How to respond to an online reputation crisis
Any company or any website that likes to be successful online should make sure to guard its online reputation. If you are aware of the potential of the internet in helping you grow your business, you will also know how important your online reputation is. Even a single negative feedback or remark can create devastating damage if you do not take timely efforts. Here are few tips on how to respond to an online reputation crisis.
Never waste any time in responding to the reputation attack. The longer you wait the greater will be the damage. Negative word always spreads like the wildfire on the internet. You must always be on the edges to choose the right online reputation strategies to quickly respond.
When you are faced with an online reputation crisis, you must first try to review the situation by checking to what extent the negative feedback or the negative review posted online is true. Only when you have facts in hand, you will be able to take the necessary steps.
Check for the depth of the damage caused by the online reputation attacks in all the popular online social platforms.
Identify the source of the attack and try to establish the credibility of the source. At times, your search for the source could lead to your competitor. So finding the source of the attack will always help you in devising the right strategy to deal with the attack.
Do not hesitate to apologize if you were to be on the wrong side of the fence. This will help your customers understand that you a trustworthy company. However, apologizing does not mean that you are accepting everything that is said in the attack. In most cases, you will find a certain amount of exaggeration. So it is your responsibility in putting the whole story in the right perspective. This will help you customers get the right picture.
Make sure any apologies ore responses that you are publishing comes from the top management or someone in a highly responsible position in the company. This will help the situation faster.
Do not hesitate to publish your discussions with the attacker, of course withholding private and any confidential information the discussion may involve. Leaving the reputation attack and the negative feedback online without any response will make the story incomplete. If you have taken positive steps to rectify the situation, then your customers should know about it. This will help you rebuild your customers trust.
Get some professional help from a reliable online reputation management company to remove the negative feedbacks from getting listed on the top positions of the search results pages and certainly from the first page of the search results. This will minimize the negative effects a great deal and help you create a positive image.
Learn more about online reputation management.