If you are a new business owner or thinking of starting your own business, planning for a healthy start is imperative! From establishing your core principles to selecting the products you’ll offer, thorough planning creates a company’s action blueprint. You WILL do everything you can to project the view of what your company aspires to be. Any gap between how you have branded your company and how you are perceived as a company is a risk. We can’t always control how our consumers, competitors, and others will perceive us though.
What if the entire outlook of your company could change with just a single mouse-click from a disgruntled client, a rumor started by an ex-employee, or a competitor comes out with a product that is “better than” yours? What if that good name and perception you have worked so hard to create was suddenly smeared for all to see?
Brand risk is defined as having the potential for a valuable brand to lose its value, or a new brand to fail in the market.
Reputation risk is when there is any type of threat present to your company’s good name.
What will your next steps be to save your reputation and/or brand? Your company’s reputation is priceless, and damage to it could have a lasting and dramatic effect on your company’s financial health. Although, having a bad reputation can affect more than just your sales. It can impact your hiring potential. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 71% of U.S. workers will not apply to a company with negative press.
Having negative reports of any kind can destroy unprepared companies. Well planned companies begin with creating Value, Vision, and Mission statements of how you want to operate and be perceived by the general public. Along with these statements, your beginning process should be setting up your Crisis Management Plan. That plan should include a list of essential steps, such as:
Prevention.
Customers often want to go off on a tangent online as a means of letting out their anger and/or frustrations. Give them a means of being able to voice their frustrations to you before they take to the internet.
Monitoring.
Sign up for alerts that will notify you when a critical review is left about your company. Having these alerts in place will help you to make quick action to make things right.
Social Media.
Create and maintain your profiles, as well as posting regular updates so your customers can see the type of digital footprint you want your company to be known for.
Good reviews.
Be sure to ask your happy customers to leave a review about their experience with your company. This can help to balance out any negative feedback. Remember, it takes 12 good reviews to offset 1 negative review.
Positive content.
If you are a newer company or an older one, don’t be afraid to write about yourself. Posting your company’s accomplishments on social media is something to be proud of, and it allows your followers to see the positive attributes that your company has to offer.
A negative brand image or reputation can cause a business to lose up to 80% of its sales and pay an extra 20% in salaries. Rather than thinking of these steps as being an additional expense, think of it as being a shield. Waiting until the damage is done only increases both the amount of time and the cost in recovery to bring your company back to a good public standing.
Contact
Interested in learning more about Worthy Insurance? Please email us at hello@worthyinsurance.com or call 773-945-9000.
Worthy Insurance is a niche broker with a focus on providing insurance placement and risk management services to the Healthcare, Manufacturing, Social Service, and Main Street business communities. Here at Worthy Insurance, we love to provide you with exciting and fun articles to learn more about insurance and how it impacts your life. Visit our other blogs to find more information.
While Worthy does offer a wide variety of insurance coverages, our main coverages include property coverage, worker’s compensation insurance, general liability, professional liability, and cybersecurity coverage. To find out the best coverages for your company, use the contact form below so you can be at ease knowing your company is covered. For personal insurance, please visit Vero Insurance.
