How you stand behind your brand promise matters even more today. Your brand promise lives in your prospect’s mind; for example, always on time, or you don’t pay a dime. When your company breaks that promise, you’re likely to get a bad review.

And every review, anywhere it exists; BBB, Google, or Yelp can be an indicator to the prospect of how you treat and service clients who feel they did or didn’t get what you promised. This isn’t about making the person who left a low review happy. It’s about signaling to anyone reading that review: If that happened to me, that’s how I’d be treated.

All reviews are part of what I call reputation management. What can you do to influence your reputation in the mind of a prospect? It’s never about the actual review; it’s about how the business responds to the review that really matters because that’s what influences your reputation in the mind of the prospect. How important is it to you to make good on your brand promise?

Notice the response has been viewed 3,000 times along with my review. Do you think you can trust this company to make good?

You should always be responding to every review, regardless of the platform: Yelp, BBB, Google, Home Advisor, Angie’s List. Because all of these sites have Authority and are being cited by AI tools to gauge your reputation on how well you honor your brand promise. This is true AEO. (Answer Engine Optimization – sometimes AIEO, AI Engine Optimization) Authority is another way of saying credibility; I, the AI, believe BBB, Yelp, and Google are credible sources of third-party information about your business, entity, or product.

Want to know what the AI’s think of your business? Then enter this prompt:  Should I hire [your company name] in [city name],[state]? With this simple question, you can see exactly what sources AI is leaning on to determine your reputation and how  you’re measuring up to your brand promise.

How you stand behind your brand promise matters even more today for your reputation.

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