Reputation Management: When Things Go Wrong

As a business owner it doesn’t matter how great you are at what you do, sooner or later something won’t go quite as well as you planned or someone will be unhappy with your product of service. It is what you do in these situations that makes all the difference.

You can head off many issues by setting the right expectations. Sometimes they may not be the expectations that your customers really want to hear but it is far better to under promise and over deliver than the other way around. Just remember when there are issues that communication is key and will make the difference between being seen as a hero or a villain.

Today reputation management is more important than ever due to the Internet. Now what people say about you can instantly be seen by everyone and can stay online forever. The last thing you want is every time someone types your name or business name into Google they immediately see complaints or accusations of fraud as the top results, whether or not they have any value to them. Unfortunately sometimes people will complain online or to others without even letting you know that they were unhappy or giving you the opportunity to do something about it. So have a plan and schedule for checking on your online reputation regularly to catch anything that creeps up. Much of this can be removed if you approach the site owners or posters in the right way. The rest you can bury by beefing up your content marketing and pushing the bad into search engine oblivion.

However, there is an exception to burying all of your digital dirt. That is your social media. In multiple surveys consumers have replied that they trust a brand far more if there are negative comments or constructive criticisms as well as positive ones on a company’s social media pages. Likely because they will otherwise assume that you are simply deleting anything that doesn’t make you shine. Of course there my be somethings you want to delete but look at the others as an opportunity to excel and show just how great your company really is and how much you care.

For example a mortgage company who is late funding a clients home loan, causing them to miss their closing date. If you have ever bought a home you know this isn’t a good thing. Though the mortgage company could delete this comment or do something positive about it. What if the business owner responded by putting the client and their family up in a five star resort for 3 days while the loan was closed and gave them $500 to cover their moving costs? No doubt that same borrower will become a raving fan on your social media wall and a new worst case scenario is set. Now anyone considering doing business with you can say, well if things don’t go exactly according to plan they will put us up in an awesome resort and pay for our move. Not a bad down side at all.

Yes, there will be times when you don’t want to hear feedback because you know it will be bad but these are all opportunities to win that customer back and their repeat business as well as ongoing referrals.

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