This article series walks you through the steps to proactively manage your online reputation.
To understand why managing your online reputation is important, and get a handle on your current online reputation, make sure to read the first part of this series.
If you have read and followed the steps outlined thus far you should have a list of where people have left reviews about your business. The list has been grouped and arranged to help you identify the sites with the most negative reviews and where to start to address them.
What we will look at in this article is how can you get ahead of potential reviews and track new reviews.
Get ahead of potential (negative) reviews
1. Minimize the chance of them ever happening
The best way to get ahead of negative reviews is to make sure to have as few as possible. Do this by providing shareworthy service.
The best way to get ahead of negative reviews is to make sure to have as few as possible.(Tweet this)
While you were addressing your current negative reviews, were there any common complaints? Look for low effort but high reward issues you can address immediately.
2. Get feedback before its posted online
In addition to addressing concerns that have already been posted online, you want to ask your current candidates and clients for feedback.
This is a very simple concept but there can be a lot of fear in the way of getting it done.
It is unpleasant to think of receiving criticism about your business.
Just remember that you can either ask and receive negative feedback privately or get it publicly and unsolicited.
Just remember that you can either ask and receive negative feedback privately or get it publicly and unsolicited.(Tweet this)
It is better to reach out and give yourself an opportunity to address any criticism before it is posted across the web.
You can do this easily be keeping the following in mind
- Ask for feedback from everyone your business connects with in a significant way. These are the people who your business impacts, have an expectation that you will deliver on and will have an opinion on how well you delivered on their expectation.
- Make sure you ask for feedback as close to an interaction as possible.
Tracy Morgan, the comedian, once said,
Bad news travels at the speed of light; good news travels like molasses.
People are typically fast with criticism and slow with praise. Reach out as close to an interaction as possible.
- Keep the question(s) simple and to the point.
- Collect and store the feedback you collect in a central location. This makes it easy to access, review, analyze, reference, share, and respond to whenever you, or your team, need to.
These tips will help you identify Detractors before they share their opinion online and gives you the best opportunity to address their concern as close to their experience as possible.
An easy tool is a quick online survey that you can send out via email or pull up when in person. This will allow you, and your team, to connect with the candidate or client quickly and be better able to track the responses you receive.
Track new reviews
You need to keep up with any new reviews that are posted to the review sites you identified in the previous article.
It is important to address relevant online reviews in a timely fashion.
Why?
The earlier you respond to a review
- the more responsive you appear to anyone reading the review
- the more people who read the review will read your response
- the more likely you can engage with the reviewer, address their concern, and maybe have them change their review
Setup review notifications.
Most review sites offer review notifications on their platforms. If you have not done so already, you will need to claim your business profile before you can set up review notifications.
Do you have multiple team members who should receive these notifications as well? Make sure to set them up as well or use a group email address with all the relevant team members listed on it.
In the next article in our online reputation management for staffing series, we will walk through what to do with the feedback you received from reaching out to candidates and clients. What are the best ways to leverage these responses to improve your online reputation?