Analyze which sites are sending negative feedback, paying special attention to the search top. The most dangerous thing is if bad reviews multiply on Yandex.Maps, 2GIS, Otzovik and other popular sites. The worst thing is if the score displayed on the search engine page for your brand query starts to fall.
An indicator of reputation problems may also be a decrease in the number of contacts converted into deals. Or simply a decrease in the flow of leads. This may indicate that potential clients are “stumbling” on the network due to bad reviews about your brand and therefore leaving. Moreover, this is possible even after your managers have already led the user quite deep down the sales funnel.
- Decrease in traffic
If the number of transitions from search to your site has unexpectedly dropped, it is possible that the reason for this is negativity about you. And it is not only about user refusals – search engines also take into account reviews about you and can lower your positions in the search results, considering that you offer low-quality products.
Important: do not equate the decrease in traffic, conversion, sales only with reputation problems. There are many possible reasons for such drops, so you need to work comprehensively here. But do not forget about reputation.
What can ruin a company’s reputation?
It would take more than one hour to list recent mobile phone number data all the possible reasons. And such work would hardly be effective. It would be more useful to focus on the main reasons for the appearance of negativity on the Internet:
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Product quality issues
Honest, objective, even deserved negativity. If it corresponds to reality. If you really have quality slumps, then this is what you need to deal with first. Make sure that the client’s expectations match reality, so that everything you say about your product is actually in it. In general, eliminate the root cause. In general, this approach should be the basis for all work with reviews. If you praised something, consider what exactly the client likes. If you criticized it, find a growth point in it.
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Cheating the client
Both intentional and accidental. Online users often complain that advertising is very different from reality, that the company does not provide important information about its product, that the promised conditions were not provided. A simple example of deception: shampoo promises super volume after the first use, confirms this with photos, awb directory but in reality there is no such effect. Girls who did not get what they expected can easily raise a wave of negativity on the Internet.
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Problems with customer service
This includes the inability to reach managers, too passive communication, and rudeness of employees. And much more. Dissatisfaction can also be caused by an unequal reaction. For example, if the courier service offers a ridiculous compensation for damage to an expensive item delivered.
Often, negative reviews also include other issues. For example, advertising that is too risky or a brand getting into some kind of reputational scandal. This does not directly affect consumers, so it usually causes isolated outrage. Nevertheless, they need to be addressed.
Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of competitors’ machinations. This can happen in any segment and affect companies of any scale of activity. It is clear that the scale of damage will vary – but it will still happen. And it will have to be mitigated. Therefore, in order to quickly and without overspending the budget repel such a reputational attack, it is worthwhile to provide for appropriate measures in the reputational strategy.
Step by step we will revive your online reputation
If your brand reputation has suffered, it needs to be restored. Each case will have its own action plan, but the foundation of such work always co-authors oleg lekmanov*, mikhail sverdlov and ilya simanovsky win first place in big book award consists of general, consistently performed actions:
Let’s summarize the main ideas
A bad online reputation can cause a real drop in sales and lead to problems in other parts of your business.
It is possible to identify emerging reputational problems in advance by certain characteristic signs.
The reasons for the deterioration of reputation can be very different. In general, there is one reason – the client does not receive what he expected.
Reputation must be restored consistently, with the right priorities.
Work with reputation does not end with the return of previous points on review sites and geoservices. This situation itself directly indicates that you need to work on your business’s online reputation on an ongoing basis. And you can and should involve specialized specialists in such work. This will save time – and, therefore, the budget – and ensure the expected efficiency.
