How to improve your online reputation to acquire more users and customers

To get you started, we cover five strong, yet easy-to-implement techniques to manage and improve your online reputation. You’ll also learn the different ways to use Hotjar to uncover what users think of your brand, make changes that delight them, and grow your reputation (and revenue).

 5 ways to manage and improve your online reputation

Your reputation largely depends on how your users and customers feel and what they say about your brand, product, or service on the web. That’s because 99.9% of people rely on reviews and feedback from real users before making a decision. 

So if you want to increase customer delight and improve your brand image, you need to listen to and act on their feedback. 

There are two ways to listen for and gather user feedback at different stages of the marketing funnel: active and reactive listening. 

• Active listening involves gathering feedback and insights in real time, so you can spot issues before they escalate and prevent negative feedback from impacting your reputation

• Reactive listening involves addressing bad reviews after they’ve been published online (and have probably affected your reputation already)

Together, these two strategies provide a holistic way to action relevant customer feedback and insights at every stage of their journey, which results in a positive online reputation that builds trust and promotes purchases.

Let’s take a look at five online reputation management strategies that cover both of these listening techniques. 

1. Ask users directly how they feel to identify pain points 

Letting your customers share what they think about your product or service (while using it) provides an unfiltered view of their experience in their own words. 

This active listening strategy helps you analyze and identify common product and website elements that delight or frustrate your customers, so you know what to promote, improve, or remove.

There are two main ways to gather direct feedback from users:

I. Use on-site and external surveys to capture user feedback 

Surveys help you capture feedback from your users on and off your site using a variety of closed- and open-ended questions. For example, customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys tell business owners how people truly feel about their site’s UX, product, brand, or customer experience.

To make the most of your surveys, ensure you

• Have a clear picture of what you want to learn or achieve 

• Choose a survey template that aligns with the insights you want to gather

• Keep the survey short and to the point so you don’t overwhelm respondents

• Avoid asking leading questions so users feel free to provide unbiased feedback

II. Use interviews to have real conversations with your customers

Interviews let you have a full conversation with your users so you can deeply understand and empathize with their goals, motivations, pain points, and priorities. Use Hotjar Engage to record and transcribe interviews, make collaborative notes, and highlight key points to make better decisions.

To gather more in-depth user feedback, start the interview with icebreaker questions; you could ask interviewees about their interests to help them feel comfortable to open up. 

During the interview, ask them to share specific examples while answering your questions to help you (and your team) connect the dots. Also, don’t forget to send a thank-you email, as it shows your users you care about hearing from them.

2. Keep an eye on online channels for mentions of your business

Monitoring online mentions of your brand lets you address positive and negative comments from customers before they get out of hand and ruin your brand's reputation. 

That’s because acknowledging customer concerns publicly helps you turn a negative situation into a positive one as you work to fix it right away. 

Even though this strategy is reactive, it still goes a long way in showing customers you care about them, which also helps to manage and improve your brand identity. 

Follow these tips to ensure you don’t miss critical online mentions:

• Set up Google alerts for your business name, product names, and relevant keywords so you get notified every time someone mentions them

• Use social listening tools like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, or Mention to track comments and conversations across different social media platforms

• Always check industry-specific online review sites and address any issues promptly

• Track industry communities, subreddits, forums, and websites to see what users are saying about you (or competing brands) 

• Keep an eye on your business email for customer inquiries or feedback—customers sometimes reach out directly or respond to your emails to provide feedback 

3. Observe users as they interact with your site to spot UX issues

Understanding how people move through your site lets you spot UX issues (like bugs) and optimize your user’s journey, so they can easily accomplish their goals—whether that’s making a purchase, finding information, or signing up for your product.

There are three primary ways to observe users in real time using Hotjar:

I. Recordings

Session recordings capture and replay how users behave on your site—what they click on, ignore, and where they get confused or frustrated while browsing.

For example, Luke, a Product Lead at Hussle, uses Hotjar Recordings to see if people are using their product’s new features in the way he expected, instead of waiting for feedback to make its way back to the team organically. As a result, Luke and his team have the data they need to make changes users want, so more people trust and refer them to others.

II. Heatmaps 

Heatmaps reveal how users navigate through your site—you see where users click on a specific web page, how far they scroll, and what they interact with or ignore.

To get more actionable user insights, determine the most important pages on your site (such as your homepage, product pages, or checkout pages) and focus on them. Use heatmaps to identify

• Which elements users interact with the most and least

• Where users frequently hover over elements on the page without taking action

• How far users scroll down the page to see critical below-the-fold content they miss

Also, review heatmap data for mobile users—as over 92% of internet users access websites using mobile devices—and make changes to improve their experience. 

III. Funnels

Creating a sales funnel and finding out where users drop off or become paying customers is crucial in site optimization. If your site isn’t easy to use and people can’t complete certain steps, your online reputation will take a turn for the worse. 

For example, if your site’s analytics reveal that a lot of people in a certain country aren’t completing their purchases, use Hotjar Funnels to figure out why and make it easier for them to buy.

Knowing which steps in the sales funnels are preventing people from converting allows you to make changes to your site that improve your user’s journey, giving you happy customers who are more likely to leave positive feedback and reviews that attract other potential users.

4. Respond to negative reviews promptly and professionally

Addressing negative feedback promptly shows users you take their concerns seriously and are willing to improve their experience. It also humanizes your brand and reminds customers that there are real people behind the business who care about satisfying their needs.

On the other hand, unresolved issues are likely to result in more negative comments, which could damage your reputation even more. To manage (or improve) your reputation, make sure you

• Respond to negative feedback as soon as possible with a solution 

• Maintain a courteous tone in your response, even if the feedback is harsh 

• Always acknowledge your user's concern, so you can understand their frustration

• Be concise and to the point when addressing your customer's concerns

• Be transparent about any steps you plan to take to rectify the situation

• Use negative feedback as an opportunity to learn and improve

5. Share customer reviews and testimonials across your channels to gain trust

Social proof—like positive user reviews and testimonials—gives people a reason to trust your business, helping you acquire new customers.

Hearing your existing users share their stories and specific results they got from using your product helps you create an emotional connection with your target audience that marketing copy alone cannot achieve, no matter how compelling.

How to use social proof to gain trust and improve your online reputation:

• Share good reviews and testimonials on various online platforms, including your website, social media profiles, and review sites to show users the benefits they will reap

• Use real names and photos of the customers who left the testimonials, with their permission, to make the reviews more credible and trustworthy

• Share detailed success stories and case studies that break down how your product or service solved a specific problem or achieved remarkable results for a customer

• Encourage customers to share their experiences on their own social media profiles and tag your brand

Spot and address issues early to improve your online reputation 

So, there you have it: five ways to manage and improve your brand’s online reputation. 

While keeping an eye on online channels and addressing negative feedback are helpful strategies to manage your reputation, you need to proactively gather customer feedback at every stage of the user journey so issues don’t escalate beyond your control and hurt your reputation in the process.

Use a product experience insights platform like Hotjar to understand your users’ experience and learn what’s working well, so you can improve what isn’t. That’s how you build a loyal user and customer base who trust and recommend your brand to others unprompted.