Why should your company invest in online monitoring?

With the internet now readily available via mobile devices 24/7, you can engage with your firm’s consumer base more easily online now than ever before. But in this increasingly connected world, you need to stay up to date with what customers are saying about your company online to safeguard your brand’s reputation. Why should your company invest in online monitoring?

Consumer complaints channels

Online channels can serve as a detriment, as well as an asset, to your firm. They can provide dissatisfied customers with a platform to post negative content, exposing your company to criticism which can then dissuade new consumers from frequenting your firm. With digital technology advancing at such a rapid pace, there are a wide range of platforms for dissatisfied customers to utilise.

Your business’ pages on Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages rank highly in searches. Therefore, they can be particularly damaging to your brand’s image online. Consumers will often flock to these easy-to-access portals to post comments concerning ineffective service or product faults. It is key that you engage with customers on social media. Ignoring consumer questions and problems will suggest that you are not interested in feedback and do not value their business. This may also incentivise the consumer in question to post more negative content about your company, further damaging its reputation online.

Engaging on social media

Therefore it is vital that you engage with dissatisfied customers on social media, before the problem escalates. Adopting this strategy will allow your firm to reap the following three key benefits.

• Identify flaws: If a dissatisfied customer brings problems with your business to your attention, look at it as an opportunity. The customer has taken this action for a reason, so act on their post and address the issues they have flagged up. By fixing the problem, you can improve the service you provide to your target consumers and prevent it from re-occurring.

• Show the positives: It is vital that you interact with all customers on social media, whether they are posting positive or negative content. With this strategy, you can point out your firm’s successes to other consumers and promote a positive perception of your brand. If you keep track of positive activity on social media, you will have yet another tool which you can use to enhance your firm’s image

• Appease consumers: If you respond to the consumer in question quickly and efficiently, you could show them that you care about providing them with a first-rate customer experience. This may allow you to earn back that customer’s loyalty and retain their business.

Keeping track of conversations

There are a range of tools which you can utilise to keep track of what consumers say about your business online. You could set up Google Alerts for your business’ name, which will send you regular emails flagging up mentions for your search term. Set up Google Alerts for common misspellings of your firm’s name as well, to ensure you can monitor online activity as comprehensively as possible.

You can also utilise social media tools to stay abreast of online conversations surrounding your firm. There are a range of features you can use on popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to achieve this aim and monitoring hashtags for your industry can also prove effective. Look up your company’s name, as well as those of competitors, on search engines regularly. This will allow you to further ascertain what your consumer base is saying and what they want from businesses in your sector, so you never miss an opportunity to enhance your reputation online.

Safeguard your reputation online

If you invest in online monitoring tools, you can ensure that you are always one step ahead of what consumers are posting about your company online. With this knowledge, you can develop a cohesive response plan which will help you safeguard your existing consumer base and encourage positive dialogue surrounding your brand online, so you can broaden said base. This will allow you to develop the sterling online reputation that you need to drive business and raise revenue.