Reputation is everything-on personal and business levels. Management of brand image is central to the sustainability of a business in the long term and foremost agencies seek to uphold reputations to the highest standards. This article details the basic tools for successful reputation management.
Attentiveness
Any organisation seeking top class reputation management must embrace keen awareness as a central goal. Attention to details distinguishes the great from the good. To ensure delivery of best services, reputation management consultancies develop strategic interest in public perceptions of their clients, particularly through the aggressive monitoring of new developments. Setting up Google alerts for a brand name is a beneficial method of keeping up to date as well as assessing any negative feedback via reviews. Keeping an eye out on the most influential social media users and their inputs on specific brands is also important. Closer attention should be paid to verified Twitter users as they have the most followers consisting of existing and potential consumers. These strategies help to proactively discover problems and offer the best solutions, while also building upon perceived strengths.
Effective Communication
Communication is key for any successful relationship. Therefore, reputation management organisations make it a priority to engage their clients on regular basis. Leading agencies ensure there is a constant flow of direct communication between staff and clients. Clients are also encouraged to communicate directly with their consumer base as this instills trust, which in turn attracts goodwill for their brand image. Customers lodging complaints using social media or the organisation’s website should be replied promptly. This in turn ensures consumers feel more appreciated and catered to. This aids brand loyalty.
Nimbleness and Proactive Action
Nimbleness is important when dealing with feedback from the public about a client’s product. For example, a reputation management agency on realising that a company has been receiving negative reviews should have flexible strategies in place to tackle the problems efficiently. Similarly, a crisis or scandal is usually avoided when both client and reputation management agencies are well poised to maintain the good image of both companies.
Negative feedback is almost inevitable and it would be unrealistic to expect none. Therefore, being proactive not only means dealing with problems but also seeing to it that these problems are prevented from occurring in the first place. It is also important to note that not all negative feedback is a problem as it can serve as an opportunity to discover weaknesses and improve upon them. The use of survey questionnaires to measure consumer satisfaction and feedbacks from the target audience will help to gauge the reception of a particular product or service. Reputation management agencies also engage in sponsoring events for positive publicity, and actively promoting their client’s brands.
Social Media Involvement
Social media is undoubtedly one of the quickest means of communicating directly with consumers. For effective reputation management, brands are advised to have a strong social media presence. These include platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube where pertinent information and videos would be uploaded on a regular basis. This method avails the opportunity of receiving direct feedback as consumers are invited to share their opinions and ideas on the brands via the comment sections.
– Idegbua Higo, Media & Communications Intern at Zenera Consulting
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