How to Manage Your Resorts' Reputation the Right Way A person is as good as their reputation. So is a business. This is why reputation management is key to improving your resort. Reputation management is far more than putting out glowing press releases in the hope of making your resort look good. The intent of reputation management is to manage your resorts reputation, both building up the good and mitigating the bad. Here are a few tips to improve the reputation of your resort – and your bottom line. The first step in this process is to claim your name. Your business is inextricably linked to your company’s name and the names of your services. There are a number of websites that let you see if someone else is using your resorts’ name or product names. You need to claim them via copyright, trademark or formal incorporation before you can start managing your reputation. When there are two businesses using the same name, they are easily confused with each other – and complaints against the other business hurts search results for your business. Hold contests to improve your business’ reputation. Reward those who give you the first positive review on a site like FourSquare or Yelp. Give coupon codes to those who generate the most referrals, or give coupons randomly to those who like your Facebook page. Give free product to those who create the best tweet or video about why your product is the best on the market. Contests generate excellent PR in return for little money, and they keep your site high in page rankings. Focus on customer service. This applies to unhappy customers as well as the happy ones. Good customer service turns new customers into repeat customers. Dealing fairly with unhappy customers prevents negative online reviews. And good customer service in both cases leads to word of mouth advertising, one of the most successful forms of advertising around, since people are more likely to buy something on the recommendation of a friend than they would from four hours of infomercials. Ask your customers to give you good reviews online. Ask them to give you good reviews on Google Places, FourSquare, Linkedin, Yelp and other review sites. Reputation management is far more than getting likes and positive reviews. Respond to negative criticism in a timely manner. Responding to complaints and negative reviews soon after they are posted demonstrates that you are both listening and considering their responses. Try to resolve the problem where possible or offer restitution. Either post an explanation of how the company resolved the issue under the complaint or ask the person to correct their negative review. If practical, write articles that improve your resort’s reputation. Have the local newspaper cover your company’s charity drives. Publish articles about your latest technological innovations or case studies in trade journals. Write articles with tips on how to save money using your product, or answer readers’ questions.