Brand Management is Marketing: A tale of two Nashville businesses
Our Client
One of our clients recently received a 1 star rating on their Google business listing. As their reputation management team, we saw the rating the moment it was posted and we immediately began investigating. Our client had a flawless 5 star rating, so this new negative rating was both inconsistent with their reputation and potentially harmful to their brand. We confirmed the review was left by a real person (not a bot, spammer, or a competitor), but the review did not provide any information about the customer’s experience, it was just 1 star rating. So we reached out to our client and let them know about the situation. With a robust CRM and some deductive work we were able to determine who left the negative rating and which interaction with the client might have triggered it.
Our client believed the rating was unwarranted and wrote a draft response. Thankfully they sent the response to us for review before posting it. While the response was completely factual, we felt the tone of the response could be taken the wrong way. We reminded our client that even though they intended to respond directly to the person who left the negative rating, it was actually a statement to the thousands of potential customers who would see the response. This was a marketing opportunity and we suggested some edits that would make the response relevant (and helpful) to everyone who read it. Our client agreed and an new response was crafted and then posted. Within hours of the official response being published, the customer who left the negative rating deleted and replaced it with a 5 star rating!
Today our client still enjoys a 5 star Google business rating, with an ever growing list of positive reviews.
Not Our Client
Less than a mile from our clients' location sits another Nashville business that has recently made national news because of their haphazard social media posts (we won't name them, but you probably heard about it). Rather than listening to their customers' critiques and responding graciously, they dug their heels in their position and tried to justify what they had done. It was not well received. As a result they have lost numerous business contracts as affiliates rushed to distance themselves from the negative press. Make no mistake, despite being unintentional and disastrously executed, this was still a branding campaign. It has given their business an unfavorable brand that has cost them greatly.
The Lesson
Every business has a brand. It’s not just the logo, fonts, and color pallets - your brand is also in how you interact with your clients AND how they perceive that interaction. Meetings, phone calls, social media posts, review responses, email campaigns, website user experience - all of this is branding and it’s more than most business owners can handle on their own.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a professional and dedicated marketing team helping your business navigate the branding world? Now you can! Check out how Hero Agency can save you from bad brand management.
