Your online reputation probably doesn’t mean too much in your personal life as long as you don’t do anything uncalled for or otherwise draw negative attention to yourself. However, in the business world, your online reputation can mean the difference between booming success and closing shop.

Your reputation as a business in the online sphere is about much more than just avoiding negative blowouts. You have to present yourself as a reliable, trustworthy, authentic company that utilises a customer-friendly business model. Anything short of that, and you’ll have trouble making the sales that keep you afloat, let alone thriving.

Of course, we can’t just give you a basic rundown and expect you to fully understand such a complicated topic. So, let’s take a deeper look.

Why Online Reviews Are The New Word of Mouth

Online reviews are the new word of mouth. People rarely turn to their family and friends for recommendations anymore. They turn on their phones, do a quick Google search for reviews, and let those reviews guide their purchasing decisions.

It’s more convenient, faster, and more reliable –to an extent-, than asking a handful of people they know.
This can be a good or a bad thing.
Why Google and Others Can Build Or Destroy Your Business

Remember the days when an unsatisfied customer would rant and rave about telling all their friends how horrible you were; warranted or not? That wasn’t too big of a threat if you were providing high-quality service and you had 1000 satisfied customers off-setting that.

That’s not the case anymore. One customer ranting and raving about how your service didn’t live up to their standards can severely damage your business.

With customers relying on online reviews to guide their purchasing decisions, that one raving review can persuade not just a handful of their relatives, but thousands of potential customers, to stay away from your business and never look back.

Of course, every business has a bad review eventually. Even the best businesses eventually come across an unpleasable customer. However, the more negative reviews you have, the more doubt potential customers will have.

The opposite is also true. If you have 1500 five-star reviews and just one or two people complaining, your business can see a tremendous boost. That’s why it’s key to ensure you’re doing everything possible to please ALL of your customers.

How To Monitor & Track What People Say About Your Business Online

There are two main ways to keep track of your online reputation. First, you can do it the old-fashioned way and check popular review sites regularly, as well as Google your business from time to time.

However, that’s a time-consuming way to do it, and it’s easy to miss critical information.

We prefer to use a tool that will automatically scan the web to find sites where your company is mentioned and relay that information to you for review; as well as provide you with insight into your overall reputation.

We recommend using one of these monitoring tools for the most accurate and efficient way to track your online reputation. In fact, we have one of the most robust tools on the market right now!
Get A Free Test Drive

If you are ready to take the leap and start tracking your online reputation, let us know and we will provide a free test drive of our toolset, and give you a full detailed report on your reputation, including ways you can make instant improvements.

Contact us today!

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