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How Many People Reject Your Business Because of Negative Reputation?
By Paul Richlovsky | April 23, 2008
A new customer service study noted by Douglas Quenqua in ClickZ finds a strong link between a company's online reputation and the willingness of potential customers to do business with it.
... 72 percent of respondents used social media to research a company's reputation for customer care before making a purchase, and 74 percent choose to do business with companies based on the customer care experiences shared by others online.
Judging from the results of this study, businesses everywhere should be sure to:
- pursue excellent customer service
- foster loyalty and strengthen audience ties via social media
I can think of no more compelling reason to take part in social media. It's probably also true in general that the more attention you pay to customer service, the less likely you would be a victim of online smears. Of course, your business's reputation consists of more than just a high-ranking negative Google search result or one bad Facebook comment. But it's useful to understand social media regardless.
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April 28th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I agree. People research things like never before because the internet makes it so easy. I know I research every major purchase I make. Word of mouth advertising is really important and social media makes it so easy.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Companies won’t get it right; they just need to make inroads in this space. Sadly, many won’t. Good piece.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Right on, Paul. Online Reputation Management is a crucial area that many companies overlook or shun because it dabbles in Web 2.0, or dare I say it, Web 2.5.
Usually those who do not know what something truly is about, fail to embrace what can help them in the longrun.
Kudos to you Paul - Excellent Post.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Social media is like anything else - you get what you put into it. If you’re going to use it as a reputation management tool, make sure your pages/profiles are updated consistently. Not only is there a chance that the visibility of the social media effort will diminish (a Squidoo page drops in lens rank if it’s left untouched for too long, for example), but if someone happens to see the same page multiple times over a period of time, and it never changes, the impact that that effort will have on people will decrease.
Social media as a reputation management tool, time consuming, sometimes a pain, but effective if done correctly.