Business reputation risk is a real and constant threat for any company. Even the most well-established businesses can suffer from negative press when something unfortunate happens. In today’s digital age, bad news can easily spread like wildfire. This makes it imperative that all companies take the necessary precautions to protect their brand. A poor reputation can be difficult to recover from, and even the most loyal customers could start to lose trust if they encounter too many issues that are beyond their control. The best way to lower your risk of peer or customer reputational damage is to address potential issues before they spiral out of control. Check out these 5 key steps you should take as a business to lower your risk of reputational damage:
Build A Business Reputation Management Plan
If you’re serious about reducing the potential risk to your reputation, you should make reputation management a priority. This doesn’t mean hiring a full-time reputational risk manager or spending a fortune on advertising. Instead, think about your company culture and the ways in which you interact with your customers. These are the key areas where you can start to make a difference. By investing a small amount of time and effort, you can create a strategy that can protect your brand. Start by collecting data on all potentially damaging events that may occur and how they may affect your reputation. Once you’ve identified these key areas, you can begin to build a strategy to prevent them from affecting your reputation.
Educate Your Staff On Business Reputation Risk
Unfortunately, many companies assume they are low risk and skip this critical step. As a leader, you have a responsibility to educate your employees about the importance of reputation management. This doesn’t just apply to the senior team. You should also ensure that all your staff have an understanding of the risks, tools, and strategy for managing their reputation. You can do this by hosting a company-wide training session or inviting external speakers in to address your entire company. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is to assign a Reputational Risk Manager. This person can act as a bridge between the leaders and the rest of the team, helping to foster an environment that encourages open dialogue and constructive feedback. By creating an open culture that encourages employees to be more candid, you can identify and correct issues before they spiral out of control.
Be Proactive When Responding To Reputational Damage
While it’s important to monitor potentially damaging events, you should also be proactive when responding. This doesn’t mean ignoring problems, but taking steps to manage them before they become a full-blown crisis. This is a key way for you to demonstrate your commitment to reducing reputational damage. You could, for example, choose to write a public blog post or put out a media release that explains the situation and how you hope to resolve the issue. By being proactive when responding to reputational damage, you can demonstrate that the company takes peer risk seriously.
Keep An Eye Out For New Sources Of Business Reputation Risk
It can be helpful to keep an eye out for new sources of reputational risk. This can help you identify issues that are currently low risk, but could escalate if a new situation is exposed. An easy way to do this is to follow the news, especially for stories that may have a direct impact on your business. You can also follow social media channels such as Reddit for discussions that involve your industry. With a little effort, you can identify potential new sources of reputational risk.
Permutable’s sentiment analysis API makes it easy to maintain an in-depth knowledge of your company’s reputation by monitoring your company’s reputation on a regular basis and in real-time. By addressing issues before they escalate, you can reduce the potential risk of a major issue hitting your brand.
Examples Of Companies Caught Out On Reputational Risk
Conclusion
Unique challenges are posed by peer and customer reputation risk for any business. It’s important to protect your company’s reputation, especially in an age where bad news can spread like wildfire. This can be achieved by implementing a reputation management plan, educating your staff on reputation risk, and being proactive when responding to reputational damage. It’s also important to keep an eye out for new sources of reputational risk and address these issues before they reach a larger scale. When done well, reputation management can be a low-cost and low-risk solution for protecting your brand.