If you have worked hard to create a high-quality service or product that you are certain places you well ahead of your competition, it can be easy to assume that you will have no difficulty attracting and retaining customers. However, it is actually a bit more complicated than this, because potential customers have to not only be made aware of your amazing product or service, but have to feel that you truly are the best option available to them. This is where your online reputation is critical.

The Importance of a Good Reputation

Consumers today are well aware of the fact that when it comes to any particular product or service, they have many, many options to choose from. It is for this reason that they are highly unlikely to know exactly what business they want to buy from without first running an extensive online comparison shopping search. What may be interesting to note, however, is that they aren’t just looking for the best products or services at the best prices, they are looking for the businesses that they feel they can trust. This is largely communicated through the business’ online reputation.

Your online reputation can be established largely by customer reviews, among other things. If a consumer is very interested in a particular business’ product or service and then finds even one or two negative reviews at the top of their search results, they may very well decide it isn’t worth digging any deeper and they will look elsewhere. You want to build a reputation that you deliver not only top-notch products and services, but also top-notch customer service. This will not only improve your conversion rate, but also your customer retention rate.

Following are some other basic tips for how to improve your online reputation:

• Improve your SEO. It’s an obvious point that consumers won’t ever buy from you if they can’t even find you. This means that if they run an online search for the types of products or services you provide and your business shows up very low on the first page of search results or doesn’t show up on the first page of results at all, consumers may not even get a chance to find out what you are offering. There are many ways to improve your SEO, and a professional online reputation management can help you with this.
• Acquire lots of reviews. When consumers cannot see, touch, hold or experience something firsthand for themselves, they will likely want to hear from someone else who has. This is where honest reviews, lots of them, come in handy. Consumers may be wary of loads upon loads of reviews that appear to indicate that there is never any problem with the product or service, and that everything is always completely wonderful and excellent. However, if there are only a handful of reviews and one or more is less than flattering, this can also drive them away. With lots of honest reviews that are favorable, even a rare unfavorable review can be accepted by the consumer as an “accident” that sometimes happens, but doesn’t turn them away completely.