Business E-Reputation Management: How to Optimize It?

These days, clients don’t hesitate to express their opinion in relation to a lived experience.  This can have a direct impact on the reputation of organizations. After all, the web generates exponential word of mouth. In this context, e-reputation management becomes a very important aspect for companies. By maintaining an excellent online reputation, you will benefit from better visibility on search engines as well as many positive reviews on your online review platforms. This is a necessary asset when it comes to acquiring new customers, especially when we know that 95% of Internet users are influenced by your online reviews!

Download now: FREE GUIDE 13 online review response templates (positive and negative)

How can you take charge of your e-reputation and online communications? In our article, discover the importance of good e-reputation management, along with 6 valuable tips on the subject!

Why is e-reputation management important?

As the digital age is in full swing, it is crucial for businesses to excel in their e-reputation management. Indeed, according to the study conducted by Web Tribunal, 83% of Internet users ignore company advertisements in favor of online reviews. In this sense, customer feedback is now the key to attracting new customers in store!

Examples include:

• According to Inc., 84% of Internet users rely as much on online reviews as on the recommendations of their entourage;
• According to Ekomi Blog, a store with an excellent reputation would generate on average 30% more profits;
• According to Search Engine Watch, one more star would increase your conversion rate of 25% of Internet users into potential customers;
• According to CMG Local Solutions, a company with four or more bad reviews online can increase your customer loss by 70%.

These statistics illustrate the importance of ensuring good e-reputation management. Indeed, a good e-reputation will have many benefits for your business:

• Lasting customer relationships based on authenticity and empathy;
• A better return on investment (ROI);
• The possibility to transform your detractors into promoters of your brand;
• Better visibility on search engines;
• Easier to attract new customers.

With that in mind, what better way to build an excellent online reputation than to pamper your current customers? Deliver a high-quality customer experience, and then monitor your social networks and online review platforms regularly. Respond to all feedback to maintain a strong connection with your current customer base. Such a proactive approach will also help you build confidence in your prospects. This is a great example of good e-reputation management!

What are the steps to properly manage your online reputation?

Managing your reputation is crucial to the success of your business. What steps do you need to take to benefit from such a good e-reputation? Without further ado, discover our 6 tips on the subject!

1. Identify leader within your business who will take charge of your online reputation

Managing your company’s e-reputation is a task that shouldn’t be underestimated. Monitoring online review platforms, updating your organization’s information, responding to positive and negative feedback, and ensuring the quality of your customer relations: such tasks require several hours of management!

To ensure good e-reputation management, why not assign these responsibilities to a defined member of your team? This expert in e-reputation and marketing will be able to answer questions and comments from your users without a problem! You will avoid a load divided between several people who will not take the lead in this matter. Identifying an official leader will allow you to better track ongoing tasks.

With that in mind, identify a business leader who will ensure your online reputation. This will ensure that you centralize information (passwords, platforms and accounts used) and train an employee who specializes in optimizing your e-reputation. Such an expert will be able to respond to users, put your prospects in trust, all in an efficient and personalized way. This is a crucial asset to ensure good e-reputation management!

2. Frequently analyze what is said about you on the web on your various online platforms (H3)

To ensure your company’s excellent online reputation, it is very important to ensure that what is said about you on your various online platforms. This will allow you to communicate directly with your clients and prospects. It will also allow you to rectify the situation in case of customer dissatisfaction or even to inform your prospects about the nature of your products and services. 

In addition, ensuring this re-reputation management will allow you to read a wide range of feedback regarding your company. Positive feedback, suggestions for improvements, employee performance, things to fix: with this precious information, you can continuously improve your services and share them internally. 

With that in mind, when you do your reputation watch, don’t forget to monitor all of your online medias, such as:

• Your online review platforms;
• Discussion forums related to your products and services;
• Blogs mentioning your brand;
• Comments and publications on social networks;
• News about search engines; 
• And more!

It is important to ensure that your reputation is regularly monitored in order to benefit from a good brand image. Remember this valuable advice when it comes to e-reputation management!

3. Respond to positive and negative customer feedback when possible

Some people might think that responding to negative online reviews is giving them visibility. However, it is very important to take charge of these kinds of comments to avoid them becoming too big! According to the study conducted by Exploding Topics, 75% of companies ignore negative reviews online. However, organizations that answer at least 25% of their online reviews make an average of 35% more profits. In that sense, how can you respond to negative feedback from unhappy customers?

Here are nine easy steps to help you:

1. Be sure to respond within 24 hours;
2. Thank the customer for the time they invested in your business;
3. Apologize for the poor quality of the lived experience;
4. Explain to the customer the reason for the poor service, if applicable;
5. Inform the customer that their comments will be considered to improve your services in the future;
6. Invite the customer on a more private medium (in-store meeting, email exchange, phone call) to learn more about customer dissatisfaction;
7. Look for a relevant solution with the problem addressed;
8. Follow up with the customer to ensure the solution is appropriate and the situation has been rectified;
9. If the customer is satisfied, politely invite them to change their online review for a positive review.

Of course, you must also respond to all your positive online reviews. After all, every customer took the time to write a comment about your business. In addition, these brand promoters strengthen your credibility while giving you better online visibility. To that end, don’t forget to thank them for their time and show them that their positive feedback is appreciated. Keep this valuable advice in mind as you think about e-reputation management!

4. Survey your existing customers to understand how they perceive your online reputation

A key part of e-reputation management is to regularly survey your customers for detailed feedback related to your online reputation. A proactive company that cares about the well-being of its customers will put its clientele and prospects in confidence. This is an essential asset for your acquisition of new customers!

In addition, with these tips, you can improve your customer experience based on concrete needs. By collecting proposals, innovative ideas and feedback from your customers, you can create a unique and personalized experience. In turn, you will significantly increase your existing customers’ loyalty and improve your referral rate. This is a perfect opportunity to enjoy a good reputation, in addition to standing out from your competitors!

With this in mind, we recommend that you survey your customers at the optimal time, one to two hours after an experience. This perfect timing will allow you to get hot, accurate and authentic feedback without putting pressure on your customers. Also, make sure your survey is short, clear and concise to capture the attention of your respondents. This is one of our valuable customer satisfaction survey tips!

Do you want to lighten your business’ e-reputation management? If this is your case, we advise you to automate the sending of your customer satisfaction surveys. Why not take this opportunity to give a human and personalized touch to your invitations to answer a survey? With a solution like InputKit, you’ll be able to customize and automate your surveys for an optimal response rate in record time. Definitely, this is a must-have feature to improve your e-reputation as well as your customer experience!

5. Make sure you maximize your presence on the web platforms you own

When it comes to e-reputation management, optimizing your online platforms is also a must. By owned platforms, your website, social media, newsletters and Google Business profile are just a few examples. 

Think about it this way: after a great customer experience, you want to leave a positive online review. However, you cannot find the company on the search engines. When a page similar to the organization is finally proposed to you, no description or information seems up to date. You hesitate: and if it was an outdated page that was not created by the company? Finally, you decide to give up since you can’t find a reliable page to write your comment.

In order to avoid such a situation, make sure to regularly update your information on your different platforms. After all, these are media over which you have control, since they belong to you! 

On your owned platforms, be sure to post quality content: blog posts, product information, current trends, news, exclusive promotions and more! These are many opportunities to build a connection with your community, which will help you with your organization’s e-reputation management!

6. Following satisfaction surveys, give your satisfied customers maximum visibility

Your surveys are sent, your platforms are up to date and your online reviews are collected. Now you have to give more visibility to your greatest ambassadors. How? First, start by boosting the positive opinion of your satisfied customers following satisfaction surveys by automating your invitations to leave online reviews. InputKit’s online review solution targets your satisfied customers and immediately offers them to leave a positive online review following a successful experience. 

In addition, to showcase your ambassadors, it is recommended to create posts on your social media. Of course, you must first obtain their written consent. This will allow you to broadcast an excellent brand image, in addition to demonstrating the quality of your services. This is a good marketing strategy for managing your reputation!

To help you, here are some ideas to showcase your satisfied customers:

• Video case studies on a problem that your company has solved;
• Video clips about your customers’ satisfaction;
• An online review widget to highlight your positive feedback on your website, such as offered by InputKit’s solution;
• A banner with the various logos of your best customers to show the diversity of your industry, especially in the field of Business to Business (B2B);
• A carousel featuring the best quotes from your satisfied customers.

How does InputKit improve your e-reputation management?

Do you want to optimize your company’s e-reputation management? If so, InputKit’s e-reputation management solution can help!

With our solution, you can automate the sending of your satisfaction surveys at the right time, one to two hours after a lived experience. Our response rate of 49% by email and 57% by SMS will ensure you get valuable feedback in order to create the best possible customer experience. 

In addition, our solution automatically invites your ambassadors to leave you a positive online review. Thus, for each completed survey, InputKit will invite your satisfied customers on the review platform of your choice. You will thus gather many positive reviews: a must for an excellent e-reputation!

Did you know that InputKit also offers a performant and centralized dashboard? Thanks to it, you can automatically convert your answers into performance indicators. Customer Satisfaction Score, Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, online reputation evolution: evaluate everything by location to ensure high quality service. This will help you gather better reviews and, in turn, improve your online reputation!

When it comes to managing your organization’s reputation, Inputkit can save you several hours of work. Thanks to our real-time notifications, you will be alerted as soon as a new online review is published. This feature, along with an intelligent response generator, will allow you to respond to all your customer reviews in record time. No more managing your reputation manually: with InputKit, each answer will only take one click to write. This is definitely a must to show your customers and prospects that you are trustworthy!

Plan my InputKit demo to optimize my reputation management

Finally, in summary, how can you optimize the management of your company’s reputation? Identify a person responsible for your online reputation, then verify what is said about your organization. Make sure you optimize your presence on your various online platforms, including responding to all your feedback, both positive and negative. Send satisfaction surveys to continually improve your customer experience, then put your ambassadors forward to put your prospects in confidence. This will certainly improve your e-reputation!

Do you need a solution to optimize your e-reputation management? If so, feel free to schedule a free and customized InputKit demo at the moment of your convenience. Our team of experts will definitely help you improve your online reputation!