When your name is on the line, the well-being of your entire company is on the line. What does this mean exactly? It means a tarnished reputation can be detrimental to marketing endeavors, day-to-day business operations, and future investment opportunities. This may sound overstated, but think about how quickly you get news of a natural disaster, a celebrity break-up, or a tech guru’s latest announcement, and how quickly you form an opinion about those situations.
Then ask yourself, ‘what is the one place where bad news can spread like a wildfire in no time flat?’ You named it: the internet.
At a conference earlier this year, keynote speaker Ben Hammersley said that the social change of reviewing (i.e. online reviews) has created the expectation of being heard. In other words, it’s no longer enough to simply monitor the comments that are being made about your company (online or elsewhere), but you also have to ensure that the customer feels heard. It’s not only important to stay on top of what’s being said about your company, but also to be in a position to respond to those comments on a personal level. A personalized response may be all that’s needed to reverse the downward spiral of a negative review. Even if the reviewer still disagrees or feels negatively, the level of attention you are providing your customers will be apparent to other potential customers and can help put their doubts about your company to rest.
It sounds simple enough, but this presents a sizable challenge for companies, organizations, and government agencies alike in that the World Wide Web is just that: a web. It’s a complex world of critics, reviewers, public opinion polls, all intermingled with facts, middle grounds and other-sides-of-the-story. Maintaining a positive reputation amongst constituents in this type of environment is a 24/7 job and not an easy one at that. But there are ways to prevent the dreaded one-star review and halt the rumor mill dead in its tracks…or to at least limit their potential aftermath.
Think of it as sticking to the 3 C’s: consistency, cohesiveness and creativity. Your brand is recognized for these reasons, so managing it should also involve these elements. Communicate with your target audiences consistently (without overwhelming them), giving them information about new services, products or special insight into who you are as a company. This helps build rapport and brand recognition. Throughout this process, your messages, themes and overall image must also be cohesive. This can be one of the more challenging things to achieve as companies struggle to utilize various mediums for various messages. Tailoring the messages for each channel and audience is important but should be cohesive so that no matter where audiences see or hear your name, they know it’s you. The more cohesive your image, the larger the audience that will recognize you for your quality, service or other positive attribute. Lastly, your brand and your strategy for reaching audiences absolutely must be creative. Bombarded as we are with information, some things do stick when they are creative enough to catch our attention. When it comes to engaging with customers, you want YOUR image to be the one that sticks. Your reputation depends on it and can help earn you those 5-star reviews that almost always come in handy on a rainy day. – Jessica
