Message & Media : Reputation Guaranteed

Use your marketing messages to ensure customers and prospects know your good reputation

• Do it. Advertising your guarantee is one thing, honoring it is another. Whether you are proactive or reactive in resolving customer problems, don't hesitate to admit you made a mistake and are ready to make it right. Orders get filled incorrectly. Emails get sent with links that don't work. Manufacturing runs have problems. How you handle customer concerns large and small is how you earn a reputation for being fair and square with those spending money with you.

Proactively, you can send an email, postcard or letter with your "Oops! We made a mistake!" message. High readership is almost guaranteed because of the nature of the message. And candor is good for your reputation.

Or you can wait to react to a stumble and respond as Keurig did. Here's the story: My first Keurig single-cup coffee maker arrived as a 2009 Christmas gift. After a month of making wonderful coffee-by-the cup, it quit brewing and had to be replaced. During the next 12 months, we continued to have problems. Ultimately, we received three replacement Keurig coffee makers, each with a free box of K-cups and each with a new one-year warranty. Despite the hassles (and caffeine-free mornings), we love our Keurig. And we have no doubt that Keurig stands behind its product and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep a customer happy (and continuing to buy K-cups!)

• Encourage it. Like your company guarantee, customer reviews/ratings build credibility, consumer trust and your reputation. Encourage and post both positive and negative reviews to strengthen your reputation as being an honest and balanced marketer. Customers and prospects value customer reviews as being candid, helpful and trustworthy.

For example, GEICO's website provides a graphic summary of its auto insurance reviews. Interesting to note, GEICO gives you 12 options for changing the sort order of their reviews including lowest to highest. Yes, you actually can read all the one-star ratings first, followed by the two-, three-, four- and five-star reviews with headlines ranging from "Unbelievably Bad" to "Best Switch I Ever Made."

I don't know where else GEICO promotes these ratings, but there are plenty of opportunities to do so using traditional, digital and social media.

• Reinforce it. Seize the opportunity to reinforce your reputation in creative ways. For example, I recently saw this sign on the back of a Staples delivery truck, "Top speed set at 60. It saves fuel and reduces emissions." Prior to reading the message as I sat behind the Staples truck at a stoplight, I'd never thought of Staples a being eco-friendly. Now I do.

The takeaway: Look for new opportunities to bolster your good name with both customers and prospects. With Facebook fans, YouTube videos, QR code links and the like, there are many ways to do it. Tap them.

Pat Friesen is a direct response copywriter and creative strategist writing for online and traditional media. She can be reached at (913) 341-1211, pat@patfriesen.com or by visiting www.patfriesen.com. Also find her at linkedin.com/in/patfriesen

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