Knowing the right answer to “what is the first step to fixing a bad brand reputation” can be crucial to not only improving brand perception in the long run; it can also be key to retaining customers that would otherwise go to a competitor. While other companies will utilize expensive PR campaigns to change the consumer’s mind about their brand, you can get a similar effect without spending an abundance of resources and using reputation management software instead along with the steps below.
What is the First Step to Fixing a Bad Brand Reputation: Look at Customer Feedback
A major factor in a brand’s declining reputation is feedback, specifically in the form of online reviews. An ongoing or recent wave of low-scores on online listings can be disastrous because it tells prospective customers that the recent experiences are not up to expectations and it can have long term effects on your overall rating online.
By gathering recent negative feedback, you can begin the process of gathering data that not only shows the cause of the recent drop in satisfaction but also what your team and the company at-large can do to fix it.
Step 2: Closely Analyze Feedback
The process of analyzing feedback sounds easy, but the task can actually take up plenty of time and resources. For instance, if you had 200 negative reviews from the past 3 months, it would take one person a long time to not only read each piece of feedback but to also take note of various keywords and trends made by multiple customers across a small collection of those reviews.
Thankfully, modern technology can conduct the same process in just a few minutes. By utilizing customer experience analytics software, you can have a computer look over the same pile of reviews, and it can provide you with trending keywords and patterns from hundreds and even thousands of reviews in a shorter period of time. This means faster, more accurate data that you can use to present to stakeholders that provide a clear-cut picture of glaring issues in brand operations and recommended steps for improving service and customer experience in the long run.
Step 3: Ask for More Feedback to Improve Further
Even after changes are implemented and customer satisfaction is higher than ever doesn’t mean a resurgence in bad brand reputation won’t happen again. To ensure that the brand and its products are always meeting expectations, it’s important to continue asking for reviews, and more importantly, responding to them whether the feedback is positive or negative. This shows engagement and also sends trust signals that can put you above the competition. Tools like ReviewTrackers’ Ask Tool, which allows you to create templates and distribution across multiple channels can make this process easy for any brand.
Speaking of rivals, it’s also important to conduct competitor analysis as you continue to improve your reputation. Knowing what your ideal consumers are saying about the competition can help improve your own operations or even create marketing material that helps you better stand out.
Conclusion
As it turns out the best answer to “what is the first step to fixing a bad brand reputation” isn’t a new campaign; it’s leaning back on the words of your own customers and making things right. Social proof is a major indicator of brand reputation, and how you use the words of customers to improve operations and meet expectations is a sure-fire way to get on the right track to long term reputation and overall brand success.
