5 Actionable Strategies to Improve Your Brand Reputation

In short

Rob Lancit defines reputation for a franchise brand as the sum of the experiences and interactions it shares with the outside world, which makes it a two-way street. He names three inputs: the brand’s history and backstory, its customer service, and its corporate culture. Brands near the top of the Franchise 500, he writes, spent years building trust and work as hard to keep it.

His five strategies are practical. First, customer service: survey customers regularly, and if you are an executive, call your own customer service line and judge the experience yourself. Second, online presence: review the website and social channels on a schedule for consistency with company values, and be known for responsive, respectful replies whether monitoring is in-house or outsourced. Third, corporate social responsibility: he says consumers now expect it, and recommends an internal or outside review of the brand’s environmental, social and governance efforts. Fourth, marketing communications: messaging should carry the core values, the value proposition and proof points, and a brand audit may show where it falls short. Fifth, pursue credit through awards, speaking slots, rankings and certifications, since nobody else will do it for the brand.

To measure progress he suggests starting with a Net Promoter Score survey, which can be set up from free templates.

Summary by the editors of this site. The original is Rob’s own writing; read the original at the source.