Managing Your Small Business Reputation
Managing your what????
by Stuart Livesey
Whether you’ve realised it or not you and your business now reside in what’s fast becoming a global village. More and more people in the village are talking to one another on the Net. They’re talking in chat rooms, message boards, blogs like this one and anywhere else they can leave a comment … and they could be talking about your small business.
While people aren’t so quick to talk about a good experience they’re always very quick to talk about any bad experience they may have had. You may not even realise that they had a bad experience with your small business because they didn’t mention it to you at the time but that won’t stop them telling others about it.
So what do you do when someone says something bad about the experience they have had with your business? How do you even know that they’re telling people about it?
Google Alerts
Let’s answer the last question first. Head over to Google and find Google Alerts. If you don’t already have an account with Google you will have to sign up for one. Once you have an account then sign up for a Google Alert for your business name.
If your business is known under several different names sign up for an alert for each name and while you’re at it sign up for a Google Alert for your name too.
Google Alerts will then send you an email every time Google finds a mention of whatever the terms were that you chose for your Alerts. When you get those you will begin to see what people are saying about you.
Managing your reputation
If you find that people are talking about any bad experiences they have had with your business it’s time to slip into damage control mode. One of our clients did that today when someone posted on a local blog we happen to run, about a bad experience they had with his business.
Sadly his idea of damage control was to pour scorn on the poster and resort to calling him names. Now, in this case, there could have been some suggestion that the poster was a competitor but calling them names and was the worst thing our client could have done.
Imagine how a response like that would look to people who had never dealt with this guy’s business. All they see is a belligerent small business person who wants to kill, maim and destroy instead of accepting a complaint at face value and working to resolve it.
Instead of hoisting the battle flags and preparing to board the enemy a far better response would have been to approach the situation in a conciliatory and understanding manner. You don’t have to be submissive and roll over to let them scratch your tummy but you do have to protect your reputation and tearing your opponents to pieces won’t win you friends and it will turn further business away.
So put your brain in gear before you put your fingers in motion and manage your reputation instead of destroying it.
