Online Reputation Management Ethics: What to Say and Not to Say at All

Online reputation management may be all about handling negative reviews properly. However, you also have to be ready to accept some criticism.

That fly in your signature clam chowder won’t show its way out by itself; you need to take action. Instead of replying with a criticism of your own, prove to customers that it won’t happen again in your other dishes on the menu. How you’ll do it is for you to decide. Perhaps you can start with cleaning the kitchen before closing and opening time; flies like it when you knock the sugar jar over.

There’s no denying the fact that freedom of expression is a human right, so the critics can send you negative reviews all they want. Yet, it doesn’t inevitably mean you have to put up with their aggressiveness. There’s a limit to what people can say and how much of it before you have to draw the line.

Sometimes, an apology is the best way to do online reputation management. If the facts point to your shortcomings, simply say you’re sorry and do everything you can with what you have to prevent an incident from coming full circle again. Granted that apologizing is difficult for most people, it shows that you owe it to your mistakes to be a better business.

On the other hand, all the more you should take action if your business is bombarded with lies. It’s the Internet; there are as many trolls in a given section of cyberspace as stars in the night sky. While legal action is possible, try to settle the dispute face-to-face first. Misconceptions are not worth the time and money to pursue for damages.

In a world where people have been drawn in closer together, public opinion has also become more solid. It’s easy for one person’s negative review about a product of service to reach to the far corners of cyberspace. This is the kind of problem any reputable company specializing in online reputation management aims to solve.