What are they saying about you???
Reputation is one of the elements of human success, whether on the personal or practical level, there are people who enjoy the good reputation and others bad reputation as well as organizations and things, there is what is useful and there is what is harmful so to create a good reputation, it requires a lot of work, time and efforts and like warren Buffett says:
What is a reputation?
The opinion that people in general have about someone or something or how much respect or admiration someone or something receives, based on past behavior or character.
But in business world it is made up of what others think and feel about your business, based on their experience with your business, what they’ve heard about your business, and the facts they’ve gathered about your business true or not. It exists both online and off, in loyal customers and in total strangers to your business.
Is there a difference between Brand and Reputation ???
Importance of Business Reputation
As a business owner, of course you want all people to think positive of your business, but your reputation extends far beyond just how you appear.Your business reputation in impact in every think you do, it’s a compass to your decisions, your actions, your interaction, your detail.Your business reputation helps you get a more realistic image of how your business is actually being perceived by others, regardless of how you think they are perceiving it, or how you personally feel about it.
The Real Cost of a Bad Reputation
Business Reputation double-edged sword if you have a bad reputation it’s a disaster especially now day in the digital information age it will be a crisis, it will cost you everything. How big a price?
Just ask Birell a beer company which came to the Egyptian markets in 1986 providing non-alcoholic beer. While the Egyptian military is involved in “war on terror” in north Sinai and just launched “Operation Martyr’s Right” as an ongoing military operation conducted by the Egyptian Armed Forces in cooperation with the Egyptian National Police officers, aimed at rooting out and killing armed terrorists
Birell published a post on Social Media that show a military service document market as exempted while the photo caption entitled “It’s every one dream and unsubscribed happiness”. In an immediate negative response on social media, Egyptians started a campaign to Boycott Birell as a reaction for the shameful post which humiliated the honor of serving the country’s army.
How to Build a High Reputation !
The most important aspect to build a high reputation is: TRUST if you have a trusted personal reputation (personal brand) then people are more likely to trust the businesses, products or services that are related to you. Trust ultimately creates credibility and this leads to customers.
High-level Responsiveness: Don’t leave people hanging, Make sure that you and your staff all return calls , answer emails , queries as promptly as possible this way make your customers fill that they are important to you and your organization.
Responsibility & resolution: Make sure that you take responsibility for anything that is your company’s fault and sort it out as quickly as you can. Ignoring the recognition of mistakes may be one of the biggest and worst enemies to your Reputation and your Brand
Monitoring Your Business Reputation
It’s a very important step while reputation building focuses on:
What you want people think and say about your business.
What they actually are thinking and saying about it.
Monitoring your reputation involves keeping a close eye on the various channels people use both to engage with your business, and to engage with others about your business.
about the Author:
Islam Helmy, 15 years Hr training & Development Manager Arab Academy for science, technology and maritime transport and CoFounder @Trainingbakers.
