Online Reputation Management for E-commerce Companies

First computers and laptops came in and changed the world, later internet helped connect the world better and eventually social media took over the entire world. With platforms like Facebook and Twitter becoming the largest spaces for communication and an observation of constant increase in the number of people enrolling to use the platforms, it became a simpler and more feasible way for brands and companies to advertise to their audience.
The excitement was high. Because all that the companies needed to do was figure out where their right audience is and when are they most active. Accordingly they could place their ads. This module of advertising worked great for most companies; people responded well and also helped increase sales.

E-commerce was one section in the market which was gaining popularity on a parallel level. People were shifting to shopping online rather than wasting their precious time browsing through products at a mall, which also included travelling time and cost, waiting in a long queue for billing and more! Online stores not just helped people to do multi tasking, i.e. shop and do other work at the same time, but also provided a larger range of collection to choose from.
However, all good things come with a darker side to it. So did the e-commerce industry, while people were happy with the options they could avail, they also had a number of complaints and concerns. Although these could be solved using the helpline numbers provided by the companies, people often took to social media to share their experiences. Once the companies realised this, the deployment of a dedicated team for Online Reputation Management became almost mandatory.
Today, ORM is one of the most important aspects of all E-commerce companies. This helps in reduction of damage caused by complaints and concerns raised by people on social media. On the other hand it also helps increase the brand’s transparency and keep the faith of customers, in the company instilled for the longest time.
ORM, can be divided into two sections, one which includes customer support and the other which is solely for engagement purpose. Companies which are mostly into the hospitality department, food and beverage and the like are the ones which require maximum ORM. In this case, rather than solving the problems of the customers, it is about making them feel comfortable, apologizing for a bad experience they had, or paying back in a more humane way for their loss.
Online Reputation Management is a tedious job and requires hours of time invested into segregating which mention is positive or which one is negative. Therefore most companies prefer to outsource the same to social media monitoring and analytics companies such as Simplify360. This helps in easy detection of messages which carry the brands name and helps respond accordingly.
Some Examples
1. Flipkart
Sure you would find a lot of queries on Flipkart’s Facebook page, but does it stop them from being enthusiastic? Actually it’s the reverse, it makes they act doubly better. Flipkart also a lot of people commenting nice things about them and guess what keeps the online reputation glowing? It’s the constant replies that they make. Timely replies allow better interactions with the customers and in turn helps build a better brand.

2. MakeMyTrip
Another aspect which is extremely important for online reputation management is timely responses. If your customer has put out a complaint today and your reply comes in only tomorrow or the day after, it might not be of any help, instead might cause more damage. Most people today expect a reply within an hour of posting a comment and if a company does not adhere to that, the reputation damage is already done.
Make my trip has a brilliant response time in line and this sure makes their customers happy!

3. Alma Mater
A company which had a lot of frills around the way it was founded has finally reached a stable state. However, it has still not been able to make itself popular among the people of the country. People still complain about the invisibility of the brand on social media platforms. Although, they have a lot of interesting content going up on their platforms, they do not seem to be making the effort to keep their audience engaged. This can lead to serious repercussions sooner or later!