Reputation matters regardless of the industry that you are in or what goods or services that your company provides. Perceived issues with your trustworthiness or the quality of your product most definitely can impact your bottom line. In short, little matters more than your reputation. The digital era hasn’t changed this fact. But how you deal with reputation issues most definitely has changed, thanks to the internet. 

Important Facts You Need to Know About Your Reputation Online

There is no doubt that the internet is an incredible tool, however, there are some very substantial concerns. A lone individual can cause a good deal of havoc with anything from half-truths to outright lies to a skewed perspective. This can of course put a car dealership in a very bad position as one unhappy person out of hundreds can negatively impact your dealership and perhaps even do so in a profound way. Should this frighten you? Yes, it should and it should motivate you to take action. The action that you should take comes in the form of active reputation management.

What Does Reputation Management Look Like? 

There are a couple of different ways you can handle reputation management online. The first, and inferior option, is to adopt a reactive posture. This approach means that you wait until there is an attack on you and then you react. Of course this approach is very flawed. Once you realize that there is a problem, well, damage has likely been done and that damage comes in the form of lost sales. Moreover, if you don’t properly address the issue, then the problematic statements made online regarding your company could impact sales for months or even years to come. 

The Best Approach for Protecting Your Reputation and Image Online 

A better approach is to adopt a proactive reputation management service. A service of this kind will monitor and keep an eye out for mentions of your dealership and jump into action to address false and problematic statements. You should never allow your dealership to be damaged by a tiny percentage of unhappy customers who may or not even be in the right. This is especially true if you have taken proactive steps to remedy a problem when it arises. Reputation management may not catch every single problematic issue or posting online. However, with the right reputation management tools in place, you will know of a problem and then you can take steps. Again, what is more important than your reputation? In short the answer is, “not much.” 



 
David Farmer 
Co-Founder/CEO
intice, Inc. 



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