It wasn’t too long ago when large companies didn’t need to pay too much attention to reputation management and PR. On the other hand, small companies will not even implement a strategy to improve it. Now that we live in the age of information wherein audiences are actively sharing their opinion about the product, ORM becomes necessary to preserve our company’s image. To ensure that, you want to make sure that you are hiring the best online reputation management company.
Tips When Looking for Your Business Online Reputation Management Company
There’s actually a zero probability that you will not get a negative review from your customers. How you will react to customer reviews can either improve your credibility or ruin the reputation you built for years. To ensure that you will be getting only the highest quality of service, we’ve listed some of the qualities and features you should look for in an Online Reputation Management Company.
Auditing Expertise
For us, this is one of the first qualities that you should look for in a good online reputation management company. They should be armed with people who are proficient in auditing your situation. An extensive auditing system should be in place before they even execute their ORM strategy. It will help the agency understand your current weaknesses and strengths. They will also be more aware of the problems and provide an approach to address them. The auditing will usually have something to do with public perception. Here’s how most agencies will do that.
Brand Monitoring
Anyone can do this manually. Simply open your browser in incognito mode, enter your brand’s name, and look at the results found on the first page. Head to your Google Business Page. Check the ratings, reviews, user-generated photos, and comments. By doing so, you will slightly understand how the public perceives your company. However, when you choose the best online reputation management company, they will be willing to go beyond just a simple audit. They will mostly be armed with programs that will comb more than 200 databases and websites and compile all that information in a single place.
- Social Media Mentions- Business online reputation management company has tools that allow them to stay on top of all social media mentions. It also showcases the data related to sentiments and brand strengths.
- Google Alert- The agency will have to create a Google Alert related to all essential search terms. It should not only include your company name, they should also add the name of your executives, brand name, product name, and even the name of your competitors. It will enable them to receive real-time notifications as soon as the keywords have been mentioned.
- Review Sites- You should confirm if the online reputation management company has tools to automate the collection of reviews in different databases and online listing sites. It should give them an insight into what your customers are saying. It will help them create a strategy to improve your brand image.
How Do They Establish Their Strategy?
Now that they have a better idea of your position in the online realm, it should be time for them to develop an initial strategy. Nonetheless, a good online reputation management company must have a systematic procedure in place before they even do that. The factors below should be on top of their priorities.
They Should Know What to Prioritize
ORM will be overwhelming to those who don’t know how to do it. Even experienced marketers will find this challenging. Knowing what they need to prioritize is essential to keep their focus on the more pressing subjects. They need to balance a couple of factors that can directly impact developing a strategy.
- Goals- The online reputation management company must be aware of your goals. If you want to improve your response time, they may have to focus more on platforms and channels that they can easily access.
- Limitations- Apart from your goals, they should also discuss your limitations and boundaries. For instance, there should be some restrictions on the resources you plan to invest in. You need to be more realistic about the scope of the project. They should know how to allocate your resources to the platforms with the most significant impact on your business.
- Tasks- A seasoned agency will have a range of functions in place; they should know what task they need to prioritize. The agencies need a thorough plan on how to handle challenging and critical tasks. They know that completing the most straightforward jobs is not always the best move to manage your online reputation.
Tone, Guidelines, and Policy Definition
A good online reputation management company understands that there are initial processes that need to be addressed to guarantee the success of their ORM. They need to establish first the tone of your company and guidelines. They should also develop a policy for your business.
- Documentation of Policy- Once the project begins, they will receive alerts on all types of mentions, reviews, and comments. The company needs to have a strict definition of what is urgent and not. They should also have strict guidelines on the person in charge and the proper way to respond to user-generated content.
- Urgent- These are the things that could be damaging to your reputation. It is more than just the casual critical comment; it could be defamatory. They should also have a procedure in place to review the commenter’s profile.
- Non-Urgent- These are content that does not warrant immediate resolution. It can also be resolved using a standard response. Even though it does not require a swift reaction, the business online reputation management company should have a specific timeframe to respond to this content.
- Blacklist- These are composed of trolls, haters who will never behave reasonably regardless of what action your agency is planning to take. Most of the time, they are hired by your competitors.
- Response Template- They need to have a document that enumerates FAQs related to your brand. You should also provide the agency with answers to these common issues. It should serve as their guideline when responding to the customers.
- Tone- Your ORM needs to have an established tone, especially when responding to negative, neutral, or positive reviews. They need to ensure that their tone will not escalate the conflicts.
They Should Have Crisis Management Campaign
In the world of ORM, it is impossible to tell when a crisis might occur. Therefore, the best online reputation management company should have a strategy in place to deescalate the situation. There are just too many things to cover in this area. It is one of the reasons why you should only work with an agency that has vast experience in this field. Here are a few things that you should ask the agency regarding this.
- What Tools are You Using- You need to know that the programs they are using will send them alerts in real-time. They should send them a notification if an unexpected conversation about your brand happens online. It must also allow them to be updated on the latest industry trends. If there are any legislation changes, they must keep an eye on that.
- Where are my Audience- Since you have some restrictions in the allocation of your resources, they should be able to help you identify where most of your customers are. They should help you be more active on those channels.
- Do You Have an Established Chain of Command- They should have people who will handle a particular task to avoid being overwhelmed. When facing a crisis, it is easy for anyone to lose their focus and cool. If they can’t keep a rational judgment, it may be difficult to react appropriately to negative comments.
How Do They Manage Your SERP?
ORM also involves suppressing harmful content by pushing them down to the last page of the search result. Therefore, the online reputation management company should know how to dominate the SERP. It will need some SEO magic to ensure that your brand name will dominate a particular keyword. They should also help you optimize your different social media profiles since they will usually appear on the top of the search results. Below are some of the features that should be included in their service.
- Determine Your Branded Keyword- Branded Keyword is defined as a search query that includes the name of your brand and its different variations. They should use a tool to help them determine this, such as Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, or Semrush. With its Organic Position feature, they can quickly identify your branded keywords.
- Content Marketing- They should be aware of the latest SEO policy when developing fresh content. They need to create content that will outrank the articles that speaks negatively about your company.
- Reaching Out- If they notice that harmful content ranks higher on the search result, they should reach out to the author and request them to alter the content. They must provide that author with practical reasons why those criticisms are no longer relevant.
Gathering Positive Reviews
According to the reports of Dimensional Research, positive reviews will affect the purchasing decision of at least 90% of the buyers. 86% of the buyers will think twice about buying on a company with negative reviews. The expectations of the consumers are also exceptionally high. 46% expect that a business should have at least a 4-star rating before considering doing business with them. Therefore, the best online reputation management company should be able to encourage your verified customers to leave you a positive review. So, how do you figure this out? Ask them these questions.
- How Will You Ask for a Review- You should be aware of how these agencies plan to ask your customers for a review. Are they going for email or social media? Some of them will add a small pop-out form to your website. However, make sure that it will not be intrusive. The message must be concise. Some of them may also use an incentive program.
- When Will They Send a Message- The time that they will ask for the review is also crucial. You want to make sure that the experience will still be fresh. You want them to share information on what they like or what needs improvement. If they ask for the review too early, the customer may not share enough information. On the other hand, asking too late may cause them to forget some of the details of your service.
Review Management
The best online reputation management company should know how important it is to deal with the negative reviews you are receiving. They understand that the presence of this can discourage your prospects from using your business. According to the survey, 94% of the customers claimed that negative reviews could affect their decision in choosing the company. Here’s what you need to look into when selecting your ORM agency.
- Assessing Negative Reviews- Not all negative reviews are equal. They should be able to determine the most problematic reviews. For instance, negative reviews that appear high on the search engine results warrant immediate attention.
- Responding to Negative Reviews– These agencies must already have a solid strategy in place on how they will react to negative reviews. If haters or trolls make them, this should not warrant their time, and they must add them to the blocklist. Nonetheless, they should still reply to the reviews. Ignoring bad reviews should never be a part of their policy.
- Response Time- They should be time-sensitive when responding to reviews. The earlier they will address the issue, the less damaging it will be. They should always find a way to improve the speed of their response.
ORM is a critical part of your business. It has a direct impact on your company’s profitability. Therefore, you should only look for the best online reputation management company to handle this. We hope that reading this article will serve as your starting point on better managing your online efforts.