Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/114173
Business insight simple. And when you don't, you can prety much take it to the bank that the customer is going to tell the world about the bad experience. Some dealers are reactive, but most dealers are not proactive when it comes to managing their reputation. It's time to change that approach. Here are some basic business practices that you can implement to help you with reputation management. Rule #1: Make sure everyone in your company cares about your reputation and is satisfying the customer. If they don't, replace them immediately. Your entire staf needs to understand how important your reputation is in the store, on the street, and online. Rule #2: Have a formal process in place to facilitate getting your customers to complete a review and possibly a testimonial. Te key to this is making it as easy as possible for your customers. Tey are busy people and typically in a hurry. Rule #3: Have a system in place to handle negative reviews as soon as possible (they are going to happen, no mater how hard you try to prevent them). Te way and speed at which you can handle these can difuse an upset customer situation and prevent them from going online and posting that negative review. Remember, once it's posted to the world, it's fnal. Why worry? Why is your reputation important? Search engines like Google and review sites like Yelp are posting your reputation score along with actual reviews posted from customers. People 60 are looking at your score and reading what is being said about you. Tey are making buying decisions all the time based on both of these statistics. You need to embrace a practice that gets your rating as high as possible and captures as many positive reviews as possible. When someone sees hundreds of good things about a company and perhaps one or two bad things, they get it. No one is perfect, but high rating scores and tons of positive reviews make all the diference to your botom line. I am not suggesting that you abandon all of your existing promotional activities, but I am recommending that you take a hard look at what you are doing to improve your reputation and make sure you have systems in place and a culture that focuses on constantly improving your reputation. Make sure some of your promotional budget is directed toward making your reputation the best that it can be. Otherwise, you shouldn't expect results from your advertising and promotional activities to be any diferent. Check out my website for a short video on reputation marketing. If you contact me, I will be glad to provide you with two complimentary reports that rank your reputation and how you stack up against your competition. ■ As chief executive ofcer and president of WECnology LLC (www.wecnology.com), Wayne Croswell is a "complimentary technology advisor" for independent tire dealers. Croswell can be reached at wcroswell@wecnology.com or (603) 249-5530. Quik-Link: 800-687-1557 ext. 13130 MTD March 2013