In the business world, your company’s reputation is everything.
After all, your reputation impacts everything from the level of trust consumers have in your brand to your appeal as an employer. As such, it is something that you should work diligently to protect.
With that in mind, here are the top six ways to protect your company’s reputation.
1. Take cybersecurity seriously.
Cybersecurity issues, such as data leaks and breaches, can cause consumer trust in your brand (and therefore your reputation) to plummet. For example, one study found that 80% of customers would defect from a business following a significant data leak.
This means that you need to take cybersecurity seriously moving forward. Fortunately, there are many different ways in which you can achieve this goal, such as:
- Investing in cybersecurity software that works to ensure that valuable and sensitive data is protected
- Partnering with companies that offer continuous penetration testing services, so that you can identify problems with your network before they can be exploited by hackers
- Choosing strong passwords and updating them every few months
- Ensuring that your team receives cybersecurity training
- Familarizing yourself (and your team) with common cybersecurity threats, such as phishing schemes
2. Respond to negative reviews.
Whether you are dealing with an influx of bad Google reviews or have noticed that your rating has gone down on a third-party platform, responding to negative reviews can help reduce the potential damage this has on your reputation moving forward.
There are many reasons for this. Firstly, it gives you the chance to make things right with the customer while also holding yourself accountable for any mistakes you may have made. This will change their opinion of your brand for the better, incentivising future customers. It also shows anyone else who stumbles across the review that you are a company that puts integrity and your customers at the heart of everything you do, which will improve their perception of your brand.
While it can be disheartening to receive negative feedback, making it easy to ignore (or even try to delete) it, try to view it as a valuable learning opportunity instead – something which you can then use to better your reputation moving forward.
3. Leave a lasting impression on your customers.
Ensuring that you make a good first impression on customers will also help to improve your company’s reputation. More often than not, the best way to go about achieving this goal is by elevating the level of customer service you offer, both on and offline. This can also help improve your bottom line, with three in four customers admitting to spending more with businesses that provide good customer service.
There are a few different ways in which you can improve upon your current customer service standards. For example, you should make sure that your CS team are friendly, empathic and excellent listeners. This means that they will be attentive to a customer’s unique needs, even if they are somewhat difficult.
4. Attend industry events
Attending industry events is another great way to improve your company’s reputation, due to the fact that it can help you to promote your products and services to a wider, yet still focused audience. For example, the people attending an industry event are either a) key players within your industry that you may want to collaborate with in the future, or b) people who are likely to buy your products or services. In any case, putting your business on their radar is a good thing.
Furthermore, it gives you the chance to showcase your skills, products or services in the best possible light, which in turn, will give your reputation a much-needed boost moving forward.
5. Have a contingency plan in place
Contingency plans outline the various things that could go wrong in the day-to-day running of your business (including scenarios which could harm your reputation), alongside the steps you should take to resolve this issue.
As such, having this kind of plan in place will help you to protect your reputation, as it allows you to respond to issues as quickly as humanly possible. Otherwise, you’d waste valuable time trying to come up with a solution, by which point customers could have already resolved to shop elsewhere.
6. Stay on your A game
Perhaps the easiest way in which you can protect your company’s reputation (or even improve upon it) is by ensuring that you are on your A game. After all, in doing so, you’re ensuring that you’re continuing to meet or exceed the expectations of your customers, which means they will continue to think highly of you.
Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can achieve this goal. For example, it often comes down to innovation and ensuring that you are always bringing something new and exciting to the market. However, you should also ensure that you always take customer feedback on board.
Final thoughts
Your company’s reputation has a direct influence over the amount of success you can expect to achieve. After all, it’s difficult to get customers to take a chance on a company with a less-than-stellar reputation.
Fortunately, there are many steps that you can take to protect and build upon your company’s reputation, ensuring that this does not have to become something you worry about. This includes:
- Taking cybersecurity seriously and making an effort to protect your business from online threats
- Responding to negative reviews or customer feedback, so that you can repair the relationship and take accountability
- Working to ensure that you leave a lasting (and positive) impact on customers, whether they are shopping online or in person
- Attending industry events, so that you can increase brand awareness and showcase yourself in the best possible light
- Having a contingency plan in place that you can rely on in emergency situations
- Staying on your A game
Using the advice outlined above will allow you to keep your reputation intact for years to come. This, in turn, means that you can enjoy many more years of success as a business owner.
