Important Characteristics of a Successful Reputation Management Agent
If you’ve chosen to invest in reputation management for your thriving business as a way to keep public perception positive, nice work. A lot of company leaders do not fully understand the importance of reputation management and how it can have a positive effect on business. They also don’t get that not investing in reputation management could be the end-all of a company.
Any business leader who has already made a partnership with a reputation management firm already understands this. They also know that it does not suffice to hire just any reputation management agent, but rather an agent with these key characteristics
A top agent holds a customer-centric approach
This is the first (and possibly most important) quality of a successful reputation management agent. You know that saying, “the customer is always right”? Well even if it is not necessarily true, it is an agent’s job to act as if it is. The top agents will always follow that advice, even if the customer is in the wrong.
A major role of reputation management is to respond to customer inquiries, comments, and complaints. If a customer complains of a product defect or makes a snarky comment, you need to treat this person with the utmost respect, even if what they’re saying is crazy. The best agent will never show any frustration or aggression to these crazy customers, but instead will stay cool with a customer-centric approach.
A top agent reads between the lines
The top rep management agents are able to show empathy in a healthy way. If a customer has a major problem and goes on a long drawn-out rant about the horrors of the situation, a top agent can read between the lines. He or she will dissect this rant and figure out how to resolve the problem with a sense of understanding.
A top agent sees every review as equal
Responding to reviews can start to get old reallyyyy quickly, but the best agents do it with poise. Not only that, but they also treat each and every customer review as equal, no matter if its good, bad, or just plain ugly. This is a common mistake when practicing reputation management; a lot of agents overlook the good reviews and only focus on the bad.
Of course it is important to resolve customer issues as quickly as possible, but you also need to put some focus on the good reviewers and the happy customers. If they have gone out of their way to leave a raving review, thank them for their business. This will show a happy customer that you don’t just deliver on a great product, but also offer amazing customer service.
A top agent sees the entire picture, not just the sum of its parts
In order to get the clearest picture of a company’s current reputation, you need to get the entire picture before implementing a strategic plan. The best agents will use a data compilation software to do that. They’ll also utilize a software that monitors reviews from every platform, not just one or two.
