Making Every Search Count For Your Brand

It is critical to maintain a diligent reputation management plan to establish and protect a brand’s image online.  A Google search result is often the first impression a potential customer has, so you must actively cultivate and manage review site listings to ensure they properly reflect an organizational commitment to exceptional client service. Equally as important, these review site listings are central to a local SEO strategy as they help dominate local search results pages and give you an edge over competitors.

• Purposefully build a base of reviews across the major review sites: Google, Yelp, and industry sites to positively impact organic search engine results rankings (SERPs). Follow up transactions by encouraging (and easily linking) to major review sites.
• Use dedicated, proprietary software to instantly and regularly scan the internet for reviews and brand mentions. Popular tools include Podium, BirdEye, ReviewPush, & Reputology.
• Have a workflow or process for review responses, and don’t be afraid to automate portions of that to minimize your time and effort. Create some templated responses for frequently asked questions or issues, and then personalize them to adapt to the review at hand.
• Respond to positive and negative reviews and keep a running log of reviews, using this data to highlight and improve any client touchpoints and processes.
• Empower customer service representatives, cashiers, receptionists, and other front-facing staff to problem solve for customers and incentivize a return visit or purchase. 

Remember that you have an audience- your response online to a negative review is as much (or more) for the onlookers and prospects that are judging your customer service as it is for the person that left the original review. A bad review is an opportunity to address and solve a problem, and also to show prospective customers and other onlookers your corporate values and character. Timely, authentic, and helpful review responses will increase customer satisfaction and may also lead to more positive and/or amended negative reviews. Also, have a crisis management plan in place in case you get flooded with complaints or face a negative review from a particularly connected online influencer. Better to respect the power of consumer opinion and be prepared than be caught in a PR nightmare that may adversely impact your bottom line. Whatever you do, don’t blissfully ignore your review ratings and let complaints reside online without a response or resolution. Once consumer trust is lost it’s very difficult to regain. As the saying goes, the internet never forgets. 

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