| On Line Reputation Management, four words that you | | | | together, today are able to publish their comments to |
| as a business owner should be very very aware of, | | | | hundreds of thousands of consumers via forum sites |
| why? Because these four words can ruin your | | | | and blogs. So word of mouth brand building has |
| reputation and can directly influence whether a | | | | changed forever, if you're not aware of the impact of |
| consumer does business with you or your company. | | | | this then now's the time to learn and quickly! |
| I'll share a story with you about a friend of mine who | | | | There are numerous forum sites active on the Internet, |
| has recently decided to upgrade their current home by | | | | not just Google, that carry complaints from consumers |
| building their own, and over the weekend ,visited a | | | | about all sorts of businesses, in fact any company that |
| number of display homes of several well known | | | | has a transactional business, deals face to face with |
| national building companies. The sales people were | | | | the public or advertises on the web is vulnerable. |
| very polite and helpful, the display homes beautifully | | | | When planning my last holiday, became my best friend, |
| displayed and as a result of this first experience, they | | | | and I changed my airline or hotel choice after reading |
| were very excited about the prospect of building their | | | | what other consumers had to say about complaints or |
| own home. | | | | comments about their experience with the companies. |
| When they got home, just to check out the credentials | | | | It's estimated that over 40% of consumers who see a |
| of both of these very well known builders, they typed | | | | negative search engine result, will not use that |
| into Google, "complaints about (I've removed the | | | | company, and I cannot imagine how much business |
| names for privacy reasons) company" and what was | | | | has been lost to companies that feature on these |
| displayed was pages and pages of consumer | | | | forum sites, and more importantly, these businesses |
| complaints about the companies services, or should I | | | | are probably not even aware they're losing business |
| say lack of service, once the contracts had been | | | | on the web. |
| signed. | | | | So it's time for you to set up an On Line Reputation |
| My friends have now decided not to use either of | | | | Management strategy for your business today, you |
| these companies because of the range of complaints | | | | need to Monitor, Manage and Repair. |
| against them. | | | | Setting up Google Alerts is a great start, include |
| One thing that stood out to me, was that neither of | | | | keywords that you want to monitor, and once a day |
| these builders had attempted to try and rectify or | | | | Google will send you an email giving you all the |
| even respond to these complaints, yet this simple | | | | information if your name or business is mentioned on |
| search has just lost them approx $500,000 in business, | | | | the web. Sites such as trackur.com, etc will all help you |
| that was the cost of building the home. | | | | monitor your online reputation. |
| Word of mouth has changed due to the influence of | | | | My advice to you is start monitoring your brand online |
| social media and where once a consumer who'd had | | | | today, you just never know who might be searching |
| a negative experience with a company, could only | | | | you or your business right now. |
| influence their circle of friends at a Sunday get | | | | |