Your business’ reputation is essential to its success, and rebuilding a tarnished reputation is much more difficult than it is to build a good reputation from scratch. With a good reputation, positive news about your business has a way of spreading organically, and customers are more willing to trust you with their money based on the positive experiences of others. Conversely, negative product and business reviews can make it difficult to drive sales — especially when consumers have so many other products and options to choose from.

A business’ reputation can have a tremendous impact on your sales and profits. Of the $1.3 trillion spent in the United States consumer market each year, companies lost out on $537 billion because of unhappy customers. Additionally, 80% of consumers will not make a purchase from a business that has negative reviews. In order to offset a negative review, a business needs to accrue between 10 and 12 positive reviews.

Building a good business reputation isn’t a difficult task, but it does require attentive leadership and active monitoring of how your products or services are being received. You will need to invest both time and money into reputation management, but the results are well worth it. A good business reputation both online and offline can contribute to your business’ overall success.

Provide the Best Customer Service

Building a great business reputation is a multistep process. While there are many aspects that go into building a reputation, like establishing business best practices and monitoring social media for mentions of your business, providing poor customer service can quickly damage your reputation. Simple acts like responding slowly to a customer’s inquiries or refusing to honor a return (even if you feel you’re in the right) can result in angry customers sharing their negative experiences on social media.

Make it a priority to provide the best customer service possible. Train your staff in your customer service practices, making sure to emphasize the importance of providing your customers with the best possible experience. If you always put a little extra effort into customer service and go above and beyond for your customers, they will quickly start to notice and your business will stand out.

You’ll also need to maintain an active online presence so that you can respond to customers’ concerns on social media, through email, or even through your website’s chat function. Prompt, polite responses to customer complaints can help to manage your business’ online reputation. By engaging with upset customers and working to correct situations, you may be able to turn some of them around into positive customer experiences.

Lead by Example

Social responsibility also plays an important role in business reputation today. Statistics indicate that about 78% of Americans want businesses to address social justice issues, and 87% of Americans will purchase a product because a business advocates for an issue they feel strongly about. It’s important to understand your audience and their values, though, because 76% of Americans will also refuse to purchase a product if a company supports a stance that goes against their personal beliefs.

Embracing and welcoming immigrants is one important social justice issue that you may want to support through your business. You might decide to employ immigrants within your own business or advocate for the importance of embracing immigrants within your local community.

You can also break myths and educate your audience about important social issues, such as the myths surrounding STDs.Other potential social issues include environmental protection, global warming, food and water security, poverty, and more. If there’s a close connection between your business and a particular social issue, it might be an ideal opportunity to build your business’ reputation while also doing social good. 

Set Your Business Up for Success

While your customers will naturally refer your business to their friends and family by word of mouth, you’ll need to do a little more legwork in order to encourage them to leave positive online reviews. Start by making sure that your website is polished, professional, and contains easily accessible contact information so that your customers can reach you with questions or concerns. Next, set up social media pages on platforms like Facebook which allow customers to leave reviews. Link those to your website so customers can easily find them.

You should also set up business pages on sites like Google My Business and Yelp. With these pages already created, customers can easily leave reviews. You may also want to add your business to the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) database, and be sure to include your positive BBB ranking on your website to help build credibility with potential customers.

As a business owner, you can take immediate steps to build a good business reputation, but it’s important to also remember that building a reputation takes time. By carefully monitoring your reviews and addressing customer concerns over time, you can solidify your reputation as a business that values its customers. A good business reputation is a powerful tool that you can rely on as you build and expand your business.