The trend of the time: what will be relevant in SERM in 2023? Part 2

"Listening" to social networks. Your customers are an invaluable source of information for the development of your company. Yes, business analytics is important but do not forget to listen to those who directly use your products. For this purpose, a tool called Social Listening has been created. And this is one of the strongest trend in reputation management for at least the next few years. A properly configured SL will help not only to react to failures in reputation in time but also to prevent them at the point of origin.

The essence of SL is to track mentions of your company on the network. It would seem that everyone has been doing this for so long; what is the novelty here? The fact that this technology is focused on working in real-time. That is, you do not collect a slice for a particular period of time, but the most "hot" information.

And such promptness will definitely play to your advantage. A simple example. Your site suddenly stopped working—customers started leaving dissatisfied comments on social networks. You see them right away—and immediately explain what's wrong and when the site will be restored. This will not allow the wave of indignation to rise to a dangerous height for the company's reputation. In a similar way, you can quickly work out any complaints or questions and respond to current information guides.

Trend in 2023: 

catch changes in the mood of customers as quickly as possible, at the stage of "There is a question," and not when a person is ready to give up on you.

Friend, a resource for the benefit of the promotion

No matter what anyone says, the opinions of other people still have a strong influence on our choices. Moreover, the closer a person is, the more authoritative his opinion is. Therefore, today it is important to show the client that his friends, relatives, and acquaintances also trust you.

This a simple example from everyday life. You come across an unfamiliar but potentially interesting person in a social network. You go into it—and you see that among the thousands of its subscribers there is one of your friends. The confidence index automatically increases. And if the audience is relatively small, then the presence of a friend will be even more significant.

Trend in 2023: 

work on the "personalization" of reviews and recommendations.

Effective collaborations

To successfully overcome the crisis period, which may well drag on, it is worth combining actions with another brand. Moreover, you can choose a company from your own category. Sort of turning a competitor into a partner by launching a synergistic effect.

A striking example of this approach was the co-branding of two leaders in the electronics and household appliances segments. However, until the end of last year, they worked in a mode of active internal competition. Now they are not just launching joint advertising campaigns but also creating joint "two-brand" stores. According to representatives of the companies, this will help to get a 15 percent increase in attendance and increase the average check.

Trend in 2023: 

Think about new options for cooperation not only with current partners but also with competing businesses. Such joint actions will help to work more effectively to improve reputation and implement projects that previously lacked scale.

Work on the client's field

This year, we will definitely have to accept the fact that user reviews and comments have already stopped accumulating on the site alone. The user has a lot of opportunities to share his opinion; he can choose the most comfortable conditions for this and is unlikely to search for your site, and even more so the department with reviews. It is understandably easier for him to write a post on a social network, on a review aggregator, or on online maps. So, you should answer him there, too.

Therefore, get used to the fact that you need to monitor communications on the client's territory. And communicate with him in his language. Not with official phrases and complex phrases, but as easy and simple as possible. And often taking into account the specifics of the resource.

Trend in 2023: 

register scripts (no templates!) and answers for different platforms; work on collecting feedback from a large number of channels.

General conclusion

The main thing you need to focus on when working with the reputation this year is building a strong, trusting relationship with the user. However, not only with him. This can also include partners and even competitors. Yes, such work is labor-intensive, but you will not earn "long clients" in any other way—and now you need them.