As the internet has become an integral part of our lives, keeping tabs on your brand's online reputation is important. Like in real life, your brand's reputation can deeply affect your present and future.
Conducting an online reputation management analysis is an excellent method to understand how your audience views you online. Here are the top tips for carrying out this research. But before that, let's understand why you should check your or any other brand’s online reputation.
Why Should One Check A Company's Online Reputation?
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000.” Jeff Bezos
Checking a company's online reputation is important for several reasons, both for individuals and businesses. Checking a brand's online reputation impacts decision-making processes, partnerships, investments, and consumer behavior.
A 1-star increase in a Yelp rating can lead to a 5 to 9% increase in revenue.
Here are some key reasons why one should check a company's online reputation:
Decision Making
Are you looking to make a purchase, invest, or contemplating a job offer? A brand's online reputation provides insights into its reliability, quality of products or services, and overall customer satisfaction. This information helps you make better decisions.
93% of customers read an online review before making a purchase decision.
Trust & Credibility
A single negative review on the first page can push away 22% of your revenue, and this number jumps to 59% with three negative reviews.
A brand's online reputation reflects its level of trustworthiness and credibility in the market. Positive reviews and feedback signal a reputable brand that values its customers and is likely to deliver on its promises. Conversely, a negative online reputation raises red flags about the brand.
Risk Management
For investors and businesses considering partnerships or mergers, a thorough check of the online reputation reveals potential risks associated with the company's past activities, financial stability, and legal issues. This helps in risk assessment and mitigation strategies.
Customer Feedback & Improvement
For businesses, monitoring their own online reputation is important to understand cause 73% of consumers will switch to a competitor after only one bad experience. Constructive criticism and feedback found online are invaluable for improving products, services, and customer experiences.
Employee Satisfaction
The online reputation of a business also reflects its workplace culture and employee satisfaction. This is particularly important for job seekers or businesses aiming to attract top talent. A positive reputation indicates a healthy work environment, while a negative one suggests potential issues with management or employee treatment.
80% of companies plan to expand their level of investment in customer experience (CX) in 2024. (Zendesk)
How To Check A Company's Online Reputation?
Worried about a company's trustworthiness? Online reputation is everything for a brand today. Here are 10 ways to find a company's true reputation before you do business with them. Dive in and learn how to separate the diamonds from the rough!
Look At Social Media Comments & Reviews
Social media is the center of public opinion. If you are running business profiles on big platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, now's a good time to compare your engagement numbers with those of your competitors.
Seeing high engagement on your posts? You are doing well. But if engagement is low, it might be time to shake things up.
Beyond likes and shares, the real insights come from what users say in their reviews and comments. This feedback is crucial for understanding how the public views you, so pay attention to the conversations and look for any recurring themes.
Potential customers often look at these reviews to decide if they want to engage with your business. And it's common for people to search online before buying anything, with many specifically looking for negative reviews to see how a business responds.
Imagine shopping on Amazon and finding out a seller doesn't reply to emails when there's a problem. You would likely think twice before buying from them. The same goes for handling customer feedback on any platform.
Customer service continues beyond a customer's visit to your store. It's important to respond to all feedback - positive or negative - promptly and professionally. This makes your customers feel valued and supported.
For tips on responding to reviews, whether they are positive or negative, take a look at our blog on Best Practices To Respond To App Store Reviews.
Check Your Google Reviews & Star Rating
Many of your potential customers visit your Google Business profile before they visit your store. So make sure this first impression is a positive one.
Search Engine Journal reports that 48% of consumers will bypass a business with less than 4 stars. If your rating is around or below this threshold on Google, now is the time to work on addressing customer complaints, improving your services, and getting more positive feedback from satisfied customers.
To manage your company's reputation, regularly review your Google ratings and reviews to tackle any issues promptly. As mentioned earlier, always respond to Google reviews with courtesy and professionalism to strengthen (or repair) your relationships with your customers.
Reviews From The Web In The Knowledge Graph Sidebar
Also, don't overlook the Knowledge Graph Sidebar!
Scroll through your listing to see "Reviews from the web" collected by Google from other relevant websites. This gives you a wider perspective on your online reputation and helps you identify which sites to focus on for improvements.
You might wonder if it's possible to manually add reviews from Facebook or other platforms to your Google listing. The simple answer is no. However, you can facilitate Google's process of doing so.
Ensuring your business's NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information is consistent across various review and listing sites increases the chances that Google will view it as authentic and possibly include it in your listing.
Check Reviews On Popular Review Websites
With so many review sites available, you remain unsure where to start looking. Some key sites to check are:
- Yelp
- Trip Advisor
- Trustpilot
Also, check websites specific to your industry, like Shizen for vegan sushi, CARFAX for auto shops, or Rover for pet care services. These platforms have established themselves as reliable sources for consumer reviews and ratings.
The number of reviews a company has provides insight into its customer base and level of activity. Pay attention to the dates of the reviews, as more recent reviews better reflect the company's current practices and performance.
While individual reviews offer unique perspectives, look for recurring themes or patterns in the reviews of a particular brand. If multiple customers are praising or criticizing the same aspects of a company's products or services, it's likely a genuine reflection of their performance.
Pay Attention To Employee Feedback
Your employees' opinions are a strong indicator of your business's overall health. It affects not just the decision of your potential customers but also future employees and business partners.
Websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Vault allow current and former employees to anonymously share their experiences and rate companies. These sites are a rich source of information about a company's work culture, compensation, leadership, and more.
Employees also share their experiences and opinions on social media platforms like LinkedIn, X (former Twitter), or industry-specific forums. Monitoring these channels provides information about how employees perceive the company and its practices.
Use Google Alerts
Keep up-to-date with Google Alerts. It acts as your personal lookout for any mentions of your brand online and helps you stay ahead of any changes in public perception. Setting it up is quick, easy, and free, which makes it ideal for those working with limited resources.
Start by creating Google Alerts for the company's name, products, services, or any other relevant keywords. You can also set up alerts for the industry-specific terms related to the company.
Google Alerts will notify you whenever new articles, blog posts, or news stories mentioning your selected keywords are published online. This will allow you to stay up-to-date with the company's media coverage, both positive and negative.
In addition to news articles, Google Alerts also surfaces mentions of the company on forums, social media platforms, review sites, and other online communities.
Google Alerts lets you customize the frequency of alerts (as they happen, daily or weekly) and specify which sources to include or exclude. With this flexibility, you can ensure that you receive only the most relevant and timely information.
In addition to monitoring your company's reputation, you can also set up alerts for competitors or industry peers to check how your company's reputation compares to others in the same industry.
Using Reputation Monitoring Tools
With so many choices out there offering all sorts of features, it's important to pick online reputation management tools that perfectly match your needs. Think carefully about what specific features you need in a reputation management platform.
Statusbrew's reputation monitoring features help to proactively manage your brand’s online presence, respond to customer feedback efficiently, and identify areas for improvement in customer service.
Here's how Statusbrew helps check a company's online reputation:
- Brand Mentions: Tracks mentions of your company name, brand keywords, and even variations of your business name across social media platforms, review sites, news articles, and blogs.
- Sentiment Analysis: Analyzes the sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral) of the online conversation surrounding your brand, giving you a quick understanding of the overall perception.
- Social Listening: Goes beyond brand mentions to uncover broader industry conversations and identify potential brand advocates or critics.
- Alerts & Notifications: Set up real-time alerts for specific keywords or mentions to ensure you stay on top of any potential issues before they escalate.
- Crisis Management: Helps you quickly identify and address negative sentiment and thus allows for timely responses and potential mitigation of damage to your reputation.
See How Do They Handle Negative Feedback
Today, customers who are unhappy with a brand’s product and service post their complaints on social media or review websites. This negative feedback is a goldmine of information about where a brand needs to improve.
A quick and thoughtful response to a complaint often turns a negative view into a positive one. See if the brand takes the time to address negative comments and work towards making things right with their customers.
Check For Legal Disputes
A simple method to find if a company has been involved in legal disputes is to search online using "v company name." This search reveals any legal actions in the format “Party A vs. Party B.”
While a lawsuit doesn't necessarily imply wrongdoing, it does offer insights into the company's past behavior and reputation.
Look Up Domain Registration Details
A Whois search reveals the official registration details of a company's website and provides information about the company's background. If the search returns no contact information or address, it indicates that the domain isn't registered.
Alternatively, the company might have chosen to keep these details private. This raises questions about why the company would conceal such important information. It can be a sign of a scam or a legitimate attempt to protect privacy.
You will need to investigate further to understand the situation.
Concluding Thoughts
A positive online reputation isn't built overnight. It requires dedication to customer satisfaction, consistent engagement, and a willingness to learn and improve.
A brand is shaped by its customers in every aspect of its services or products.
When brands are attentive and look after their customers, the relationship developed is more trustworthy.
However, if brands neglect their online reputation from the customer's viewpoint, they suffer significantly, and recovering their top-notch status becomes challenging.
This is where a comprehensive online reputation monitoring platform like Statusbrew is a must-have for businesses that will help you build and maintain a strong online presence.
Statusbrew's unified inbox streamlines customer engagement to ensure that every interaction is handled smoothly and no issue goes unaddressed.
If you want to provide this level of attentiveness to your customers in order to nurture stronger customer relationships and build brand advocacy, take a FREE tour of the platform. We promise you won’t regret it!
Statusbrew is an all in one social media management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, X (former Twitter), Linkedin, YouTube, and even Google My Business.
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