The new year brings a new opportunity to polish your brand’s online reputation. Follow these best practices to maintain a solid standing on all major review sites and build brand trust.

Respond to Customer Reviews

An effective way to build strong rapport with your customers is to respond to online reviews. If you receive a negative review and respond within one day, that reviewer is 33% more likely to update or remove their review. Likewise, if happy customers see you take the time to acknowledge positive reviews, they are more likely to leave you a review. Use keywords and business categories in your owner’s responses to improve your local search ranking. Our software has automated this important step to managing your online reputation. Consumer Fusion’s automated response system for Facebook and Google rotates 10 different templates per star rating, and auto-responds within 12-24 hours.

Remove Negative Reviews that Can Be Removed

What you should know but may not want to hear is— there are no guarantees that a negative review will get removed. If a so-called online reputation expert tells you otherwise, turn and run. Each directory has a terms of service, so focus on removing the negative reviews that violate content guidelines. Make a case with Google or Yelp (or whatever directory the review is on) and get it removed. Don’t give up. It can take more than one dispute attempt! We have removed over 50,000 fake or illegitimate negative reviews. For the reviews you can’t remove, write a response and try to rectify the situation, or use the public platform to devalue the review. We also advise that you address inappropriate photos that have been posted to your business listings. Whether they are outdated or from an upset customer, a photo is worth 1,000 words. Just like reviews, photos can also be removed. Consistently add new photos of your business to all major platforms.

Monitoring Your Brand

As part of your resolution to protect your brand, make it a point to monitor reviews regularly. This can be time-consuming, especially considering multiple locations. That’s where online reputation management comes in— a whole team to monitor your reviews and ratings for you. You can even have a personal dashboard set up to track all your business listings at once. With the option of text alerts, you can be notified in real time when a new review comes in, or when a negative review gets removed.

Think Positive

While business owners tend to obsess over getting negative reviews removed, they fail to recognize the power of positive content.  Let the good outweigh the bad. By generating more positive content to your online listings, you will, in turn, suppress the negative. This starts at the homefront with personal interface. Make an effort to improve customer service, and get your team on board to encourage customers to share their experience online. Unfortunately, most consumers only leave a review if they have a bad experience, and often forget about the good ones. Remind your customers to share the good times by sending a reminder via text or email. You can also share the positive reviews to your social media sites. This can encourage other satisfied customers to leave you a review if they haven’t done so already.

Our reputation management tools are designed with both the Franchisor and Franchisees in mind, making it as easy as possible for you to be proactive about your online reviews and ratings. A resolution to stay on top of your online reputation is a resolution to see greater success and increased revenue.

For more information, visit https://www.consumerfusion.com/franchise/ .

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