Don’t let bad publicity ruin your business.
Bad publicity is never good for your
business. It can damage your brand equity and negatively affect your sales. It
can even cause your customers to completely lose their trust in your brand.
While the effects of bad press may seem
overwhelming, there are times when you cannot avoid it no matter how
responsibly you conduct your business. After all, in this time and age, it only
takes one unsatisfied customer to tarnish your brand or company’s image. Are
you prepared to handle the things negative PR may bring? If not, here are some
things you need to know to survive the effects of a bad press.
Establish
a social media plan. Always remember that you need
to be prepared at all times to counter the effects of a bad press. You also need
to let your online visitors know what comments are allowed in your corporate or
social
media pages and identify which comments need to be addressed immediately.
Having a social media plan in place can keep you on top of the situation and
give you the power to handle any negative publicity that comes your way.
Address
customer concerns. You can avoid a lot of problems by
directly addressing your customers’ concerns before they get out of hand.
Acknowledge the problem, take responsibility for your mistakes, let them know
that you are looking into the matter and do everything you can to resolve the
issue. Send a personal and timely response to all your unhappy customers to
ease their discontent. You may even win back their trust by letting them know
that you care.
Consider
hiring a community manager. This may seem like an
unnecessary expense, especially if you already have a great PR team in place
but having an online
community manager can help you monitor your online presence and prevent
negative PR from ruining your credibility.
Avoid
controversy. You can avoid a great deal of bad
press by staying away from controversy. Don’t invite trouble or you may find
yourself in a deep mess.
Keep
your silence. While you should respond to the
negative comments about your brand, there are times when you should keep your
silence instead. Don’t stoke the flames by starting a word war with your
attackers and naysayers. It would only make matters worse. Just give it your
best and soon enough, people will forget that you ever had a negative image
online.
Remember, you can weather the effects of a
bad press ? if you know what to do when it comes.
