A Step Ahead Reputation Management: Reputation Improvement

Everything is going well in your business. You rank well for the targeted keywords. Your ad is at the accessible position over the internet. You are getting conversions from organic search as well as social media. Nothing can possibly go wrong. But within the next few days, the internet gets filled with the bad reviews of your current batch of products. Either your products are not up to the mark or they do not perform as good as your competitor’s products. Your reputation declined by the overnight, so what went wrong? Why had such a sudden reputation declinement? One reason may be the quality of the product, but ‘quality’ is not the major issue here. The main reason behind is- you maintained your reputation but did nothing to improve it.

Google also rewards the websites that have a good reputation. When more and more people talk about you over the internet, when they search for you, then Google thinks- “So, this website is searched by a large number of people, something must be good about it. Let’s put it at the top!”, and you have a good rank in search engine, just like that. Let us take a very common example that you can relate too. While searching for a particular product online, you read their reviews. You read reviews on the ecommerce sites, you read the reviews on the blogs and discussion forums. When you are convinced enough, then only you purchase.

Online Reputation matters

In the earlier times, people would go to the nearest brick and mortar store to purchase products. There were very few stores to compare the products with. Even if, the quality was not up to the mark or user experience was not as good, people were bound to purchase from there. So retailers enjoyed the sales even after investing very little in customer satisfaction. But now the custom has been changed. In the world of internet and mobile, you cannot survive by ignoring customer’s requirements. If you lack qualified staff or management or quality, instantly you will get bad reviews, which would harm your reputation. These reviews are instantly and easily accessible to a wider number of audiences because bad reputation spreads faster than the good one.

Moreover, the way people search for things is also changing. They do not search for ‘fairness cream’ now, instead, they search for ‘best fairness cream’. No one want an average product, they want the best available in the market. While Google is not a person to decide what is best, the results shown are purely based on the ratings and reviews of the product. When more people appreciate a product, it comes in the list of ‘best’.

Reviews Shaping your Business’s Future

What is the fuss all about? Why are reviews so important? Are they overhyped? Or they really decide the fate of the businesses? Online shopping is not a new concept, still the trust factor is lesser than what we have on local shops? As we cannot touch and examine the product, we need to rely completely on pictures. In such a situation of dilemma, the only ray of hope is - reviews. Reviews are as good as the recommendations from your family or friend. We seldom purchase a product with no reviews or lesser reviews on the internet. A product with bad reviews is not far taken into the consideration. The more the percentage of pros, the more the inclination towards the product. After properly examining the product on the basis of reviews and our requirements, we decide whether to go with the product or not.

It is little strange that we trust people who we don't know and met. They may have different choices, requirements, conditions, and standards. But that’s the power of reviews. They can either build or ruin the future of a product.

Reviews Affecting Your SEO

Reviews not only help customers to buy a product, they are the deciding factors of a website's rank in organic search. You may have taken help from the professional SEO services in Boston, you may be ranking well in search engine results for a specific keyword. But how can your ranking be improved, without deploying any shady black hat SEO technique? Just by having good reviews about your website and services. Have you noticed on Google that businesses have a ratings and reviews associated with them? Do you care to read them while searching for a place to eat or stay or visit? Sometimes not, you just go to a nearby place, but if you are planning something important, you certainly do.

This is from searcher point of view, Google definitely takes the rankings into consideration while placing websites among top search results. To encourage small local businesses, Google has included reviews into ranking algorithm. But soon, Google got flooded with fake reviews and ratings. As a counterstrike, Google put restrictions on reviewing. Only those Google accounts that were genuine, are allowed to review a business. Long story short, when you already rank in the first page of the search results, having positive reviews will boost up your position. The direct way of affecting these reviews is improving the qualities of your products and services. You just provide world-class user experience and ask your customers’ to rate you and help you rank better, the rest is on Google.

Plan of Action

Now you need to earn customer’s loyalty and good reviews. The easiest way to do that provide a great user experience, your policies should be customer centric. You need to understand that people only review when they get either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad experience. The biggest mistake you can do while dealing with the bad reviews is; showing the lack of empathy. People wrote bad words because their experience must be excruciating. Replying ‘you will look into the matter and rectify your mistake’ is not a correct way to deal with it. You need to understand how your customers felt and regret the inconvenience caused. Assure them the mistake was unintentional and will never be repeated in future.

Here are some ways through which you can improve your reputation in the internet world-

• Ask for feedback from your customers and include the suggestions in your policies. Good or bad, both the reviews should take into account seriously. While good reviews will boost up your confidence, bad reviews can teach you a lesson for future. It is the best way to know the areas of improvement.

• Be quick in solving the customer grievances. Customers don’t wait for you, you need to be fast in providing an authentic solution to their problems. Deal with criticism in a positive way and do not blame customers for the problems. Own your mistakes and work hard to resolve them.

• Get back to your customers, after they have made a purchase. Ask about their experience and how you can improve your services for good. Email works the best for such purposes. Thus, you can get reviews immediately and no need to surf the net.

• Make a space on your website for customer comments such that they need not go to a discussion forum or online customer forums to complain or praise. This will increase your credibility and you can establish a better relationship with your customer.

• Inform customers when you have implemented on their suggestion. They will be happy to know that you not only read their feedbacks but give them a serious thought too. Thank them for the suggestion and hope that the change will lead to more sales.