Social media are two words that became the most popular ones among marketers and entrepreneurs. Traditional methods of advertising are no longer able to bring the results we expect. Every business owner needs to follow current trends to be better than his or her competitors.
Yet, social media platforms are a place where everyone can share personal opinions and conclusions. That is the reason why you can’t avoid receiving negative comments from your customers. Even the most popular brands are dealing with this sort of problem. The solution that every business owner should use is – social media reputation management.
Did you know that 71% of customers that experienced a good social media service experience are more likely to recommend the brand to others? These numbers show the true power of social media in today’s world. That’s why businesses can’t underestimate the importance of social media reputation.
Benefits of Social Media Reputation Management
There are three different reasons why you should try to improve social media reputation management
- Improvement of Customer Satisfaction
- Receiving Honest Feedback from Your Customer
- Increasing the Level of Credibility of Your Brand
Let’s analyse one by one.
Improvement of Customer Satisfaction
First-time customers usually have many questions about your brand. Because of that, it is important to make a good first impression. Sharing valuable pieces of information will help you to attract new clients.
Besides that, some customers will be unsatisfied with the product or service they get. They will publicly share their bad experiences with other social media users. In that case, you will have to react properly.
How you react depends on the problem they experienced. Some options include offering a discount for a new product, asking to explain the entire problem, etc. Whatever you choose, you will raise the satisfaction of your clients. This won’t only influence on the current customer that had the problem, it will also raise the satisfaction of the entire community that is following you. You did a good thing and they will appreciate that.
Receiving Honest Feedback from Your Customers
Some business owners are thankful when they receive a negative review. It gives them instructions in which direction they should work on their improvement. If a few customers experienced the same thing, then you will know which things you need to fix.
Increasing the Level of Credibility of Your Brand
The way you respond to negative comments shows how professional you actually are. More precisely, a good reputation on social media increases the level of your credibility. Your customers will know that you truly take care of their satisfaction. Except that, they will know that they can count on you if some kind of problem arrives. Keep in mind that these are the characteristics of every successful brand.
Now that we’ve explained why you should improve your social media reputation management, let’s see HOW to do that properly. We can learn many things by researching how some of the most popular brands are doing that.
10 Examples of Positive Social Media Reputation Management
Brands all over the world are good examples of how small businesses should react when they receive negative feedback. We would like to highlight some of them. We will analyse why their social media reputation management brings positive results.
Upwork
Upwork is a freelance platform that connects millions of freelancers and employers all over the world. Having that many people in one place is a huge responsibility. Logically, there will be people with some sort of problem. However, Upwork knows how to handle negative reviews:
Payment is definitely one of the main problems. People become impatient when their payment is late or unsuccessful. That’s why Upwork reacts promptly. Imagine if this sort of comment stays unanswered. Would new customers start working on this platform?
Here are also some informational types of answers that help people that want to start using this platform.
Qantas
Qantas is an Australian airline company that is known worldwide and is building its reputation. For them, it is important that their customers had a comfortable flight. Of course, small mistakes can always happen. The purpose of their Facebook group is to hear problems that their clients experienced before or during the flight.
Here is the reason why Qantas is different from others. They always mention the name of a person that is responding at the end of the comment. In this way, they are trying to make a better relationship between the company and customers.
This is how you should professionally respond when you don’t know the answer.
ASOS
This company is an online fashion and cosmetic retailer. They ship their products in 196 different countries. Transport can sometimes cause problems for the owners of this sort of company. Here is an example of how retailers should react.
These are some serious charges. Call the unsatisfied customer to talk privately and always solve the problem. Offer discounted or free products that could fix things.
Fitness First Australia
Here is something we already talked about – customer feedback. The customer’s experience was not good. However, they accepted his opinion and asked to hear details of his bad experience. There is no place for arguing with unsatisfied customers.
Olive Garden
Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. Their restaurants are located all over the east coast of the USA. The characteristics of good restaurants are – tasty food and good service. Logically, there are unsatisfied customers in this industry as well.
As you see, they are also willing to listen to what their customers have to say. However, something that we found while researching their social media profiles is this.
The previous comment was deleted, but we can easily understand what that comment was all about. Misinformation can always ruin your online reputation. That’s why you need to respond professionally. Imagine what would happen if Olive Garden did not respond to this comment. People would think it is true and they would likely lose some of their clients.
Who knows; maybe competitors are trying to share wrong pieces of information that could harm their reputation?
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market definitely knows how to protect its reputation. Picture two shows that they want to hear more about their changes. Maybe their change was not good so they want to hear what exactly the problem was. Only customers can tell you something like this.
Jet Blue
One more airway corporation we should learn from.
They also use the first name of the person that is answering the unsatisfied customer. In the end, they share a valuable piece of advice. That’s some sort of bonus that will make the client feel better.
Zappos
This is definitely a good example of a shoe and clothes retail company with good SMR management. When there are many orders overseas, mistakes can easily happen.
There won’t be many comments of this type. Yet, keep in mind that each customer is equally important. Responding in this way will confirm that your company takes care of absolutely every buyer.
Sainsbury’s
These comments could be bad for your reputation especially because they are talking about hygiene and bugs. This was the best answer they could give that will protect their reputation. They are ready to start an investigation and to see exactly why something like this happened. We suppose they offered the same products for free later.
Bank of America
Majority of banks in the world have many negative reviews over the Internet. You can easily check that by yourself. However, it looks like Bank of America knows how to answer those negative comments.
If you are the SM manager of a bank, this could be the right way to answer to negative feedback.
Conclusion
Every brand needs to find a way to defeat its online or offline reputation. However, arguing with clients is not going to help at all. Keep in mind that customers are always right. Your task is to react promptly and on time.
Ignoring the negative comments is something that brands also like to use. But that means you do not care about the feedback that you get from your customers. More importantly, it means that each client is not equally important to you. Yes, that’s “just” one client. But, word-of-mouth is still the best way of promoting and establishing a brand. That’s why you mustn’t underestimate the importance of social media reputation management.
For some tips on more reputation management and social media check out these recent Marketing.com.au articles: