If you are unfamiliar with a digital reputation concept, it is all about your online presence and how you present yourself online. What is your name?
Is it the name you are familiar with? Or a different one?
Your name may be the best identifier, but you should also check out your bio, photo, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. If you want people to remember you, you have to share your personality, too.
A digital reputation is a direct reflection of your personality. If it is well-crafted and represents you accurately, it should give people the impression of who you are and what you stand for.
It is a basic and necessary skill for business leaders to master and a way for them to stand out from the crowd.
If you're lucky, you've earned a good reputation that gives you positive digital experiences, at least when you're not being scammed. For others, it's more difficult to tell what's going on behind the curtain.
Your digital reputation could be the difference between a positive or negative experience for the people you meet online. If you've ever felt uneasy about the experience of meeting someone online, it might be time to rethink your digital footprint.
The Internet is often a tough environment for a new business. From customers to partners and competitors, it cannot be easy to get new customers.
In fact, only 26% of online users trust online reviews as much as they trust word-of-mouth recommendations.
But bad reviews can bring down your online reputation fast. So it's essential to create a good one.
How can you increase traffic to your website?
There are several tactics you can take to improve your digital reputation.
If your service is sub-par, your online reputation will suffer.
Be on the look-out for the following signs:
Worryingly, most customers don't report problems to you. Instead, they take to review websites in the hope that you'll respond to the review.
If you don't address the issue, this means you're passing your problems onto your customers. So how can you prevent this?
First, identify which customer reviews are a real problem. For example, if one customer complained about a recurring issue, this is a more serious problem than something minor like slow service.
It's important to work out the root of the problem.
Try talking to the customer in question. A lot of businesses will have their customer service team answer calls and complaints.
This means you should be able to solve the issue yourself.
If this doesn't work, try referring the customer to a contact center if you have the budget for it. If the issue was something on your end, you could explain why the issue is happening.
Next, learn from the customer.
What did they want you to do? What did they not like?
If you're unsure, you could refer them to a customer success specialist. They'll be able to help you find a solution.
If you can, take the opportunity to reach out to customers and ask for a review. You can check their review pages and get a sense of what they've said.
This will help you understand what's wrong with your customer service.
Read through the comments to see if the customer is talking about an issue you're responsible for.
If they're unhappy with a service you provide, it's a good idea to reach out to the customer and see what you can do to fix the problem. This will go a long way to boosting your reputation.
In some cases, you'll need to track down customers in person. If this's the case, try to keep your interactions short and sweet.
This is because you want to build goodwill with customers. And your reputation is one of the best ways to do this.
At some point, you'll run into someone else online with a bad reputation.
Say you're online, and you come across someone with a reputation for being unreliable.
You have a choice: you can leave them alone and keep scrolling, or you can start a conversation.
It's a simple idea – but it has a big impact.
Creating a conversation online means you're joining a conversation that's already happening. You're speaking up and putting yourself on the same playing field as the people who are bad for your business.
So, don't stay silent. If you see a conversation-starting online, make sure you get involved.
You never know who you'll help or who you might turn into a customer.
How can you turn customer reviews into new leads?
Customer reviews can help your business. But if they're sub-par, you'll find yourself in a vulnerable position.
When it comes to online reputation, you can do three different things to improve your reputation online. And here are the three best ways to fix negative online reviews.
If you don't address customer reviews, they can have a very negative impact on your reputation.
But you can use the negative feedback you receive to improve your reputation.
Respond to customer reviews, and provide the specific details requested in the review. This can improve your online reputation.
It could be as simple as adding a new feature or giving the customer the feedback they asked.
Make sure your response to a review makes it clear that the customer is part of your focus. They should be the focus of your action rather than you.
If the customer isn't satisfied with the service they received, make sure you give them an update. This means offering them an alternative.
This service update could be as simple as a notice that says, "We're sorry to hear your experience with our service was less than satisfactory."
Alternatively, you could offer a new service that solves the problem. But this could be harder to do.
It requires you to take some time out and search for what the customer is looking for.
How do you know what they're looking for? Well, you could use a tool like Google trends.
They can show you search terms people are using to find you. Then, you can adjust your offerings to focus on improving your reputation.
Once you've taken action, it's important to manage your online reputation.
If you don't do this, you risk putting your reputation at risk. One of the best ways to manage your reputation is to use social media.
Using social media to manage your reputation isn't always easy, though.
You can use Facebook and Twitter to respond to reviews, but they're relatively passive tools. For example, you can't reply to an online review through the Facebook feed or the Twitter app.
The best way to use social media is to give customers more opportunities to engage with you.
