Every business has a reputation and it is important to work on getting a good one. It can take a long time and a lot of money to get a good reputation and yet it can be lost in an instant. Everything your business does is observed. You need to know what customers or clients think of you and work on getting it right for them. Feedback from your audience is very valuable.

But how do you get that feedback?

In this day and age, using the internet is certainly a big tool to utilise, especially via your own website. Testimonies from your customers are like gold and you should include them on a webpage within your website.

But what about negative feedback?

This is important, especially if you are getting a lot of it about a particular product or service. You needn't put all the nasty stuff onto your webpage, but by taking quick action and put, say 1 in, announcing that you are sincerely rectifying the situation, demonstrates to your audience your duty of care – your reputation goes up. If the negative feedback has any merit, why not look at modifying your business operations to make sure that the situation doesn't arise again and again let your audience know.

Feedback about your product or service is not necessarily always left on your website. It can be left within a trade directory, or similar websites that relate to your business. For example, if you are in the hotel business, your hotel may be listed in several online directories. It is well worth putting aside a few hours each week or month just to check out your reputation on these websites – what did people think…. How many stars did they rate you….

Feedback from your audience in the form of their experiences, opinions, etc can also be put circulated onto the many chat, blogs, forums or social networking websites around. By monitoring what people are saying it helps you to keep in control of any crisis situations, for example, you may need to do a product recall, you may need to squash a rumour. Positive experiences can be worked to your advantage too.

By being willing to change and adapt in response to feedback, you find over the long term, that your business will succeed. You really do want people to talk about your business – positive and negative feedback will have an impact on your business.

It sounds like a full-time job to keep abreast of it all, but as long as there are tools allowing people to share their content (opinions) there will be tools to monitor it too. For example you can google to alert you on the results of a certain phrase or topic. Google can even alert you on any topic out there on the blogs. So if time is a concern for you, look into outsourcing this activity.

Finally, watch out for criminals who want to get in on the act and can blackmail corporations by threatening to damage their reputation online. You may also bump into the occasional competitor who may also wish to cause you trouble too!