The success of businesses hinges on brand reputation. In a time when information can travel across the globe in a matter of seconds, your company is always on the brink of collapse at the hands of customers who are more than willing to speak about their negative experiences with your business. Now more than ever, brand reputation is everything if you want to avoid risks that can cause long-term damage. If you want your company to be seen as reliable and trustworthy, using technology is crucial. Here are some ways you can do this.
Bolster your customer service
Here are some examples of terrible customer service that you want to avoid at all costs:
- Not accepting responsibility when things go wrong, especially when money is involved.
- Being slow to respond to urgent concerns.
- Failing to be flexible and sticking to their guns and incredibly rigid policies, even when they don’t make sense in a specific context.
- Using deceptive design and marketing, making things confusing for customers.
- Not using customer service representatives and letting customers deal with automated responses and bots every step of the way.
- Being inaccessible, especially online. This is the opposite of the above example, wherein customers constantly have to talk to people to meet their needs. There has to be a balance.
- Disrespectful wording and customer service reps.
- Refusing to deescalate when customers are getting hostile.
Many of these problems can be solved by technology and fully equipped community managers. Having a strong online presence will help you and your team stay on top of customer service needs, and striking a balance between human voices and automated responses will help your customers get to your business without going through hoops. Make sure all your contact information is readily available through your website, as well.
Amp up your cybersecurity
Nothing ruins a business’s reputation more than a massive data and information leak. Here are some examples of the biggest data breaches in the 21st century so far:
- Alibaba in November 2019, which resulted in the leak of 1.1 billion pieces of user information
- Marriott International in September 2018, which resulted in the leak of the information of about 500 million customers, including sensitive information like passport numbers and credit card info
- First American Financial Corp. in April 2019, which resulted in the leak of 885 million people’s sensitive records, including social security numbers, bank account records, mortgage documents, and wire transactions
You might think that these businesses were targeted because they were big, and criminals have more incentive to infiltrate them. Still, you’d be surprised by how many cybercriminals would rather attempt to steal information from small and mid-sized businesses. This is because smaller companies have much fewer resources to amp up their cybersecurity. This is why no matter how big your business is, you would benefit from partnering with a reputable cybersecurity company to help you protect your customer databases and financial records.
Understand your customers through data analytics
If you truly want your business to have a brand reputation that speaks for itself, you need to ensure that all your biggest decisions are informed by reliable customer data. Data analytics is one of the biggest gifts known to the world of business because it can help you understand your target demographic better. You’re able to understand their online shopping habits, promotion sensitivity, and media preferences. Data analytics helps you customize your products, services, messaging, and branding for your target customers, which is crucial to building a solid brand reputation.
Create a high-quality website
Here are the marks of an unforgettable and perfectly functional website:
- Optimized for every type of gadget and browser in existence
- An easy-to-navigate interface that helps customers find what they need as quickly as possible
- Promotes the right content, targets the right type of customers, and uses the perfect keywords
- Connected to all of your business’s social media channels
- Leverages modern, sleek, and engaging design and copy
Make payments safer and more convenient
With the majority of the world now using eCommerce, you need to ensure that all your payment channels are convenient and secure so that your customers never have to experience problems with your online shop. Smart card payment platforms like PayPal and Visa Electron are good options. You can also use other programs to ensure your business constantly complies with regulations and that workflows remain efficient.
Technology can be a force for good when used correctly. Leverage it to build a brand reputation that will expand your business and create customer loyalty. There are so many tech tools at your disposal to keep your business running for a very long time.
