Have a Reputation Management Plan

Most of the clients we work with already have a reputation problem. Either someone has posted negative reviews or a report to a scam site.

Many of these reviews may be competitors, disgruntled employees, jokers or other non-customers. On the internet, it doesn’t matter. On almost every review site there is simply no way to control who writes and interview or leaves comments about you or your business.

While it’s not impossible to correct these often erroneous reviews (we help rebuild reputations all the time), it’s much easier to put a plan in place before you have problems. It’s also less expensive.

Reputation Management by Alex Bock is happy to put together a plan for your to manage your reputation before you have a problem. Whether we help you, or you develop your own plan, consider these three key points:

1. The Customer Is Not Always Right, But We Need to Treat Them Like They Are

Look, you and I both know that your average customer is not right all the time. Customers don’t understand things. They get confused. They are wrong a lot of the time.

We used to say “the customer is always right.” In the world of today’s internet, we have to live it.

Even a misinformed, incorrect customer can cause damage to your business. With today’s smart phones, they can do it before they leave your parking lot when they are at their angriest.

You don’t have to give in to every customer who walks in the door, but you do have to make them leave feeling like you’ve been fair or they have “won.”

2. You Can’t Ignore Online Reviews – Good or Bad

With the number of people using the internet to research products and companies, you cannot afford to ignore those review sites. Your organization must have a plan in place to capture positive reviews to protect your reputation.

One angry review doesn’t look so bad when there are 50 positive reviews surrounding it.

Capturing positive reviews isn’t as easy as it looks, but Reputation Management by Alex can help you create a program that will help build positive reviews.

3. Promote Positive Sites, Articles, Blog Posts, Videos and Press Releases

If you don’t have a program in place to promote positive mentions of your name or business, your reputation could suffer.

Like search engine optimization, this isn’t a one-time deal. In fact, Google penalizes Reputation Management companies who try and push too hard too quickly. For the best results, you need a slow drip of positive articles, mentions and press about your business.

This is our specialty. Any serious reputation management company will manage this proces for you.

The internet’s memory is long. You need to get an online reputation management program going today. Contact us now!

White Hat versus Black Hat Reputation Management

There is the right way to do just about anything. Reputation Management companies like Reputation Management Blog, employ various tactics to make poor reviews and other undesirable search results go away.

The types of tactics determine whether you’re a “good guy” (white hat) or “bad guy” (black hat). The team at Reputation Management Blog uses white hat tactics when we help you with your online reputation issues. The things we do are allowed by Google, Yahoo, Yelp, Bing and other review and search web engines.

What are some black hat tactics we’ve seen?

The biggest problem in reputation management is faked reviews. You may have seen fake reviews on your competitors’ web sites. Companies offer to post positive reviews to make your bad reviews drop to the bottom of the list. Faked reviews are unethical, against the Terms of Use of every review website and could create a potential legal liability.

In 2009, the State Attorney General of New York successfully sued and received a $300,000 fine from Lifestyle Lifts for faking reviews.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2009/july/july14b_09.html

The Federal Trade Commission has pursued penalties and injunctions against other firms engaged in these deceptive fake interview tactics.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/08/reverb.shtm

http://ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023055/110610legacylearningdo.pdf

The bottom line? If you engage in black hat reputation management, or if you hire an online reputation management firm that engages in these  tactics, you could be fined heavily.

Worse, if Google discovers that you are faking reviews, they could remove your entire web site from their search engine.

At one entertainment center we consulted with, they were offered a $4000 program to generate positive reviews. The company was going to call previous customers and post reviews on their behalf.

While this isn’t faked reviews, it doesn’t matter. This is a violation of the terms of service for all the major review web sites like Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Yelp. They clearly state you cannot post a review on behalf of someone else. This is still a black hat reputation management tactic.

When you work with the team from Reputation Management Blog, you’ll get our assistance in developing legitimate positive reviews. We’re not just techies. Our team has years of experience on the front line of retail operations, especially entertainment operations.

We can help you generate legitimate positive reviews while suppressing your negative reviews in a way that Google and other search engines approve of.

If you think you need help with your reputation management, give us a call at 717-983-8699 or email alex@reputationmanagementblog.com.

We’re Here and Ready to Help

Reputation Management is a critical need for many small companies. Our on-line reputation management services are going to focus on the out-of-home entertainment industry.

Although we can help anyone with scam reports or bad reviews, our team has years of experience building web sites and marketing for family entertainment centers and facilities like go-kart tracks, mini-golf courses and laser tag.

We can help you. Contact us today at (717) 983-8699 to discuss your issue or email Jason or Alex at help@reputationmanagementblog.com.