Online reputation is all about perception. What do people think of you? How do they view your business? Are they sharing positive experiences or negative ones?
If you can find out what your customers think BEFORE they decide to post online you can limit bad reviews and ratings and increase your percentage of good reviews.
We all have a good idea of what the word reputation means: what people think of us, how they view our business, what people are saying about us.
Here is a definition from the Merriam-Website dictionary:
1a: overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general
1b: recognition by other people of some characteristic or ability
Jane has the reputation of being clever
2: a place in public esteem or regard: good name
Joe is trying to protect his reputation
To manage one's online reputation means to be aware of and control the things people are saying about you online.
It's always been important to know what people think of your business. Do patients or customers like you? Do they think you're doing a good job? Is there some employee who is rude who's turning people away?
It used to take surveys and extensive market research programs to find out what people thought about your business. Consumer research groups would gather consumers together and chat about products or businesses. This was one way of obtaining more data.
And if one customer was unhappy that usually affected on that one person and perhaps several of their closest friends. But... no more.
However, in the past, word never spread as quickly nor remained as fixed as it does now. And, instead of checking with a couple of friends to get a review or rating, people check online.
Yelp, Amazon, and the various other industry specific sites such as Vitals, TripAdvisor and Restaurant.com are some of the "go-to" places for those seeking advice on what products to buy or services to use.
Unfortunately, the majority of people are inspired to write reviews when they're upset. For every negative rating placed online, there are dozens of happy customers who feel that getting a quality product or great service should be just the norm - so why say anything.
Most reputation management companies think only in terms of how to get more reviews.
While this is important, what you really need to do as a professional or business owner is to CONTROL YOUR REPUTATION.
This is real Reputation Management.
For more information about this subject, give us a call at (323) 254-9976. We'll be happy to explain what we do and how getting and keeping your online reputation under control can help your business thrive.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Albie_Berk/19800
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