Bad Reputation Hurts Your Business, Why You Shouldn’t Take It Lightly

In today’s digital driven era, your business is as good as the reputation it commands. The reputational risks to businesses has never been this high in the past with social media acting as a double-edged sword that can either take your business to greater heights or harm your reputation in a matter of hours. This being said, it is important to take business reputation management seriously. Before we delve further into what you can do to minimize damage to your reputation in adverse scenarios, we shall first raise the alarm and talk about bad reputation hurts your business.

Negative Press Can Go Viral

There are few things as worse for any business than having to deal with negative press. What’s worst in today’s world is that negative comments or news stories about your business can quickly go viral on the social media. As you know negative news stays in the minds of people more than positive news stories. This can dent a killer blow to your brand reputation and may take many years for you to recover from this damage.

It Can Fuel Online Rage

Customers don’t like being wronged by a business and even the feeling of being wronged can invite their wrath. They often attract attention of others which can lead to an online rage. From un-following of social media handles to hash tag campaigns and uninstalling apps, we have seen several businesses become victims of such campaigns. Truth is often the first casualty in this and your business can become a victim without having done anything wrong either advertently or inadvertently.

Regulators Can Come After You

We have seen many instances of regulators overzealously going after businesses in the event of their reputation being tarnished. In most cases the businesses are absolved of all charges due to any evidence of wrongdoing but the damage is done. We are living in a world where trial by media and social media has become the order of the day, and this is where any damage to brand image can hurt your business dearly.

How Can You Mitigate Risks to Your Reputation?

• Act Before You React – Most businesses tend to think of online reputation management only when they have become victims of a smear campaign. As ORM experts would tell you that isn’t the right approach to business reputation management. You need to constantly scan web and social media to keep track of what’s being written and said about you.
• Maintain Transparency – If a customer has been wronged by your business, don’t hesitate accepting your mistake and offering an apology along with product replacement, returning their money or offering them additional discounts in the future. This can not only prevent a mistake from turning into your brand’s testimonial but also shows a professional image of your brand to the customers.
• Work With Experts – If you have become victim of a major smear campaign you should immediately get in touch with companies offering Online Reputation Management services. Such situations need to be handled with meticulous planning and strategically as your impulsive reactions might do more harm to your reputation than good.
• Leverage Positive Feedback – As negative reviews can hurt, positive reviews can help you in damage control. As a part of your brand building exercise you should always request and encourage your customers to share their feedback and comments. The negative or critical ones help you in improving your products and services while the positive ones can attract new customers to the fold and stand you in good stead in adverse situations.

To sum up, you should take reputational risks seriously and take proactive steps in protecting your online reputation. Business reputation management is the road to survival in this competitive business environment.

Summary: In this write-up we how bad reputation can hurt a business and how should you go about with business reputation management.