If you have a reputation in crisis, there are “3 Ps” that you need to stick to. If you have hired a reputation management company, they are likely to follow these 3 Ps themselves. It is a strategic way of working, and one that is proactive, while at the same time understanding just how damaging even just one negative review can be. Unfortunately, when your reputation suffers, clients will go elsewhere, and you will find it very difficult to grow. Hence, you need to be ready to make sure that a crisis doesn’t damage your business, by following the 3 Ps.
P #1 – Be Proactive
You have to always be proactive in business, making sure you put your best foot forward and thereby avoiding the negative. A few key things that you need to remember here are:
- Do you have a response strategy in place for negative news articles or bad reviews?
- Who makes up your crisis management team?
- Are you ready to take action if a crisis does occur?
Essentially, proactivity means having a plan and a team in place, so you are ready to face the world.
P #2 – Be Professional
Once you have implemented the first P, you need to make sure that a professional attitude guides every action. This means:
- That you can identify the crisis and deal with it appropriately. You cannot ignore these things, because that will make matters worse. Make sure your team knows that the issue is there, and brainstorm a plan to make sure you can deal with it.
- Do not make things worse. It is very tempting to post a public reaction as soon as you can, but you have to think about what others will see in it. You can put anything online in an instant, but taking things off is much harder. Do not make things worse by saying the wrong thing because you are in a hurry.
- Get rid of the bad if you can. It is possible, if the information posted is defamatory or otherwise completely untrue, that the website on which it is posted can remove it. Be careful with this, however, because it can give rise to the person who made the comment to simply repeat it again and again, in different locations. This is why it is important to have a reputation management company on board, who knows how to best remove things and when.
- Fix the problem if possible. Try to mitigate the damage by showing that you care.
P #3 – Promote the Positive
Last but not least, whether you are building you first reputation or fixing a damaged one, you must always be positive, and promote anything positive that is said about you. Make sure you have relevant, up to date content on your website, engage in social media, and even highlight positive reviews that have been left about you through YouTube videos and newsletters, for instance.
The most important thing is that you see reputation management as an essential strategic issue for your business.