Repair Your Online Reputation: Steps You Need to Take to Succeed

From multinationals to street corner coffee shops, online reputation is one of the most important assets of any business and arguably as important in defining them as the products and services themselves. With online reviews now the number one source of peer recommendations, favorable scores, and testimonies are a must, so maintaining a good relationship with customers through online reputation repair is essential for all companies that take success seriously.

Keeping up appearances takes work, however, and taking your eye off the ball can see the negative reviews mount up and your brand being dragged through the mud across social media and even news stories that cast a shadow over your name. It’s impossible to remain competitive with such a disadvantage. 

It can and does happen, and you may not even understand why or what led to a seemingly impossible-to-fix internet reputation. Yet, if you are facing a situation like this, it’s not the end of the world. With the correct approach, almost any brand can, with time, overcome the embarrassment, fix the underlying issues, regain consumer confidence, and rejuvenate its online reputation.

• Steps to take to repair your online reputation
• Long term strategies
• Things to Avoid

Steps to Take to Repair Your Online Reputation

So what can we do? Let’s look at how to fix your online image with some fundamental steps that should be present in every serious attempt to repair online reputation:

Claim and optimize your online profiles

The most common warning sign of a reputation going awry are online reviews accumulating on popular feedback platforms such as Trustpilot, Pissed Consumer, Google reviews, etc.; therefore, the first port of call in any reputation rehab needs to be claiming and optimizing your profiles on these review platforms.

What do we mean by claiming and optimizing? 

It’s a simple yet so often neglected task. Clearly define your brand and your brand message: How do you want to be seen? What would you like your brand name to be synonymous with? What strengths and skills do you want to draw attention to? This is all necessary to visualize what kind of reputation you are going to strive for. 

With a clear identity in mind, update and give life to your online profile/s—ensure all information and contact details are current, up to date, and in sync across all platforms. A comprehensive, across-the-board approach is necessary here. Focusing your efforts on this or that particular social media is a misuse of time and resources. Further to this, make sure the platforms are attended to. This means responding to all queries and comments via a particular channel and not leaving inquiries unanswered.

Identify the root causes

Knowing you have a problem is just the start. To get to the bottom of the reputation wrecking issues, the underlying causes need to be figured out. Do the majority of complaints refer to poor customer service? Poor product quality? Properly understanding the basis of negative sentiment is the foundation of a reputation repair strategy, which is a foundation from which the correct, targeted improvements can be made.

While negative reviews and less-than-flattering chatter on social media about your brand are pretty reliable red flags, this isn’t the only reason you shouldn’t ignore them. They also serve as useful guidance on where changes should be made to best improve the customer experience. This feedback can inform a systematic approach to dealing with company issues at the root and thus resolving them permanently.

Efficiency in this matter and knowing what to look for and what makes the real difference take time and experience. If your brand is short on either of these, consider an expert online reputation audit. PissedConsumer offers businesses an in-depth reputation audit that actions an online search and analysis of all review mentions, social media feedback, and more to return comprehensive insights into what’s really behind the poor feedback of your brand. Retrieving this useful data sets the table for a full online reputation repair. With the root causes established, a solid, lasting resolution is possible. 

Most companies can improve their reputation right away by completing this task. Neglecting to do the work to fix profiles with low ratings and negative comments just makes things worse. There’s no need to remain in the dark about how you are doing reputation-wise. You can get started right away with no outlay at all through PissedConsumer’s free-of-charge review site analysis

Engage with negative feedback

Much feedback is emotionally driven, and many negative reviews are just angry consumers looking for an outlet. However, many customers who reach out do have genuine constructive criticism and are seeking acknowledgment and a resolution. In fact, 32% of consumers say they would buy from a brand again if their issue is resolved satisfactorily.

We all make mistakes; it's intrinsically human, and it's just one of those things that can’t be avoided. Openly accepting shortcomings and responding to criticism shows a human side that many consumers (to great irritation) find missing in their dealings with brands. 

Promptness needs to be prioritized, too. Speedily address any complaints or criticisms that pop up, and don’t evade challenging discussions. A prompt, open approach to responding to public criticism shows transparency, as well as an intent to learn from mistakes and make things right. Time is a major factor here, 70% of surveyed consumers now expect brands to respond to them on the very same day, so be prepared.

Consider your response, as well. Don’t just reply reflexively with a generic, vague acknowledgment. Make the effort to grasp the circumstances and show that you have actually read the customer’s inquiry and taken it in. Manner matters, of course. Courtesy, respect, and tone should underline all your communications with the consumer public. 

If you are at fault, own it and say so. Give a genuine apology if the situation calls for it. In plain language, express to the customer what you are going to do to put right the problems that caused the complaint. Your customer received the wrong-sized item due to a process error on your side. Say sorry, then set out a course of action that you will take to remedy the problem (if it cannot be dealt with immediately), and avoid any language or suggestion that could imply defensiveness or dismissal.

For a more in-depth rundown on the correct way to handle negative reviews, check out this article on how to respond to negative reviews.

Create positive content

While every reputation repair must start by addressing the core issues – the existing faults and failures, it’s important not to just leave it at that. Actively building a positive online presence is crucial to moving things forward and beyond the negative. Current, positive content will not only displace and suppress negative content but will also enhance your search engine visibility.

How do you build a positive online presence?

Engagement and interaction with the community through projects, charitable initiatives, and customer success stories will put a shine on your brand image. Regular, fresh, and useful content builds and reinforces a favorable brand impression. A consistent supply of informative, useful content through blogs, videos, webinars, and expert articles will also help establish your brand as an authority in your area of business.

For example, a gym may want to encourage its members to share before-and-after photos from their fitness journey. Inspiring potential customers with success stories and social proof of real results will present a positive image.

Monitor your onnline presence

Knowing what people are saying about your brand is the best way to know what you’re doing right… and wrong. To this end, constantly monitoring your online mentions is essential to keeping up to date with public sentiment towards your brand. Google alerts for your business name and any relevant terms should be set up, whereas more advanced services can provide reputation monitoring, new review alerts, weekly reports, and deeper analysis to enable you to address complaints quickly and get the jump on emerging problems before they develop into more complex, less manageable issues.

Insights gathered from being attentive to consumer chatter can then be put to constructive use in informing your reputation repair strategy and picking up the slack in the highlighted weak areas. For example, if the majority of complaints revolve around poor customer service response times, focus on optimizing customer service performance through training and/or a reassessment of resource allocation (staff, automation, etc.).

Long-term Strategies

Damage control and reputation repair efforts are the initial need; a long-lasting, robust reputation is the goal. Consistency and adherence to informed best practices are what make things work in the long run. A keen sense of your customers’ needs and expectations, product and service improvements based on consumer feedback, and an adaptable, dynamic customer service team that can reliably gather this data play a crucial part in nurturing and maintaining a healthy brand reputation.

Build strong customer relationships

It’s far from being insider knowledge that satisfied customers will keep doing business with your brand and, in turn, speak of you in a positive light to their peers. The bulk of these discussions now take place across social media and review platforms, so a concerted effort to maintain strong customer relationships is indispensable to repairing online reputation. 

To nurture the customer relationship, the key area to focus on that will return the best results is customer service. As the main point of interaction between business and customer, it’s the primary factor that determines how consumers feel after dealing with your brand. Hence, a well-trained, experienced customer service team will understand the worth of prompt and polite communication that emphasizes patience, empathy, and a positive attitude to problem-solving. 

A customer service operation based upon these core tenets will gain consumer trust, enhance customer satisfaction, and contribute a lot to creating a positive impression of your brand in the mind of the customer.

With a top-draw customer service team that works hard to maintain high standards of service delivery and issue resolution, you can then be confident that you’ll be making life easier for a lot of your customers. So, of course, you’ll want to encourage these satisfied customers to share their positive experiences with you while they are still fresh in their minds. 

There are many ways you can politely ask for a review without being pushy. A post-customer service interaction follow-up email with a link to your review site profile is a great way to achieve this – just ensure you make the process brief and simple because as soon as things start to get even slightly confusing or complex, your potential positive review will likely walk away.

Deliver consistency

A brand that is consistent in its messaging and delivering what it claims to elevates expectations and, in doing so, also elevates its reputation for quality and reliability. When consumers feel certain about what they can expect from a brand, they are more likely to commit to a purchase. As such, consistency builds trust as consumers put faith in a brand to deliver a consistent experience. 

Maintain transparency and honesty

Consistency pays off when based on honesty and transparency. It’s the only approach that will stand the test of time and keep your reputation clean. Assure such openness with clarity of communication - be upfront about errors or delays, acknowledge mistakes, and tackle criticism head-on with an aim to not just resolve problems but move on from them and get better.

Things to Avoid: What You Should Never Do When Repairing Your Reputation

The temptation to cut corners here must be strictly opposed, ruled out, even. Trying to buy time by evading the issues or hoping that adjustments in other areas will make up for it is, to be frank, a fool’s errand. Failing to tackle the problems at the source will simply make them more difficult to remedy in the future. The online consumer public will notice, and dismissive, avoidant behavior will erode trust and reputation quicker than your attempts elsewhere will rebuild it.

Never ignore poor reviews

There are fewer things consumers hate than being left hanging. If they’ve been sufficiently moved to take the time out of their day to write a review about their unsatisfactory experience with you, then it’s fair to say that the ball is in your court to provide the remedy. Always look at poor feedback as an opportunity to rescue a situation. Use the opportunity to show the customer that they are right to expect better from you and that you will do just that.

Fake or paid-for reviews are always a mistake

Superficially, going down this route may seem like a quick way to bump up the numbers and improve your star rating, but it is a terrible move and will surely come back and bite you behind. Consumers are, in general, far savvier and more perceptive than many give them credit for, and they can spot fake reviews from a mile away. The upshot of this ‘investment’ being a further hit to your reputation as your credibility comes into question.

Don’t delete or censor reviews

We’re surprised by how many supposed reputation restoration services still focus on negative review suppression or removal. This just isn’t sustainable. A completely clean slate of glowing 5-star reviews can create a worse impression than a handful of poor ones. A little criticism is expected. 

While a customer may agree to delete or update their review if the situation is resolved, never in any circumstance attempt to ‘deal with’ bad feedback by removing it altogether or obscuring the facts. Again, this is just a ‘papering over the cracks’ approach, which will make reputational maintenance much trickier as time progresses.

Get Your Reputation Back on Track

Effective brand reputation management boosts your business with a precise, in-depth understanding of how it is seen in the eyes of the consumer public. Proper analysis and continuous, diligent application of the correct strategies to fix online reputation will thrust your brand beyond the limitations that hold back the customer relationship, customer satisfaction, and a reputation that spearheads brand success. So don’t neglect it any longer, start now and present your brand to the world the way you want it to be seen.