doesn’t plan to carry out the transaction online, they will use the internet to find the best company to use. Now let’s say that you have a plumbing firm in Ohio, you will naturally want the customer to find your business when they search for that in the search engine. Now let’s also say that you have had some scathing reviews which are completely false, perhaps the competition have done this on purpose. When that customer does find your business online, they will find the reviews which have been written about you, and instantly dismiss your company, and this will happen time and time again. If you want new customers to trust in you, this is why you need to fix your online reputation.
