Bad Reviews and Your Business. We all know that a bad review on Yelp or Google can influence a customer’s buying behavior. What should you say when responding to a poor review? Or should you ignore them? How can you counteract Google search results which show negative things about your owner or your business?

1. Reputation Management
Do-it-yourself?

2. People & Trust
● Amid a growing atmosphere of distrust, people seek to do
business with companies they trust.
● Trust results from transparent evidence of competence and
positive ethics.
● Competence means delivering on promises.*
● Ethical behavior means doing the right thing and working to
improve society.*
2020 Edelman Trust Barometer

3. Why Should You Care?

4. 90%
Believe brand recommendations from friends.
71% More Likely to Purchase Based on Social Media Referrals

5. 71%
More likely to purchase when referred by social media.

6. 70%
Believe consumer opinions

7. 61%
Use search engines before a purchase.

8. 40%
Referrals happen by word of mouth.

9. 3x
Referred customers more likely to recommend your brand
Happy customers will drive business growth in 2020

10. Brands & Expectations

11. No matter what you say
your brand is...
...it is the sum total of what your consumers and
the public think of you, your services, your staff
and your actions.

12. Brand
● If you do not take responsibility for managing your brand, the
consumer will.
● Indeed, right now, people have perceptions about your company.
● Do you know how your company is perceived?

13. Brand Promise
● Your brand’s promise is...
The inherent pact you create with consumers & is derived from:
○ Your marketing / communications
■ E-mail
■ Phone
■ Face-to-face
■ Social media

14. When it goes sideways
● You do not do what you promise to do.
● Dissonance. Disappointment.
● Taking away something expected. Breaking the promise.

15. Steps to Prevent Distrust
● Is there congruence between your outward marketing messages
and your corporate behavior?
● Do you take regular customer satisfaction surveys that allow
anonymous responses?
● Do you publish the findings from your consumer surveys, at least
as customer concerns slated for improvement?

16. Steps to Prevent Distrust
● Do you regularly implement a series of steps to correct the negative
findings from your surveys?
● Does your senior staff model all the brand promises?
● So you allow staff and employees to have an active hand in the
company’s direction?
● Do you have a method of surveying your employees for their views
on the company’s direction?
● Audits

17. Monitoring & Responding

18. Auditing
● A crisis prevention audit identifies threats, analyzes public
perception of your business, and analyzes your internal staff’s
perceptions.
● Survey the Internet
● Search Results
● Social Channels

19. Claim & Use Google My Business
● Refine your profile
● Add images
● Add Posts
● Interactive and different per
device/display
● Critically important that you
respond

20. Respond. Don’t ignore.

21. Monitor & Respond
● Customers need to know you
care.

22. Ongoing Listening Campaigns
● Google Alerts
● Hashtag searches in all socials
● Twitter Lists

23. Channels to Monitor
● Which sites will you monitor?
● Don’t forget professional
sites for your industry.

24. Questions?
CharlestonPR.com