Not everything is in your control, there’s plenty you can do to earn and maintain a good company reputation.
1. Think through every aspect of the customer experience
61% of customers would leave your business for a competitor after just one bad experience. That’s a 22% jump from just last year! Not only that, but after two negative experiences, 76% of customers would leave you for a competitor.
As you can see, there’s a small margin for error. It’s critical that you understand from customers’ perspectives where friction exists in the customer experience so you can reduce or eliminate it. This may involve:
- Improving your website or app’s navigation or user interface.
- Responding to custom inquiries and concerns faster and in a more professional way.
- Offering additional payment options for convenience.
- Offering faster or cheaper shipping options.
- Providing more high-quality product photos and videos.
- Giving incentives or rewards to longtime or repeat customers.
- Simplifying your return, exchange, and refund policies to reduce friction for customers.
You can likely identify some of these areas for improvement yourself. But you’d be smart to invest in user testing to get customers’ unfiltered thoughts and find issues you may not have noticed.
2. Request honest feedback
Unfiltered feedback from your ideal, current, and past customers is the best source of ideas for how to improve your brand reputation. It will reveal not just what people like about your brand but what you can do better.
The key, though, is not to expect people to volunteer this feedback. It’s your job to ask for customer feedback and, in fact, it should be a habit. Simply asking for reviews can go a long way, as 70% of people are willing to leave a review when asked.
To start, try to make it as easy as possible for your customers to give reviews. For example, you could create a QR code customers can scan that would link them to your review sites. Or, if you’re creating a customer survey, stick to quick and simple feedback questions.
3. Handle negative feedback wisely (short-term and long-term)
To piggyback off of the previous advice, at some point, you will get negative feedback. Whether you feel it’s justified or not, responding with professionalism is essential.
Never resort to arguing with a customer or being snarky, even if you’re only communicating with that customer in private. Just because you’re not being seen on a public review site, for example, doesn’t mean the customer won’t spread the word about their bad experience with you. In fact, they most likely will. So, handle negative reviews and comments the same way you’d like a company to handle your comments and concerns.
Additionally, don’t view complaints individually. If you notice patterns in the feedback you’re receiving, shift to focusing on prevention instead of only being reactive.
4. Engage with ideal and current customers
All else equal—price, quality, convenience, etc.—which business would you support? One that’s cold and impersonal or one where the employees are friendly and go out of their way to show an interest in you? You’d probably pick the latter, and the same is true of your potential, current, and past customers.
Hence the reason it’s important to engage with customers. That could mean making polite conversation with folks who visit your physical location or, in this digital age, regularly responding to comments on social media. Your interactions shouldn’t feel purely transactional; prioritize building customer relationships.
5. Foster brand advocacy
Got a loyal group of customers who love doing business with you? Encourage them to share their enthusiasm. There are many ways to do this:
- Ask for referrals periodically.
- Gather written or video testimonials that you can use in your marketing.
- Collect and promote user-generated content.
- Start a customer loyalty or referral program.
People tend to trust other consumers, especially if they are family, friends, or other respected individuals. So, if you can get your happiest customers to promote your business, you can more easily attract new customers.
6. Set and stick to brand guidelines
Consistency is key to building and maintaining a good brand reputation. If your marketing messaging is constantly changing or you have no distinct brand voice, for example, it can cost you respect.
Without a consistent brand reputation, you may look less professional or trustworthy than competitors. Your business will be less memorable than it would be if you were intentional about making it known for one or a few distinct attributes. And your ideal customers may even be confused about what you offer and why they should be interested in it, costing you sales.
To prevent this, create guidelines for both your messaging and visual brand. Stick to them yourself and ensure that anyone representing your company (e.g. social media managers) do also.
7. Prepare for mishaps in advance
Despite your best efforts, things can go wrong and impact your brand reputation negatively. An unhappy customer (or even a past employee) could leave a damaging review. Human error or technical issues such as site outages may cause inconveniences for customers. Your brand may need to respond swiftly to local or global crises or tragedies without being insensitive. The list goes on and on.
While you can’t prepare for every possible scenario, you should have a general plan for how to handle situations like the above if and when they arise. This will keep you from making snap decisions that could hurt your reputation.
