online reputation – Dispatches From The Front

Here’s a good reason to pay extra attention to your online reputation.

According to a new survey, 84 percent of customers trust online reviews as a personal recommendation.

Customers Trust Online Reviews

Online Reviews Matter

What’s more, 74 percent of online customers say positive reviews make them trust a local business more.

These astonishing insights have come from the Annual BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2016. For the survey, BrightLocal interviewed 1,062 people.

Among other things, the survey has revealed 54 percent of people visit a website after reading positive reviews about it. In other words, a positive word of mouth can help you draw potential customers to your site.

All businesses need to keep track of an online reputation. It only takes a couple of hours for a bad customer experience to go viral and impact your bottom line. It’s even worse if you don’t know it’s happening and you’re not on top of the situation. Here’s what you can do to improve your online reputation management:

1. Know What’s Going On With Your Brand

The first step to effective online reputation management is understanding what is being said about your brand. You need to be aware of what is happening with your brand, and what others are saying. There are brand monitoring tools like Mention that can help you holistically manage your brand and keep on top of your reputation. Another good idea is to set up Google Alerts so you can see what others post about you.

Tag: online reputation

84 Percent of Online Customers Trust Online Reviews, New Survey Says | Small Biz Trends

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