When you have an online business, one of the most important things to watch out for is the reputation that you make among potential, current and ex clients. The information is very easy to find on the Internet by anyone in just a few seconds, so you have to be sure that most of the things that someone can find online about you are positive, if not excellent. Why is it so important and how can you control your reputation by yourself or hire online reputation management agency?
Potential clients will make research
If they want to hire someone or if they are searching for a company to collaborate with, they will search on the internet for some information. Naturally, if they find that most of your ex clients are complaining about the services of the company they will have no reason to proceed and they will search for someone else. At the same time, if they don’t find much information to begin with they will not trust the company; how come no ex clients discussed about their experience?
If there are negative opinions on the Internet, take them into consideration
And by this, I don’t mean you have to search for the author and discuss about what they liked and what they didn’t. You should, instead, see if you can’t change anything in your company or business to prevent situations like this in the future. If you have the possibility, answer to the negative comment and apologize or offer an explanation. The author will not care, but it will be good for other potential clients to see that you care about your reputation.
Motivate your clients to leave feedback
In general, people go online to write about their experience when they have a negative one. This means that it is your job to motivate and convince your clients to write about the experience they had with your services especially if it was a positive one. There are a few simple ways to do this, from sending them an e-mail after your collaboration is complete, asking them to answer some questions that you will post online with their consent. In this way, in a few weeks the number of positive opinions will be considerably higher than the number of negative ones. No client expects you to have positive comments only, but they expect the positive ones to outnumber the negatives.
Be honest
There are many companies that hire people to write positive reviews for them; this is not only immoral, but it’s also obvious most of the time. Someone who did not use your services will not be able to provide an authentic opinion and if any potential clients figure out that you are buying positive reviews, they will never consider your company again.
Should you invest time and effort in improving your online reputation? Definitely yes. The Internet is the best way to increase your business and to find new people interested in your services. Take advantage of this and manage your reputation in the best possible way.