Maintaining a good reputation is essential to your business’s success. People trust online reviews almost as much as they do reviews from their friends and family. However, if you’re just getting started with your business or you’ve never paid much attention to your online reviews, it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, Google provides input for how you can build your business’s reputation and trust.
With these top tips from Google in hand and the Performance Driven Marketing online reputation management professionals on your side, you can show customers that you’re legitimate and provide quality work so that you can grow your business. Let’s get into it.
#1. Maintain A Consistent Identity
If your business’s name and branding varies depending on the platform, this decreases customer trust. Even something like “The ‘Your Business Name’” versus “Your Business Name” can make people wonder which is legitimately you and question why there are discrepancies.
As such, you want to ensure that your business name and branding is consistent across all platforms. If there are discrepancies, this can cause people to wonder if it’s really your account or to think that your business is neither legitimate nor trustworthy. A consistent identity is both easier to maintain and makes a better impression, improving your business’s online reputation and making you more trustworthy to potential customers.
#2. Claim And Verify Your GMB
GMB stands for Google My Business. This is a free tool Google provides that lets you manage your business’s online presence, such as with search, maps, viewing and responding to customer reviews, and more. It allows you to keep your online information accurate and up-to-date. It provides you with insight about how many people are viewing your profile, asking for directions to your business, and more, giving you information about your online reputation and how it can be improved.
While many businesses focus on social media like Facebook and Instagram, Google My Business is more important than any of those to build your business’s reputation and increase potential customers’ trust.
#3. Be Upfront With Your Customers
Be transparent with your customers about how you run your business, your services, your policies, and the like.
No one likes having to come through a website to try to find shipping information or pricing or the like. Being transparent with your customers is key to building your business’s credibility. There are many companies that don’t want to list the pricing of their services on their website. If this is you, make sure that you state customers should call for pricing information so that they know you’re not trying to hide this information and spring massive bills on them.
Ensure that you know what is standard for your industry. If having prices on your site is industry standard for what you do, ensure that you keep these up to date, as customer opinion of your business will drop drastically if they think your prices are what they say on your site only to be told otherwise.
#4. Have Professional Designs
The look and feel of your website and social media platforms has a significant impact on what potential customers think about your business. The sleeker and more professional your designs, the better impression you make and the more likely it is that people will want to work with your business.
If your current website isn’t very professional looking, you can have it redone. Performance Driven Marketing can help you take your site to the next level with custom designs and content that can help attract business. They have beautiful pictures and layout, easy navigation, and content that suits your business, be that more casual or more professional.
#5. Manage Your Online Reputation
Encourage your customers to leave reviews. Most people are happy to provide reviews when asked, and many will freely give reviews if you wowed them with your service – or if they were horrified by it. Don’t buy reviews, as fake reviews lower customer trust. If you get bad reviews, don’t delete them, as this can also negatively affect your business’s reputation.
Rather, if you get a bad review, you should thank the person for leaving a review and politely address their concerns. If you need help with responding to bad reviews, having reputation management professionals in your corner can help immensely.
Performance Driven Marketing provides all sorts of online marketing services, including reputation management. Contact us today to learn more about our services and let us help you make your business shine.
