How to build a strong online reputation.

Online reputation, why so important?

Well to begin, online reputation is a key contributor to your success. Everyone will look online for reviews before they will even consider even giving you a phone call. You need to have a strong solid reputation or customers aren’t going to even consider you. Because they’re not sure whether or not they can trust you. And as a result, you are going to miss out on a huge amount of business.

Statistics have shown that 86% of customers do research on a company before they will even consider doing business with them for their product or service. They will go to Google and check for your reviews first. They want to make sure that you look legitimate and that you’re not a fly-by-night company. Here are 6 ways to help you improve.

1- If you don’t have reviews, then what?

Gather reviews from your past clients or customers. So if you don’t have any reviews get in touch with your past customers and see if you can gather some reviews from them. An important thing to remember, don’t be afraid of having a few bad reviews. Red flags go up when only five-star reviews are displayed. Seeing reviews with four and three stars show future customers that you are a legitimate business.

2- Moving Forward with Automation.

Now that you have gathered your past reviews you need to think or your future reviews. Start planning ahead by automating a review system. Such as our reputation management platform. When you’re sending out invoices or emails you can have it so that they could click on a call to action to leave a review on your business. This way you can continue gathering reviews down the road and this will continue to build your online reputation.

3- Build that personal Relationship

You want to also develop that personal relationship with your customers. So when you’re working with them ask them to give you a review. It’s hard for someone to deny a request like that when you’re doing it face-to-face. But be prepared to have a review area ready for them to fill out. Perhaps you could hand them an iPad that has the page open to the review page. And you could ask them to take a moment to fill it out.

4- A time to take action with your online reputation.

One of the most important tips I’m going to share with you is to read and reply to all reviews whether they are good or bad. There’s no point in requesting a review if you don’t acknowledge the person who wrote it. Because people will take note if you responded even if it’s just a simple thank you to see if you really care about the person who left the review.

5- Think of your online reputation as an investment

Yes, responding to reviews can be time-consuming. But your business is an investment, and so are your reviews of that investment. So take time to continue to develop a solid online reputation. And if you don’t have time to do it personally appoint somebody on your staff that you have confidence in to take care of it. Or you can hire Iron Rhino to manage your online reputation. We have a team of reputation management Associates.

6- Be aware of fake and anonymous reviews. 

Do everything you can to avoid fake and anonymous reviews. If you spot a fake anonymous review be sure to remove it. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes your competitors will try to put a bad review to discredit you. So you need to always be on top of all reviews.