Reputation Management Services for Businesses

Think about the last time you had to hire a new company to do a job for you, or the last time you purchased a new product. How did you determine what company to hire or product to buy? In most cases, you probably turn to Google and quickly ascertain who is offering what and at what price.

Today’s consumer has become quite savvy when it comes to researching products and services before making a purchase. And thanks to search engines and social media, it now takes very little time or effort to perform this research. For customers, this ease of research is great but for businesses - especially small businesses - it can be hit or miss. One negative Yelp review or one angry customer’s rant on Facebook can have staggering consequences for a small business. On the flip side, a heartfelt story from a satisfied customer or several five-star ratings can help reassure potential customers and make them more willing to buy.

Consider these statistics:

With these statistics in mind, it’s clear that your company’s reputation is crucial to your success. So, what can you do to support a positive brand image online? Beyond providing excellent customer service and quality products, you need to make online business reputation management a priority. It doesn’t matter if you’re running an enterprise or a small business, customers are going to be talking about it online – especially if they have a negative experience. It’s important to stay ahead of the chatter by positioning your company as a knowledgeable resource and quality solution for current and potential customers. 

Below, you’ll find out what there is to know about reputation management services, or use the jump links to skip to a section that may answer your questions.

Managing your company’s reputation starts with building your brand. Your brand is more than the services you provide, it is the entire experience your customers have with your company. From the seamless navigation on your website to the quality of your services, your brand story should be woven into every interaction that your customers have with you. Establish your brand and write your brand story in a way that draws potential customers to you. 

Here are a few strategies on

building a brand

and how to determine what you want your brand to say about you and how to tell your brand story:

While the occasional meme is a fun addition to your social media, you’ll get a lot more traction with an informational blog post that helps your customers solve a relevant problem or address a pain point for them.

Then, make sure the images and content you’re posting are consistent with your brand message across all channels. Remember, consistency is the key to a strong brand strategy.

If you’ve ever thought that online reviews are just not that important to the success of your business, consider these facts:

93% of consumers

</a> use reviews to determine if a local business is good or bad, and

only 3% of buyers

say that reviews never factor into their buying decisions. Those are massive numbers!

Many small business owners may wonder

why reviews are important

. In the field service business, reviews are perhaps even more important than in other industries for the simple fact that by the time a customer is looking for your service, they have a serious need and are ready to make a purchase. With an audience that’s ready and willing to buy, your odds of making the sale will increase exponentially if you show up as an industry leader in online customer reviews.

Beyond just building your reputation, having a number of

field service business reviews

can also boost your findability by increasing your Google rank. Search engine optimization (SEO) helps you stand out from your competitors by making your business name more prominent when consumers search for certain words that are relevant to your business. Having your name mentioned on other people's websites – like review sites – helps to boost your SEO and makes your company’s name rise to the top of search results.

Customer reviews, however, can be a double-edged sword. While positive reviews can increase your business, negative reviews can make it plummet. If it’s possible for you to respond to online customer reviews – whether positive or negative – you absolutely should. It’s been found that 89% of prospective customers read the business owner’s response to online reviews, so if you handle the situation correctly, you may be able to overcome a negative response to your work.

Humans are fickle and emotional, so their moods can have a profound effect on how they perceive your service. If a customer is hungry, they may find your service tech to be rude and your prices to be exorbitant. However, if they’ve just gotten a great promotion at work, they might find your company to be the best in the industry. Your customer’s moods are going to be reflected in their online reviews, so it’s important to take that into consideration when responding.

If you receive a negative review, first and foremost, you should always make it an effort to

respond to negative reviews

and acknowledge the issue and the customer’s feelings, and apologize. Start by reiterating the customer’s problem so they know that you understand what happened, and then issue a formal apology. You don’t always have to take the blame for the problem because it may not have been totally your company’s fault (remember, the customer could’ve skipped lunch that day), but it’s important to be empathetic. Acknowledge the customer’s feelings and give a sincere apology for the way that this incident made them feel.

After you’ve acknowledged the problem and apologized, offer a solution. Provide contact information for offline support, and then give them an offer to make things right. Thank the customer for their business and explain that you want to rectify the situation by making them a generous offer. However, make sure that it is clear that this is not a bribe, but simply a way to make the situation right and earn back the trust of the customer. 

Finally, when responding to negative online reviews, it’s important to provide a follow-up response. Whether the issue has been resolved or you’re in the process of resolving it, make sure you go back to the review site and provide an update on the situation. This will let future readers know that you take customer complaints seriously and that you make your customers’ happiness a priority.

Managing your business’ reputation can be a full-time job. In this 24/7 online world, it’s nearly impossible to monitor everything that is being said about your company on the internet. Because of this, it’s worth considering investing in business reputation management services. Hiring an expert to manage your business’ reputation could pay off exponentially in the long run and help free up your time as well.

To manage your reputation, you can use traditional public relations and contemporary digital marketing strategies to monitor your company’s online brand activity and provide a quick response to any negative reviews or other feedback. A reputation manager will perform extensive SEO research and identify areas where your company can improve.

According to an article from

Concordia University

, a qualified reputation manager can help your company:

For the typical small business, taking on a full-time reputation manager is probably an unnecessary expense. Although, if you want to grow your business and stay ahead of potential online negativity, contracting a business reputation management service is certainly a worthwhile investment.

If a situation arises, however, that could potentially have a negative impact on customer trust, sales or revenue, that is when reputation management becomes a necessity. According to

ReputationManagement.com

, the most common reasons businesses seek out reputation management services are:

There are many ways you can go about managing your online reputation – from DIY reputation management software to the crème-de-la-crème of enterprise reputation management firms. Investing in reputation management is a big decision, so how do you decide which type of service is right for your business?

Before you begin the search for a reputation management company, you will need to settle on a budget. Factor into the equation not just how much money you have available, but also how much negative attention you’re getting that is currently or will potentially affect your business’ future income and growth. Once you’ve got this number, then it’s time to start doing some research.

If you have a small budget, then it’s worth looking into DIY reputation management software. These are often less expensive than hiring a management firm, but as always, you get what you pay for. Typically, these software systems will provide online reputation monitoring, but not much else. The system will likely not provide you with a customized strategy for how to respond to or overcome any negative attention it finds, so that will be up to you. 

Remember, DIY stands for “do it yourself”, so if you and your staff have the knowledge and time needed to dedicate to reputation management, then a DIY reputation management software system could be a great option for your business. If you don’t want to go the DIY route, then it’s worth looking at making a larger investment with a reputation management firm.

If you do in fact have a little bit more wiggle room in your budget, then you may want to consider hiring a reputation management company. These companies will not only monitor your online reputation but will help you manage it by providing strategies and helping write press releases and other positive content that will boost your search engine rankings and help push down negative reviews or bad press. These services are going to be a bit pricier than a DIY service, but you will likely get a lot more for your money and the investment should pay off in the long run.

The top tier of reputation management services consist of enterprise reputation management companies. These companies are typically focused on a particular niche and are experts in their field. You will pay a premium for these services, but you will likely get customized, hands-on services and a strategy that is tailored exactly to fit the needs of your company. If you have a serious crisis on your hands, a good bit of money to spend or you simply prefer a more personal touch, then enterprise reputation management is for you.

No matter which service you decide on, it’s important to do your homework before making a purchase. Don’t sign up for any service without knowing exactly what you are getting from the company or system. If the company follows shady practices, like faking customer reviews, run far away from them. These types of underhanded techniques are not only against the rules of most review sites, but they are simply bad business practices that could do more damage to your reputation in the long run. When it comes to selecting a reputation management service, look for transparency, trustworthiness and a proven track record of success. After all, these are the things your customers are looking for from you as well, right?  

To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of some of the business reputation management companies and what you should know about each of them. Take a look:

WebiMax is an online business reputation management service that aims to control online reputations by pushing negative reviews and comments off the first page of search results, promoting positive content and feedback, and constantly monitoring your brand’s online presence.

Reputation X has been around for over 10 years and works to improve online reviews, fix search results to reduce opportunity loss, and build online brands to grow your company. 

NetReputation blends reputation management services with PR services to provide a wholesome strategy to fixing up a negative online presence. If a problem ever arises, they can put their PR skills to the test to clean up any major backlash or problems toward your company.

If you choose to use a business reputation management service, one of the biggest things these companies will help you do is develop a content marketing strategy. Content marketing includes things like blog posts, infographics, videos, webinars, podcasts, social media posts, landing pages and more. Your reputation manager will help you create a wide variety of high-quality, positive content that will help increase your online search rankings while diluting the negative content in Google’s index.

However, creating and posting content alone is not enough. You also have to be able to optimize your content for SEO. Another benefit of hiring a business reputation management company is that they are typically experts in SEO and can help identify the keywords, meta descriptions, and branded search terms that need to be included in your content to boost your rankings and make sure the positive content about your company is posted on the first page of Google, Bing, YouTube or any other search engine.

After you’ve got high-quality, SEO optimized content ready to go, it’s time to promote that content through social media. If your company is not yet on social media, then creating accounts on some of the bigger platforms is going to be crucial. It’s important to determine which platforms are right for your business, though. 

In the field service business, you probably don’t need to waste time on platforms like SnapChat or Instagram, as these platforms are more image-focused and cater towards a younger audience that is likely not ready or in need of your services. 

However, you should certainly have a LinkedIn page and it’s a good idea to create Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. All businesses should have LinkedIn profiles. They are great for promoting your content and helping to establish yourself as an industry thought leader. Facebook is a great platform to use for interacting with customers and collecting positive reviews from satisfied clients. Twitter is a good platform for sharing and promoting content, interacting with customers and gaining brand recognition. Your brand manager can help you identify which platforms are right for your business and help you to develop a social media marketing strategy.

Brand reputation management is not an overnight fix. If you’ve got a really bad situation, then even with the best reputation management companies money can buy, it’s going to take some time to overcome the negative press and get back into the good graces of the public.

The reputation management firm

Reputation X

estimates that, on average, a reputation management campaign takes about 10 months to work, but that is simply an estimation because each campaign is different and there are many variables involved. According to the company, some of the many variables to consider, include:

These factors will vary widely among each company, so unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Housecall Pro is an all-in-one home service app for pros like you. Building a strong reputation means establishing strong relationships with your customers and providing top of the line customer service. Show your customers you care during every stage of the job with the Housecall Pro app. From scheduling jobs to communicating with customers, and booking online to sending invoices, you can streamline all of your business operations to help get the job done.

Here are some of the

top features Housecall Pro offers

that will make your customers coming back for more:

Whether you decide to hire a business reputation management company, invest in a DIY brand management software program, or simply choose to monitor your online presence on your own, you should be practicing some form of brand reputation management. People will talk about your company online and you need to be a part of that conversation by:

Finally, if you need help with your reputation management, then consider taking on an online business reputation management company. Your reputation is all you have, so protecting it is worth the investment.