5 Ways You Are Ruining Your Online Reputation

Your reputation is what you make of it.

People will search for your name online, ask friends for recommendations, and most likely contact your brand at some point to ask a question or seek information.

What someone finds during this journey will determine their future with your brand and reputation.

That said, here are five different ways individuals, brands, and businesses are destroying their reputations online by simply being lazy and not taking action.

5 Ways That Brands Are Hurting Their Online Reputation

Not Managing and Monitoring Social Media

Everyone is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all of the other major social networks — and you should be too! With over 2 billion users on social media, it would be a mistake for you to not only be active with your potential audience but also not represent your brand, products, and messaging simultaneously.

Little-to-No Email or Customer Support

The only thing worse than having a problem in the first place is trying to figure out how to get it fixed and waiting for a customer support email from a company. Everyone is using the internet to connect with each other, and there is no reason why support emails should ever take more than 12 hours to respond to. In addition to email support, all brands should offer online chat support and phone support.

Missing Deadlines and Shipment Dates

While the internet has made it much easier for people to connect with each other, buy from brands around the world, and even start their own businesses, it’s also leading to a lack of urgency. In today’s age, people want everything as soon as possible. If your online store or brand promises delivery within 24 hours, then it needs to be there within 24 hours!

A good example of this would be eBay sellers and mom-and-pop e-stores that are responsible for selling and shipping their own products. Don’t let your laziness bring in bad reviews and a bad customer experience.

Under-delivering on Your Promises

Like with any product or purchase, you expect to get the results you are paying for. This can apply to business coaching, purchasing products, accessing services online, and anything in between. The key takeaway here is that you need to deliver on whatever you are promising to offer.

Ignoring Customer Complaints & Reviews

Considering all of the methods mentioned above that contribute to a ruined reputation online, if you aren’t monitoring your complaints and what people are saying about you, you are already losing.

Ignoring customer complaints and online reviews is a disaster waiting to happen. Everyone needs to know what their customers are saying, and it’s way too easy to set this up with simple tools like Google Alerts.

Monitoring your online brand mentions is the first and last steps of good online reputation management, meaning it must be done at all times.

Are You Making Any Of These ORM Mistakes?

Many of us are likely guilty of at least one of the key points listed above; however, there is no excuse for leaving your customers and brand followers in the dark.

The good news is that it’s never too late to improve how your brand looks online. New customers are just waiting for your products and services every day, so make sure you put in the time and effort to keep them coming back for more.