The biggest oversight you can make as an entrepreneur or business owner is that your business will never be tarnished with a bad reputation in some aspect, because it will. Whether it’s one customer that doesn’t like your business or a big group of them, your business will always be tarnished with a bad reputation at some point in its life. And, the sooner you accept that, the better your business will be. And the sooner you realise that you can always rebuild your business’s reputation, no matter how bad the reputation has become, the better your business will be too.
For advice on how to rebuild your business reputation, make sure to read on.
You can always rebuild from a one star review.
Assess the damage that has been caused
Your first port of call should be to assess exactly what your business has done to damage its reputation, and the damage it has caused to those who are now depicting it in a negative light. You need to do this because only when you know exactly what is happening and the damage that your business is being accused of can you then seek to rectify it.
Acknowledge the damage and continue on
By burying your head in the sand in regards to the damage your business has seemingly caused to receive such a bad reputation you will do nothing in regards to bettering the situation. Now, this could mean making physical amendments for the damage you have caused, such as offering reimbursements or special discounts to the customers that feel as if you have wronged them. Or, this could mean owning up to the damage you’ve caused via a social outlet, such as social media.
What you should do once you have acknowledged the damage is continue on despite it and your bad reputation. You need to do so because, again, burying your head in the sand and disappearing completely will do nothing to better your bad reputation. In fact, burying your head in the sand and going off the radar completely will probably even make your situation worse as you will be seen to be accepting all the accusations thrown your way, and that is not a look you should be going for. No, like Youi, an insurance company who has had bad press in the past, you should continue on and show your business’s worth and prove to your customers that you can still be trusted to the job you promise to do.
Use ALL of the feedback you receive
Bad press is better than no press, right? Well, this might not be strictly true but the essence of something good coming out of bad press is. Yes, you can use bad press, particularly the feedback you receive in regards to it, to your advantage by simply listening to it and working from. Yes, even if the feedback you receive is well off of the mark in your opinion, you can still use it to decipher some sort of improvement that can be made on your business’s part.
You see, there are ways to rebuild your business’s reputation, you just have to be willing to accept it and learn from it. So, get accepting, get learning and most importantly get rebuilding!
