Reputation is the most fragile yet among the most impactful assets a company possesses. An unblemished reputation will let you weather storms that would cause others to fail. A tarnished one is a setback not even giants in their respective fields can recover from.
This article highlights nine proven strategies to strengthen and expand your company’s reputation. Take them all in and build a better business for everyone involved!
1. Provide Value
All other efforts to boost your company's reputation won't matter if you provide a sub-par experience. That means you have to put effort into developing the best products and services possible and go from there. Providing consistent quality helps create loyal customers who are happy to endorse you organically.
A similar philosophy applies to your online presence. Running marketing campaigns and increasing your outreach is fine. However, don’t underestimate the impact of blog posts, replies to customer inquiries, and other forms of online communication where you can showcase your expertise and provide value beyond a sales pitch.
2. Stake Your Claim
An online presence is instrumental to building and managing your reputation. You'll want to reach out to as many relevant prospects as possible, which means having a website and being active on all relevant social media.
Make sure the website is visually appealing and lets visitors reach its most relevant parts easily. Optimize for loading times since people won't even bother to engage with the site if opening it takes too long. Most visitors use smartphones nowadays, so tailor formatting and UX with that in mind.
3. Provide an Unforgettable Customer Experience
Whatever your niche, you’re likely competing with several companies with comparable products or services. If there’s no more room to improve your offerings, you can always go the extra mile when it comes to customer service. It’s essential to have a polite and well-trained staff to answer inquiries and concerns.
Make yourself reachable and approachable. Respond to customers quickly and professionally. Cultivate loyalty by offering discounts on repeat purchases or surprise your fans with perks like free shipping.
4. Strive for Authenticity
Another way to win trust is to develop a recognizable rapport style with the public. That involves nurturing your brand identity and keeping all official correspondence professional. Keep in mind that being on-brand doesn’t – and shouldn’t – mean you need to adopt a dry, corporate tone.
Modern customers do their research and are wary of companies that use obvious marketing buzzwords or too much corporate speak. Treat your interactions with them like polite conversations. Don’t be afraid to use humor when appropriate! Show the person on the other side that they’re engaging with a humane company with their best interests at heart rather than a faceless corporate entity.
5. Treat Your Employees Right
Focusing on outward appearance while neglecting the people propping your business up is a reputation catastrophe waiting to happen. Keeping employees happy should be a no-brainer since it provides many positives. Satisfied employees are more productive and innovative. They also give an invaluable organic boost to your industry reputation, and their enthusiasm will help attract more top talent once it's time to expand.
On the flip side, testimonies from dissatisfied employees on sites like Glassdoor can be damning to your reputation. Worse yet, someone who feels wronged and thoroughly understands your company's internal workings could compromise its security or steal your intellectual property. So, to avoid such situations, companies should make sure they’re treating their employees well first.
6. Maintain Strong Cybersecurity
If we’re talking about compromised information, few events are as devastating to your reputation as successful cyberattacks. The financial damage they inflict keeps growing, but that’s a blow your business can still recover from. Not so when millions of customers' login details, personal information, and credit card numbers find themselves up for sale on the dark web.
A comprehensive cybersecurity policy from day one will help prevent such incidents. Stolen and misplaced passwords are among the most common and effective attack vectors. Implement a company-wide password manager to establish unique and complex passkeys for any and all sensitive accounts. Secure them further using multifactor authentication.
Keep secure backups of crucial files and ensure any devices that connect to your network comply with the latest security measures. Invest in cybersecurity employee training so they can recognize and thwart phishing and other social engineering attacks.
7. Be Honest and Transparent
Missteps are as fundamental to running a business as successes. How you handle them determines whether your reputation will take a hit or perhaps even grow stronger. The worst thing you can do is deny a problem exists or try to cover it up.
Crises require quick and decisive responses, so develop a general policy that details actions and role delegation in case of likely scenarios. Be upfront about issues, inform the public and your customers as soon as they arise, and don’t be afraid to publically apologize or even recall products if necessary. People will forget most incidents eventually if you handle them well. Blunders, on the other hand, fade from memory much slower.
8. Converse with the Critics
You might think your offerings are stellar, but there will always be customers who disagree. They’re also more likely to leave a negative review whether due to being emotionally charged or wanting to spread the news and help others.
Never delete or suppress such reviews!
Leaving them up reinforces transparency and shows you're not above criticism. Reach out to such reviewers. Offer the help and resources they'll need to sort the issue out. Multiple bad reviews focusing on the same problems may point to a genuine fault or oversight. In that case, get your customers involved and have them suggest ways to improve. Doing so will get their attention; following through will earn their respect.
9. Make a Difference
Customers are increasingly basing their purchasing decisions on companies’ proven efforts in social responsibility. After all, you can’t harp on about being environmentally conscious and have nothing to back your claims up. Get involved with local programs or sponsor events that align with your company’s core values. Give back, and watch as people reward you in kind.
Conclusion
Managing a company’s reputation in the digital age is more dynamic and challenging than ever before. Even so, cover the bases we outline above, and you shouldn’t have much trouble.
