Reputation management.

Could your business take on a $37 million court case alleging wrong doings on your behalf? Could you take on a civil suit against your product or services and still maintain your reputation and credibility? Could you survive an attack on your company via social media?

Every day it becomes more difficult to make your way through the minefield looking to explode your service delivery, your credibility and your reputation. It almost feels like paranoia but is everyone out to get you and how do you manage your way through it all.

Reputation and brand are often seen as going hand in hand and if you have both in spades then you receive a measure of leniency from your clients. Research shows people are willing to give you wriggle room and the benefit of the doubt when it comes to mistakes made. If you have built up the trust bank and your brand has stood the test of time and service delivered then like Apple you can carry on regardless of small glitches.

The world’s top brands by market share and reputation from Forbes, reads like a who’s who of our lives with Apple, Microsoft, Coke, IBM, Google, McDonalds and GE taking up the top 7 spots. They all face challenges to their reputation and they take those challenges seriously. They consider their reputation as an asset and as such devote resources to a strategic management of reputation and maintaining a consistency of product and delivery of service. A London School of Economics study has found that a 2% reduction in negative word of mouth increases sales growth by 1%. That’s a lot when you make billions.

With unlimited resources the above all sounds easy but on a smaller scale you or your company need to allocate resources as well, because if you are in control of the decisions then you are responsible for your reputation.

All of the above depend on managing your customer’s expectations and having a consistently clear message regarding service and product delivery.

From a personal viewpoint it is just as difficult in today’s social media jungle to maintain your reputation and it falls to the individual to maintain and manage all the challenges that throws up. Most people (57% of adults) have looked up their names on the net and checked out what is being said about them online with a view to making sure they are painted in the right colours and hues. So just like the major brands you need to be aware and have a strategy for your reputation management because once tarnish is encountered it is almost impossible to polish back to the gloss you are used to. Don’t let your reputation be determined by Google.

It will be interesting to see the ramifications of the $37 million sexual harassment case against David Jones and how it affects their major consumer base, women. Regardless of the decision, damage has been done and it will be worthwhile watching the effectiveness of the DJ PR machine.