People always talk about…reputation
Having a good reputation as a business can be extremely powerful – leading to more customers, a more reliable income stream and therefore, a stronger, better business.
But having a good reputation doesn’t come overnight – it often takes many years of sustained effort.
So how can you work on your reputation – and how can you change it if you have a bad one?
Set your aims
The way that people perceive a business comes down to the experiences they have with it and its employees. However, all too often, this comes about by chance and is not really something that is intentionally created.
As a business owner or leader, the way your company and the people within it operate are influenced by you. So it’s up to you to set the tone and create the path for others to follow. To actively manage a business’s reputation takes work and a sustained effort to ensure this permeates through every aspect of what it does – and strong marketing communications sees that this is then shared with the outside world.
If you are starting out, there is nothing wrong with aiming to be like a successful company. Choose a company you aspire to be like and look at how you can implement aspects of the way they run their business.
If you want to improve the reputation of an existing business, look at your current reputation, where it is falling down and how you would like to see it improve.
Invest in your team
The visual aspects people encounter when they visit a website or a physical location are one thing, but the thing people most often remember is the interactions they have with the people within a business. Having a willing, reliable team with the right attitude is a good place to start. Training is another key aspect; ensuring that everybody knows the words on the hymn sheet and they’re singing along to the same one allows for consistency. Ongoing communication between managers and teams and within teams themselves is vital – allowing for a culture of open and honest feedback and an ethos of always working and striving to do better.
It’s also worth a reminder here that companies with strong reputations are often able to attract the pick of employees. Becoming known as a good company to work for is a hugely undervalued aspect of reputation building.
Don’t take it for granted
As well as the positive aspects associated with having a good reputation, there are risks. A reactive approach to reputation rather than a proactive one often means crisis management – and will only ever allow you to fight back fires, not work on building something new.
Let’s not forget…It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad experience to lose it. So even if you have a strong reputation, don’t allow yourself to drop the ball. Keep on building and working on it.
For further advice or assistance in building a stronger, better reputation for your business, please get in touch.
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