Online Reputation Management Part I

What people say about you may not matter in your personal life, but when it comes to business, your reputation is everything - it can literally make or break your company. Online reputation management or having control is nothing more than keeping your word and ensuring that your customers are satisfied.

There are a number of ways that you can manage your online reputation and these strategies are both cost effective and easy to monitor. Building a reputation online is interacting with your customers and building trust.

Customer Feedback

What your customers think about your products or you for that matter plays a big role in your online reputation. If you are known for delivering quality products at great prices, then you will build a reputation as a good person to do business with; so why not find out what your customers think with a short feedback form.

Research has shown that customers who are asked to provide feedback generally leave positive feedbacks about their experience.

You can place a feedback button on your website or links on your invoices and even business cards asking for feedback. This will help build or enhance your online reputation.

Customer Surveys

A little different from leaving feedback, customer surveys are quick pre-formatted questionnaires that your customers can fill out and send back to you. You can ask questions about service, products, pricing, overall experience - anything to create customer interaction. Not only does this help build your online reputation, your customers will feel like their opinion counts and that will boost your reputation quite a bit.

Testimonials

Personal testimonials always win brownies points with potential customers deciding whether they want to buy from you or not. Testimonials with pictures add more credibility to the statement, although not all customers will want to add the photograph.
Video testimonials add even more credibility as potential customers can see a live person talking about your business or their experience in dealing with you.

Product Reviews

This is another easy way to build your online reputation and give you feedback on your products. Asking customers to give you reviews on particular products makes them feel special and you can use that information to make changes, if needed, to your products or services.

Here are just a few different ways in which you can take control of online reputation management and let your customers help you build a better business at the same time. Customers are usually more receptive if you offer them something in exchange like a free report or something in exchange for their time.

Each of these strategies can easily be creating using online marketing tools (free or paid). There are several online resources for these tools, many of which you can have up and running in no time at all. Get started today with your online reputation management.