What is a reputation? It’s the opinion of others about your characteristics and the way in which you conduct yourself, it’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room, and it has an enormous effect on your growth, career, and enhancement in business and in life. This one aspect can have catastrophic effects if handled negatively or give you the most powerful leverage if handled with care.
A positive or negative reputation can undoubtedly influence a consumer’s decision to buy from you. And in this day and age, building a solid reputation and brand starts ONLINE, Without a doubt, BUT, let’s not play down how imperative it is for you as a business to conduct yourselves in a way/manner that leaves anyone and everyone who deals with your business awestruck in the best of ways!
Just some tips we have picked up along the way, first and foremost – if you say something, mean it and do it – as simple as it sounds, not a lot of people stick to this! Picture the scenario – you have called a company looking for a product or service, for some reason or another they cannot give you the answer you are looking for at that time, so they take your contact details and send you on your merry way with promises they will call you back… they don’t, you had to call them back and start the whole process again, they made a promise and didn’t follow through, how disappointing, now, think of a time when a company told you they will do a certain something, and low and behold, THEY DID, they followed through, they did what they said they were going to do – what are the words that spring to mind when you think of that company? Reliable & trustworthy! And you referred them to all your friends, right?
There are several other traits to adhere to if you are serious about gaining a great reputation: provide only top quality experience during the consumer journey, make customer service a main priority, treat EVERYONE well and with respect (including employees and customers – we’re creating cohesion here, happy employees treat customers nicely! Get it!?), always give a little something more, going above and beyond already puts you miles ahead a lot of your competitors and get involved in your community in any way you can, big or small.
If you can do all these things, and do them well, with dignity, pride, and humility, then you no doubt have a winning formula.
Now, that we have checked off all the offline reputation-building business traits, you may be asking “how do I build a positive brand reputation ONLINE?”
Well for us, the real kicker comes down to Google and its Google Business Profiles – but more importantly, learning how to manage its Google Business Reviews!
Google Reviews have emerged as one of the biggest trending signals for Google Business listings. According to the Google Algorithm, business listings with more reviews are usually found in Google’s top three results ( AKA the MAP PACK.)
If you don’t have the time to manage your entire profile and there is one service you use your Google Business Profile for, let it be this! Because simply receiving ongoing Google Reviews is paramount in online reputation building, and a higher reputation score equates to a better customer experience and ultimately SALES SALES SALES.
