Your business’s reputation can make or break its success. This effect is only amplified when it comes to your online presence. Prospective customers often turn to online reviews and feedback on social media when choosing a product/service or vetting one they’re already leaning toward.
Reputation monitoring is a core component of businesses’ digital marketing and customer service efforts. It’s more than simply reacting to negative customer feedback; it’s being proactive in managing how your brand is perceived online.
This article explores best practices and helpful tools to stay on top of your online reputation.
What is Reputation Monitoring?
Reputation monitoring is leveraging tools and processes to continuously monitor the internet for mentions of your brand. By doing so, businesses can quickly identify negative opinions and potential issues before they become larger concerns. It also offers the opportunity to respond to positive feedback which can strengthen a customer’s lifetime value and provide opportunities for testimonials and other user-generated content.
Rather than manually scouring various online platforms, reputation monitoring tools constantly “listen” for brand mentions and aggregate this information in a centralized dashboard or through email notifications.
Reputation Monitoring Tools
As with many online resources, reputation monitoring services vary from free tools to paid software. Below are popular platforms that can operate in isolation or in conjunction with each other for greater effect.
- Google Alerts: monitors the internet for mentions of specified keywords (e.g. your business’s name or branded products/services) and sends customizable email notifications when these terms appear in new content online.
- Mention: monitors more than 1 billion online sources for specified keywords with detailed analytics and a robust dashboard.
- ReviewTrackers: specializes in monitoring and managing online reviews from popular sites including Google, Facebook, and Yelp.
- Other popular tools include Brand Monitoring, Brand24, Reputation, and social-focused tools such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social.
Responding to Customer Feedback
Beyond simply listening for mentions of your brand, you should respond to both positive and negative feedback promptly and professionally.
Negative comments are inevitable and can typically only be removed by the customer. However, businesses that respond with a sincere apology, an objective explanation of the situation (if appropriate), and an offer to remedy the poor experience fare much better in consumer opinion. If you can remedy the issue, you may request the individual to remove their negative feedback. Otherwise, in online review situations, consider encouraging other customers to leave reviews to counter the effects of the negative one.
Businesses should also promptly respond to positive feedback which can strengthen customer relationships and overall opinion of your brand. Ensure your response is sincere, personalized, and invites the customer to return/reengage with your business.
Summary
Prioritizing your business’s online reputation can improve brand sentiment, strengthen customer relationships, and foster greater long-term success for your company. By taking a proactive approach to customer feedback and leveraging reputation monitoring resources to reduce manual workloads, businesses can take an active role in their online reputation.
