Today, the latest fad on World Wide Web is about ORM (Online Reputation Management). Yes, your reputation is important! With more than 3.58 billion internet users worldwide, what consumers read about you online creates a huge impact on your brand perception and, ultimately your revenue. The star ratings and online reviews your business receives affect everything – from where you rank in search results, to whether you show up on Near Me search on Google Maps.

Almost 88% of people read online reviews to determine the quality of business. People read online reviews right from buying a product on Amazon to having food in a restaurant or mobile applications.

The quality of service you offer will affect your online reputation. So, to maintain your online reputation, it is very important to have an eye on what people say about you on social media platform.

In order to get you on right path to manage and improve your online reputation, there are 6 pillars of ORM, viz.

Request and respond to reviews

• The latest status and number of your reviews are one of the top ranking factors. 69% of consumers say that reviews older than 3 months don’t count. You can’t wait for reviews to roll in – you have to ask for them.
• Make sure that your review requesting strategy is mobile friendly. SMS can be used to engage and interact with customers directly. Companies using SMS based review request get up to 15 times more online reviews than those who use email based request method.
• Make sure that you respond promptly – preferably within 48 hours of receiving a review. Thank them if it is a positive. If it is negative, do something to resolve the issue as soon as possible. This shows your commitment towards customer satisfaction.

Use of survey to identify and address the issue

• Surveys help you collect information about consumers experience regarding your products and services.
• Surveys let you fine tune customer experience by tapping into the data, while strengthening your brand perception online.
• Be sure that you respect your customer’s time – survey should be brief, user friendly and easily accessible.

Help people find you with accurate business listings

• A business listing represents your business in online search engines and directories. It shows your business name and contact information. It may also include photos, reviews. It’s important that this information is authentic and regularly updated.
• 81% of the people use online search engines and directories as their primary source of local business information. Business listings are shown in the list of search results.
• If you don’t have a business listing, it’s possible that people won’t be able to find your business online! You are missing out on new customers who are looking for business like yours in online directories and search engines.

Engage customers and prospects on social media

• No business can evade the influence of social media; it’s critical to monitor social channels and engage actively on them frequently.
• It’s important to engage on social media to generate site traffic and positive reviews and feedbacks. Strategic, targeted social advertisements can help raise brand awareness.

Benefits from operational insights

• Armed with information about your online reputation, you can make operational changes across your organization.
• It may help you identify a recurring issue. You can use this information to make needful changes in organization in order to avoid such problems in future.

Spread a word with flexible reporting

• Reporting is key factor. Creating proper reports is equally important. The ability to create custom reports will be essential for demonstrating outcomes of your reputation management.
• Virtual representation of how you rank against competitor and how your location rank amongst each other, gives you insight of your strengths and weaknesses.

Bottom line

In today’s time, using ORM is important in order to sustain in this competitive market for a long term and make your business a successful one in long term. Try using an ORM platform which revolves around the above mentioned 6 pillars to get a kick start.