The most important part of managing your reputation online is keeping a good relationship with your customers.
Anything you type or broadcast can be seen by thousands, possibly even millions, of potential customers, so anything you say is a representation of your company and its values. So ve very careful.
The first approach is to engage the situation positively. If a user on a forum is posting negative comments about you, or a Twitter user posts a negative review, be direct, polite, and attempt to fix the situation. Do not be angry, aggressive or defensive.
If a problem has been identified, offer to fix it. If a person is spreading falsehoods about your company, politely point out why those comments are inaccurate and point them to evidence to back up your statement.
The worst thing you can do is get into a fight. Remember, everyone seeing your comments is a potential customer, so win people over instead of arguing with them.
The benefit of handling these situations in an open, public environment is that once other customers see your approach, they’ll remember how well you handled the situation.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
