Contractor Update

As a business owner, maintaining the reputation of your company is vital. In today's market, you should be concerned about more than bad word of mouth. For years, people have been going online to praise and condemn the services and products of a business.

With so much advertising and media overload, homeowners and business owners are looking online for reviews and recommendations. Do you know what is being said online about your company? A past customer could post a negative or false review of your business on a blog, a public forum, or even put up an angry video on YouTube.

What is scary is that a post, a comment, or review can find its way to the top of search engine results when someone looks online for your company information. It could cost you a lot of work. There are ways to protect your business online. You'll want to frequent sites where people might be talking about you: local forums, home improvement sites, and more. You should also set up a Google Alert for your business, using every variation of your company name (Google.com/Alert) and see if your company name is being discussed. You can also ask your clients to be on the lookout for any negative press they may see online. There are also online services that, for a fee, will monitor the Internet for any bad PR and will attempt to stamp it out (Reputation Defender & Naymz.)

If you come across any negative publicity, don't overreact. State your side of the story and encourage some favored customers to also post good reviews. You can also try to work out your differences with the complaining party. It can go a long way in having offending material removed.

Screaming and threatening lawsuits doesn't work. It will only make matters worse. There are 3 cases pending with lawsuits from contractors against consumers. It's very unlikely these companies will ever get any new business if there's a chance clients will be sued for giving their opinions.

Labels: Reputation Management, Small Business Advice