Why Your Company Reputation Matters to Customers

Your company or brand reputation matters to customers — and is therefore critical to business success.

Many of today’s consumers make purchase decisions based on information generated by fellow consumers. This includes online reviews, ratings, social media comments, tweets and blog posts, and search engine results — all of which can significantly shape your company’s online reputation.

No longer do consumers rely exclusively on direct advertising and marketing messages. They’re more active than ever in searching for and reading the opinions and word-of-mouth marketing recommendations posted online by those who have engaged or transacted with the business in question. 

Benefits of Having a Positive Reputation

Having a strong reputation is crucial for companies to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. Not only do consumers engage more with brands whose reputations they trust; a positive reputation also leads to these key benefits.

You Get Free Marketing

According to customer reviews research, 28% of customers will leave positive reviews of a business after a positive experience. 

These reviews should help your word-of-mouth marketing strategy. It means you get to market your products and services essentially for free, with the help of people who are more than happy to spread the good word about your brand.

A strong reputation can also organically generate social proof for your brand, expanding the potential of free marketing. For example, a new customer’s opinion about a brand with 500 reviews and an average rating of 4.9 stars is less likely to go against the grain and differ from those who have already shared positive feedback. “This has great reviews, so I’m going to say the same about it.”

You Create More Value for Your Company

In today’s economy, market value often comes from intangible assets such as brand awareness and reputation, digital transformation and visibility, intellectual capital, and goodwill.  

This means that brands that have a great reputation are also often perceived as providing more value. This then allows them to charge a premium, increase customer lifetime value, reduce costs of capital, and deliver sustained earnings and growth.

You Can Attract Top Talent

Companies with strong brand reputations are also better at attracting, keeping, and growing a happy and productive workforce.

Here are some interesting employer brand stats to keep in mind:

• When making a decision on where to apply for a job, 84% of job seekers say that a company’s employer brand reputation is important. 
• 93% of job seekers believe it’s important to be thoughtful and informed about all aspects of a company prior to accepting a job offer. 
• Companies with positive employer brands get twice as many applications as companies with negative brands. They also spend less money on employees.

People like to work for organizations that share their values. These values are part of a larger company culture that is reflected in your company’s reputation. A positive reputation attracts top talent. On the other hand, if your reputation is suffering from negative reviews and feedback, you might struggle to fill open positions. 

Read more: The Great Retention: How Employers Can Keep and Grow a Happy and Productive Workforce. 

Best Practices: Managing and Improving Your Reputation 

A lot of companies tend to think of “reputation” — and the idea of managing it — as a process that involves focusing their efforts on handling threats that have already come to the surface, like negative reviews and social media comments, bad PR, and negative feedback. 

Reputation management, however, requires organizations to take on a more proactive approach, rather than reactive. Here are some best practices.

Plant Your Flags

This means taking control of core digital and offline properties where your brand has presence. Through local listing management, you can plant your brand flags on business review sites, top directories, and social media sites. Be sure that your company information and business location data (business name, category, company description, address, phone number, website URL, contact information, menu of products and services, etc.) are accurate across all these channels. 

Manage Reviews and Customer Feedback

To protect your reputation, it’s important that your company actively listens to, manages, and responds to online reviews and customer feedback. 

By doing so, you not only demonstrate to potential and existing customers that your company listens to customers. You also create opportunities to publicly change the conversation and win over new customers.

Generate Quality Content

Your business reputation can suffer from negative opinions and criticisms posted online. You’re unlikely to have the ability to delete these, but what you can do is create and push positive content that will enhance your brand visibility and improve your reputation. 

Regularly publishing company news, product and service updates, well-crafted review responses, quality blog posts, happy employee stories, customer testimonials, and photos and videos can give your reputation a big boost.

Final Thoughts: Your Company Reputation Matters to Customers

A great brand reputation takes time to build, but one of the most effective strategies for companies is to deliver great customer experiences and provide high levels of product and service quality. 

No one is immune from reputational threats and negative reviews and comments. What sets winners apart is their ability to solve customers’ problems, respond to their needs, and deliver positive experiences that are worth raving about.