Chamber Business Connection Vol. 1, Issue 11 | Page 7

Connection Business Insights
Wayne Coakly, Grenade Media Group
Have you Googled your business lately?
There is always a chance of getting a bad review
regardless of how well your organization strives to
deliver a five-star service. Let ’s face it, some people
cannot be pleased regardless of what you do and there
is also the likelihood of a staff member having a bad
day and a sensitive customer perceiving that as the
standard for your company.
Those types of unfavorable reviews online can often
be turned into a positive review by quickly responding
to that complaint and attempting to resolve the issue.
Many people just want to be acknowledged and
understand that things are not always perfect.
In addition to the possibility of the unhappy customer
changing their bad review to a more favorable one,
other potential customers also see that company ’s concern and attempt to reconcile issues. Without
a doubt, the biggest flaw in addressing those concerns is that most organizations do not have a
sufficient system or process in place to monitor those reviews on a daily basis so they can be
promptly addressed. I would say having a good online reputation is the single most important
factor that can influence how a brand is perceived,
as well as the likelihood of a consumer choosing
to do business with them. According to the latest
BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey, “84% of peo-
ple trust online reviews as much as personal recom-
mendations and 58% of consumers say that the star
rating of a business is most important ”. In the con-
sumer ’s eyes, a company ’s reputation is based on
what they find online about that company. Being in
the top search results on Google is no longer good
enough because most consumers will first check
out a company ’s reviews and ratings before doing
business with them.
Companies with bad reviews would most likely
experience a decrease in profitability as a result of
fewer phone calls and new customers, due to a
lower reputational value. There are many factors
that contribute to this value, but having an
insufficient number of reviews, especially if some
of those reviews are unfavorable, is one of the most
important considerations.
All forms of marketing are affected by reputation, so
it is imperative that an organization always strives
to deliver five-star service by having a reputation
marketing culture within the company.
CHAMBER BUSINESS CONNECTION
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