Every business has a reputation to uphold and protect in the eyes of their customers and the public at large, but only a few businesses take it seriously until problems begin to scale out of control.
The fact is that the bigger the business or brand, the more vulnerable they are to fall into the trap of poor reputation management.
We all know bad news travels pretty fast, and with the advent of social media, it travels faster than ever.
Many times, by the time a company gets a wind of what is happening, the damage is done and can be critical.
Let’s take for instance Uber:
In 2018, the ride-sharing company that had raised about $21 billion in funding and valued at well over $120 billion had a major dent on its reputation with several cases of sexual harassment, minority discrimination, unethical workplace.
The story went public and a lot of users uninstalled the Uber app and switched to their biggest competitor in the U.S., Lyft.
Overall Uber had to make over $20 million in settlements as well as fire a couple of people including its CEO Travis Kalanick.
Now, not only Uber has taken a punch to the stomach when it comes to poor reputation management, but Facebook too.
Facebook took a hit in 2018 when news surfaced that about the privacy of 87 million users were compromised in the Cambridge Analytica Scandal and the role it played in influencing the 2016 US elections.
Facebook’s stock price dropped by $120 billion, with Mark Zuckerburg losing about $17billion personally.
Statistics have shown that a business can lose 80% of its sales due to a negative online comment on any social channel.
Point is that it can happen to anyone at any time but taking a pre-emptive approach can help you bounce back in no time.
Here are 3 great ways to be proactive:
1) Be Social:
We live in a highly social world, so your business can’t afford to stay in the shadows, as a matter of fact, you are more likely to curb issues before they get out of hand by constantly engaging your audience on all social channels they hang out on and projecting and communicating the core essence of your brand in ways your customers can resonate with.
2) Improve Customer Service:
The customer is the reason you are in business and therefore deserve your attention. Sure, mistakes will definitely happen every now and then in serving your customers but what is most important is fixing them when they do pop up, and that’s where a good customer service team could bridge the gap and put a smile on the customer’s face.
3) Get a Reputation Management Platform:
For most businesses, customer acquisition is the #1 priority and that is good; but having a reputation management tool helps you properly evaluate the perception of your company in the mind of your customers and help you re-position your business based on the feedback gotten and impact your bottom-line positively.
Get a FREE 14-DAY trial of our Reputation Management Platform and get instant access to all the resources you need to enhance your brand’s reputation.