Wednesday, November 10, 2010

How reputation management forms the first line defense of your company

Building up your company's reputation might have taken many years but a few negative consumer generated media buzz can damage it very badly. With the online shopping options getting more popular, customers browse through online posts and forums to find out the good and the not so good companies and products. Posts that are placed on blogs, forums, and social media sites reach large audiences in no time. Viral in action these negative blogs or comments can do a substantial damage to the brand repute and the painfully built up reputation. In many cases these could be scandalous posts made by an unhappy customer or your ex business partner to settle scores with you.

Statistics show that around 80 percent of adults are more likely to buy a product based on online comments or recommendation and an overwhelming majority of customers trust the reviews and feedbacks of other users. 87% of people believe that the reputation of the company plays a decisive role while availing services or buying products. Should the customers find negative content while searching, it could have a disastrous effect no matter whether the complaint is genuine or not . Considering the ease of posting such defamatory content and the viral nature of its propagation it has become critical for companies of all sizes to implement reputation management tactics protect their brands.

Most of the customers seldom go beyond the first two pages of the search engines while searching for information/ products or services and if bad report come popping up in these pages chances are that the customers will never bother to come back t you again. It is estimated that On RipOff Report there are more than 300,000 complaints filed and these get a preference on search engines and enjoy priority listing, which makes it all the more important for companies to resort to fool proof reputation management techniques to ensure that their brand is not vandalized.