Reputation management is becoming more important now than ever before. The easy access to social media as a communication tool and vehicle to share opinions make it straightforward for customers to give their feedback.

90% of consumers agree that positive reviews influence their purchasing decision according to a survey by Marketing Land. While this is good news in one way, it is also bad in several ways. One negative review of your product or service can quickly tarnish your image as a business. 

In fact, negative reviews discourage as many as 94% of the consumers from avoiding a business. That’s not the kind of goal that you had in mind, right? Luckily, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to reputation management software, you can keep tabs on your reviews as well as on what others are saying about you.

In a rapidly growing market though, you can easily get confused about which software to pick for your business. So, we’ve put together some features that will help you find the ideal online reputation management tool for your business.

Let’s get started: 

1. The software gives you actionable insights  

Data that a reputation management software delivers is useless unless it is based on insights that you can extract to polish your business and grow it further. So, you need to be mindful about the kind of data that the software offers.

Does it tell you how the press, influencer community, social media, blogs, and review sites perceive your business? Does it show you what stakeholders and customers are saying about you? Moreover, does it highlight which issues and trends are impacting your reputation?

Therefore, the software that you select should be based on its analytical capabilities so that you have a finger on your reputation’s pulse.

2. It offers customer support 

You’re not wrong in feeling deceived when you call a brand’s customer service and get only silence in return. In 2020, excellent customer service is expected to claim its position as the number one differentiating factor among businesses, standing higher than price and product quality as well.

This makes it further clear that customer service is one of the important characteristics to look at when choosing an online reputation management tool. You can learn a lot about a software provider’s customer support even before you leap onto buying the tool.

For instance, when selecting the service, ring the customer support team and note how fast and professionally the team responds. Ask yourself, ‘do they sound like they would go the extra mile if need be?’ Also, question the team about how well it deals with crisis.

Your goal should be to get a software, which is backed by a customer support team that answers all your interests related to the tool throughout demos, trials, and user onboarding processes. The team’s agility should reflect even through the implementation process, upgrades, renewals, and renegotiation. The response should be quick and accurate.

3. It reports accurately and in a timely manner  

Warren Buffett rightly said, “it takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” This holds true in the case of an online reputation as well. Consequently, you need a reputation management software that serves as a vigilant companion, keeping an eye on your business’s name round the clock.

This vigilant companion should also be able to give you timely updates so that you don’t miss out on anything and can respond to crisis well in time. Any delay or no response to negative reviews can culminate in a customer churn of 15%. Hence, look for timely, accurate, and reliable data delivery.

Keep in mind that the software should be able to keep tabs on online reviews, social media comments, media coverage, customer feedback, and so on. Plus, its scope should also be broad including all platforms, channels, and websites.

4. The software is responsive  

Not only should the ideal reputation management software deliver information to you, but it should also showcase features that assist you in organizing data, responding where required, and measuring your reputation.

The way you respond accounts for all the difference between a business that wins customers even with negative reviews and a business whose reputation goes down the drain. Adequately responding to negative reviews shows potential customers that you’re professional and know how to handle a bad situation.

In fact, 53% of the customers expect you to respond to a negative review within a week. However, 63% outline that businesses never respond to their negative feedback. Keeping this to the fore, you need to select a tool that is user-friendly so that you can quickly deal with the issue at hand.

The image management tool should also allow you to sort and organize data by using multiple filters as well.

5. Other features  

Some other characteristics to look for in an online reputation software provider are: 

• It offers collaboration as several teams work internally to manage reputation, which means that the tool should offer collaboration.  
• It is cost-effective. While it makes sense that a reputation tool that monitors countless conversations cannot be cheap, it does not have to be on the extremely pricey end of things as well. 
• It provides a single dashboard that lets users handle information from a single window, making it easy to use and gather information from various sources such as social media, blogs, and so on.

Final note

All in all, reputation management is not a matter to ignore. 92% of consumers are reluctant to buy a product that doesn’t have a review. Therefore, speed up your efforts to polish your name in the business world and select a reputation management tool that takes off half the worries from your shoulder.  

Author Bio

Andrea Bell is a blogger by choice.  She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs.

Find her on Twitter:@IM_AndreaBell