You've worked hard to establish a solid reputation for your company. You already know that one disgruntled client may cause untold damage to your financial line. And, with today's technology, you know that a disappointed customer (or a competitor with questionable ethics) may swiftly fire off a scathing review, damaging the reputation you've worked so hard to develop.
Because it is so easy to leave a negative review, it is critical for today's small business owner to be able to keep track of their company's online reputation. If you can't afford to employ an internet reputation management organisation to handle the procedure for you, here's a list of options. Here are five important tools to help you get the work done quickly and efficiently.
Tracking any mentions of top employees or business owners is a wonderful method to keep your finger on the pulse of your company. Of course, you must respect the privacy of individuals who work for you, but if you are the single employee of your company (or if you use this tool with discretion), it is a useful tool to have.
Reputology is a useful tool to employ. It allows you to enter the name of one of your senior workers (or yourself) or your company and track when that name is mentioned. If someone complains about the company, there's a strong chance they'll name one employee.
Although Reputology charges a monthly subscription, it is a tiny thing to pay to be on the cutting edge of reputation management. Best of all, it works with several of the other programmes discussed above, allowing you to have numerous layers of security.
Google Alerts is another excellent tool provided by Google. This tool allows you to sign up for notifications whenever new content pertaining to your keywords is published. This tool is free, simple to use, and quick. It scans websites, blogs, publications, and other sources for new information and notifies you when it is published.
Of course, social media reigns supreme, and no list of tools would be complete without one that allows you to manage your social media accounts and track how the public reacts to you. Hootsuite is one such service, which allows you to schedule social media posts, check statistics to gain feedback on how your business is perceived, and make any necessary changes. The basic option is free, but you may upgrade for a modest price to manage multiple accounts at once.
Complaint Search Box is a really unique feature. This application works like a complaint aggregator: you enter the various search functions you wish to utilise, and it will automatically and routinely check over 40 different complaint websites to keep you informed about what your customers are saying.
Because social media is such an important part of how many people connect, it's worth your time to try anything other than Hootsuite (noted above). The Social Mention tool allows you to simultaneously monitor multiple social media sites to see what people are saying about your sector (or your business in particular).
You can set up an email alert using Social Mention to get notified as soon as someone says something unpleasant. This reduces the amount of time it takes you to reply to or address a customer's issue.
You've put in a lot of effort to establish your company. There's far too much at stake to risk a disgruntled customer venting their frustrations publicly without providing you a chance to rectify the situation. As a result, by employing these tools, you can stay on top of public opinion about your company. While you cannot prevent unfavourable reviews from being published, by becoming aware of them sooner, you may be able to mitigate the damage and even have the offending review removed once your customer has been satisfied.
