A business’s reputation is crucial to its success. If it’s damaged, customers no longer want to buy from it and word quickly spreads that the company should not be trusted. Whether it’s a bad review, an online discussion or a full-blown reputation crisis, a hit to a business’s reputation can have a big impact. However, if businesses have the right plan in place to handle those hits, they can rebound from them more quickly.
One of the quickest ways to ruin your business reputation is making false promises and then failing to follow through on them. For example, if a business reveals that it will give customers a refund for an issue but then fails to follow through on that promise, its reputation will be ruined. The same is true for businesses that make promises to improve their product or service but then fail to deliver on those improvements.
Another quick way to damage your reputation is by revealing confidential information. This includes sharing information that could hurt the reputation of a competitor or put a customer at risk. Finally, a major problem that can damage a business’s reputation is when decisions made by different business units or functions are not coordinated with one another. For example, if a business announces a new program or service to its customer base but fails to notify its employees of these changes, it can cause significant internal turmoil and damage the company’s reputation.