Reputation is a funny thing. It can take years to build but minutes to destroy. Worse still, for many people, reputation is the main thing that’s valuable about their business. Customers know that if a company has a good reputation, then it’s likely that they’ll get an excellent service and the products they want. If the reputation is poor, who knows?
Are you worried about your reputation? Check out these reputation wreckers: things that will destroy your public image quicker than you might think.
Telling Lies
It’s often tempting to tell lies to your colleagues and customers to preserve reputation. But when something goes wrong, the word almost always gets out, and usually, the best policy is to tell the truth. Companies that issue an immediate product recall, for instance, tend to fare better in the long-term than those that wait until problems they knew about are discovered.
Lies can also destroy trust. If a customer knows that a company is prone to lying, they won’t believe their marketing materials or other promises: they’ll be far less trusting. This can have all kinds of knock-on effects, reducing revenue and profitability in the process.
Neglecting Health And Safety
The vast majority of people believe that companies have a duty of care to the people who work for them. If they don’t provide that level of care, then they’re seen as being driven purely by profit and not concerned with the community. This, in turn, can affect their reputation and people’s willingness to buy from them.
The problem for many owners is that they’re not experienced health and safety consultants, and they often don’t know how to implement an effective strategy. If you’re not sure, it’s always best to speak with professionals to find out what you’re doing right and where you need to improve.
Gossiping About Clients
All companies have some clients that make their lives a misery. Around 10 per cent of clients will be difficult for one reason or another. But mature bosses and co-workers realize that it’s just all part of running a successful firm. You win some; you lose some: it’s normal.
What isn’t normal, however, is spreading gossip about a particular client. No matter how much you might personally loathe a specific individual or company, it’s never a good idea to bad-mouth them to other clients. If the word gets out, then none of your clients will trust you to keep their private information safe, and they’ll go to somebody else.
Leaking Data
Employees and owners don’t usually set out to leak data. But eventually, it’s something that will probably happen if you don’t try to prevent it actively. The worst kind of data to leak from a reputational standpoint is personally identifiable information. In other words, details about your customers. Customers want you to keep their information safe, and so if you start leaking accounts and passwords, they won’t be happy.
If you operate a BYOD policy, then you need strict controls in place to ensure that workers using their devices doesn’t lead to additional security risk.
