The Coffee Shop “A Pinch of Cinnamon” Can’t Find a Barista. They offer salaries and benefits comparable to competitors, but candidates either don’t show up for interviews or choose other employers. Meanwhile, the coffee shop “Four Cups” on the neighboring street fills vacancies within days: candidates agree to a slightly lower salary just to work there.
The difference lies in how these coffee shops manage their reputations. “Four Cups” actively engages on social media, monitors customer and employee reviews, and regularly hosts masterclasses for baristas. In contrast, “A Pinch of Cinnamon” does nothing to enhance its reputation: it doesn’t maintain a social media presence and ignores negative reviews. Candidates see complaints about working at “A Pinch of Cinnamon” but are unaware of any positive aspects.
For a business that doesn’t work on its reputation, it is challenging to stay competitive in the market:
- It is hard to justify product prices: customers doubt their quality.
- It is hard to fill vacancies: potential employees prefer competitors with clear values and work principles.
- It is hard to find business partners: investors and entrepreneurs are unaware of the company and do not see it as a viable option for collaboration.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to build a reputation and what tools can help manage it.
What Is Company Reputation and Why Is It Important?
Reputation is the opinion formed about a company by its actual and potential customers, suppliers, employees, candidates, and partners.
Reputation depends on many factors:
- Product Quality: It must be of good quality, and its price should be justified.
- Service Quality: If customers are dissatisfied with service, they won’t return, even for a quality product.
- Relationships with Partners and Customers: If people see that the business operates honestly, professionally, and with a focus on quality, they are more likely to want to collaborate.
- Employee Relations: Relationships with employees should be open and fair.
Why Manage Reputation?
Managing reputation is essential primarily so users can recognize and trust the company. A positive image assures customers during their decision-making process that they made the right choice and encourages them to prefer you. Additionally, there are several reasons to manage reputation:
- To attract team members, such as strong top managers or excellent programmers.
- To expand the customer base and increase customer loyalty.
- To enhance the company’s attractiveness to investors.
In the following sections, we’ll look at how to begin working on your reputation and what tools can be used for this purpose.
How to Build a Reputation If You Don’t Have One Yet
When a business first enters the market, it has no reputation, and it needs to establish one. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1. Define Your Goals.
Every owner wants their company to gain respect in society as a reliable partner, responsible employer, and producer of quality products. However, this is a broad goal that needs to be detailed.
Goals can be set using the SMART methodology. Here’s how to do it to achieve results. The specific reputation management goal depends on the business needs—for example, increasing customer loyalty or attracting investment. Multiple goals can be worked on simultaneously.
Step 2. Identify Your Target Audiences.
Typically, in reputation management, the following audience types are distinguished:
- Customers: perceive the company as a supplier of goods or services.
- Business Partners: perceive the company as a partner or investment opportunity.
- Employees: perceive the company as an employer.
These audiences will differ for each business. For example, a beauty salon might target women with higher-than-average income as customers, while its suppliers would be manufacturers of nail polish and shampoos. A laptop manufacturer might see remote digital specialists as customers and software developers as partners.
Which audience to focus on for reputation management depends on the business objectives. For instance, if increasing profit is the goal, the primary efforts will be directed at customers; if vacancies are taking too long to fill, the focus will shift to potential employees.
Step 3. Define Your Values.
These values will be communicated to your audiences. For example, a value could be quality: “No one knits mittens better than our masters,” or “In our restaurant, guests feel as comfortable as at their grandmother’s dacha.”
It’s important that the values communicated by the entrepreneur reflect the company and align with the values of the target audience. Based on these values, you can create a legend—a clear story about the company. Memorable stories resonate better than abstract ideas and effectively convey meanings to the audience.