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MARINA STARODUBSKA
MAR 1, 2019
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT:
5 ERRORS MADE BY COMPANIES
Maryna Starodubska - Intellectual Head of Reputation Management Management Development Programs at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, Managing Partner of TLFRD Communication Company
The company's reputation is not an external decoration, not a set of good words. Reputation is an asset that requires a business process to maintain. If it is, then the company's reputation becomes a management tool. How to achieve such a result? And what mistakes should be avoided?
The first common mistake is the lack of correlation between sales and the company's reputation. There are indeed areas in Ukraine (for example, the production of consumer goods) where there is no link between corporate reputation and sales. However, this does not mean that reputation problems do not lead to financial losses - they are simply not expressed in falling sales. Thus, it is important to understand that a business's reputation in Ukraine is always about money, but not always about selling.
Which aspects of business are most strongly influenced by reputation? Of course, this is recruiting and everything related to HR (staff retention, motivation, hiring, etc.). An employee who does not consider the company ethical will sooner or later leave it. If not physically - then mentally: will work reluctantly, sabotage or "compensate" for the inconvenience of working in a "bad" company. And when a person works poorly, the company spends time and money to make it work better.
Another aspect where the reputation of a business is damaged is the relationship with experts, opinion leaders and the authorities. That is, with those audiences from which communication often depends on business efficiency. For example, you want to expand your business into the regions, and you need the appropriate permits. And the official who issues them sees in the news that you are treating staff unfairly, violating the law, and polluting the environment. With this approach, it will be difficult to obtain a permit.
The second mistake that companies often make in reputation management in Ukraine is to start talking nicely about themselves, but not to change anything in their activities. Reputation is formed at the intersection of our words and our deeds. If there are differences between words and deeds, deeds will always win. What the target audience will feel in their experience (or see in the experience of people they trust) will be the basis for reputation. Communications can correct, highlight, explain, but they cannot completely replace it.
For example, if the company has serious problems with the organization of retail space (dirty, unfriendly staff, errors in price tags, etc.) - then beautiful communications will work until the buyer enters the store. And then they will have the opposite effect. And this applies to any business.
REPUTATION IS NOT CREATED BY AN AGENCY, NOT A CONSULTANT, AND NOT EVEN A CORPORATE PR PR. IT IS FORMED BY THE MAIN FUNCTIONS: MANAGEMENT, SALES, PRODUCTION, SERVICE, E-COMMERCE
The third mistake is that reputation does not need to be taken care of systematically, but only when everything is bad in the company. In fact, people's thoughts about you are not formed quickly (from 12 months and longer), and just as slowly it changes. Therefore, in order to approach the probable future crisis with a good reputation, it is necessary to work systematically for at least a year. And it is desirable - without serious scandals and problems.
The fourth mistake is to outsource your reputation. Outsourcing is necessary if the company really lacks resources or needs a specialized service. However, without its own functionality - a person or a department that takes care of the reputation of the business - the company can not have a reputation management.
Reputation is not created by an agency, a consultant or even a corporate PR person. It is formed by the main functions: management, sales, production, service, e-commerce, if you have it. A publicist is just a "mechanic" who paints and repairs his reputation. If the main functions are not involved in the process of reputation management, ie do not understand that their interaction with the outside world is a process of reputation management, then no outsourcing will help. The consultant will try to communicate the right things, and the company will do the wrong things.
The fifth mistake that can often be seen in Ukraine is the payment for the placement of communications in the media, social networks or elsewhere. Of course, commercial marketing formats take place in product communications. However, with a reputation everything is different, because the artificiality of paid communications is noticeable even to non-professionals. The most influential type of content is earned media: when a company is mentioned by opinion leaders because they are interested in its activities.
When an organization decides to post a covertly paid article about itself on a resource, it usually does not try to understand what is being written. As a result, we get content that does not correspond to the media format where it is placed. For example, the portal does not write about our products - and then suddenly wrote about it, or he does not write in this style - and we have written exactly that, because our director likes it.
THE STRONGEST INFLUENCE TYPE OF CONTENT IS EARNED MEDIA: WHEN THE COMPANY IS MENTIONED BY OPINION LEADERS BECAUSE THEY ARE INTERESTED IN ITS ACTIVITIES
Thus, commercial formats should be left for marketing and advertising tasks, and communication tasks should be performed through interesting content, events and company speakers who speak simply and fascinatingly and have something to tell.
Checklist for a manager who wants to manage the reputation of his business:
- Are we ready for system publicity?
- Do we know what parameters are important to our target audiences to evaluate our business?
- Do we know how the target audiences treat us according to these parameters? (After all, reputation is a heterogeneous structure, a company can have a great reputation as a manufacturer and a terrible one as an employer.)
- To what extent are our management and key functions that interact with the outside world involved in the reputation management process?
- Do they understand that every step, word or behavior affects the reputation of the business?
- To what extent is the company's reputation management system established?
- Is there a person or department that takes care of this? This should be a separate function, because it is impossible to take care of the reputation of the business in addition to marketing, legal or other work.
Source: mind.ua
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