After a public relations nightmare, it might feel as if someone dug a large, dirty hole, and tossed your company’s carefully-built reputation into its depths. It could be a horrific review that everyone can see, or a scandal that hits the news. Fortunately, there are ways to bring your company up out of the hole and brush the dirt from it.
Responding to a Bad Situation
You’ll need to decide who will be the face of the company. This person will be the one to respond to bad publicity events, scandals or terrible reviews when they happen. If reporters are involved, you don’t want them to hear conflicting stories from people in the company. There should be one person responding to inquiries or dealing with the public.
The company cannot ignore a bad situation, or it could escalate. A formal statement admitting the problem, along with the steps you’re taking to fix it, is often the best way to respond to a scandal or bad publicity that has hit the media. If it’s in the form of reviews, you should respond to the complaint directly and take steps to remedy the situation.
A Positive Campaign
Once you’ve acknowledged the problem, the best thing for your company is to drown out the negatives with positives. Nothing is ever gone after it has been published on the Internet, but you can control what shows in the first few pages of search engines. You can start by becoming involved in charity work or a community event. That will create some positive buzz around your company, which will start pushing bad publicity down in the search results.
Bad reviews don’t have to be the end of the world. You can take this opportunity to fix something that is wrong with your business. A scandal or bad publicity might not seem positive, but you can turn the situation around with some focused attention on your SEO and public relations.
Using white-label marketing software will help your company project the right image to the internet, correcting any misinformation that’s been spread through negative PR. An experienced SEO company can help you focus on increasing your positive visibility online.
Listen to Feedback
You should respond to negative buzz as much as possible because you can’t hide your company’s face in the ground hoping it will go away on its own. Along with responding to negative feedback from unhappy customers, you should be considering changes within your organization based on that feedback.
While it might seem appeasing to tell a customer you’re looking at the problem internally to find solutions, be prepared to come back with those solutions. If people are upset with your customer service, find ways to create positive experiences. Implement strategies that allow customers to talk directly to your company. Send them follow-up emails after they’ve used your service. Learn from both the positive and negative experiences customers have with your business.
Social Media and Positive Reviews
Creating profiles on many of the social media platforms where your audience congregates is a good way of providing a positive experience that will reflect on the company. You can use these profiles to build a bigger audience to drown out the recent negatives about your company.
When you have happy customers who are thrilled with your product or service, encourage them to leave positive reviews in online review spaces, like Yelp for one example. If you see people talking positively about your company on social media, contact them directly and ask that they head to a review space and leave their positive opinion there.
A PR nightmare doesn’t have to be the end for your company. You can come back from a bad review or scandal if you respond properly to the situation and work towards improving your reputation.
Featured photo credit: Pixabay via pixabay.com
