Online marketers focus their efforts on the management of online ratings and reviews. However, online reputation management has a broader focus beyond covering the reviews and ratings. For instance, there is hardly a business out there that doesn’t face occasional issues arising with the customers. The internet connects global customers and enables the spread of customer reviews beyond the borders.
The public forums and communities have become the reference point for customers when they want to make a purchase decision. In addition, other platforms like social media are used by customers to convey their grievances in case of poor customer service. Today, mobile technology, growing publishing power, and social sharing continue to improve, and this is occurring across a greater number of platforms. Therefore, it is important for businesses to analyze and follow what these customers are saying on different platforms so as to respond in a way that protects their online reputation.
The challenge for businesses is being able to analyze customer reviews and at the same time attend to customer complains emanating from different platforms. This proves the importance of investing in advanced online reputation management. This can be through modern-day technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). In this article, we focus on analyzing how Artificial Intelligence can help in online reputation management.
Through (Internet of Things) IoT and automated data visualization techniques, businesses build their data stores from which they apply advanced algorithms for content analysis. This enables businesses to reach a logical conclusion. Increasingly, businesses are using AI to help in taking ownership of their online businesses reputation. Here is how AI helps businesses in Online Reputation Management.
#1 Use of Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring the Key Channels
Artificial Intelligence plays a key role in monitoring social media platforms and other customer review forums. We have mentioned that social sharing continues to improve across different platforms. As a result, businesses are facing a serious challenge when it comes to monitoring what customers are saying on these platforms. With the overwhelming feedback and reviews that businesses receive on these platforms, it is important to have an advanced monitoring tool. This ensures that the company`s reputation is not harmed online.
Through the use of Artificial Intelligence, businesses can effectively monitor mentions on social media. The AI algorithms help in identifying a customer who is complaining about the services received. The same algorithms can be used to identify positive comments from the customers. The business can then share the positive comments which help in building their online reputation.
Does your business use an AI-enabled tool that helps in identifying and analyzing mentions online? Such a tool helps to ensure that any online mention is analyzed and classified as a positive comment or negative comment. The negative comments are quickly acted upon to guard the reputation of a company. Remember that if negative comments are left to spread out, this will affect the performance of the business.
Mentionlytics offers an AI-enabled tool that helps businesses track social media mentions. Through such a tool, your business will be able to follow closely whenever customers mention you on all major social media platforms. Thus you can quickly respond to requests, respond to negative comments and ensure your business has a positive reputation.
#2 Using AI for Online Customer Service Guards your Reputation and Ensures Returning Customers
According to Wertz, consumer frustration grows when customers run into issues and can’t find a representative to talk to. Online businesses that don’t respond to customer concerns are facing slow growth. Ideally, your response time is critical to ensuring customers come back to you for the services. In addition, customers who face delays from customer care representatives are likely to abandon their purchase. Khalid Saleh shares that it costs 6 to 7 times more to attract a new customer than it will cost to retain an existing one. As such, it is critical that the business is keen to address customer concerns online. This is because consumers are 2 times more likely to share their bad customer service experiences and it could definitely affect the reputation of any business.
For a business to guard against reputation damage as a result of poor customer service, it is critical to invest in Chatbots and other AI tools. Chatbot refers to a service that is powered by rules and AI to aid in customer interaction. The chatbots perform automated tasks and therefore are critical in delivering customer service.
Businesses that are using Chatbots have reported better customer service. This has, in turn, helped them in growing their online reputation because they saw a reduction in the number of negative complaints as a result of delayed responses. Ideally, the Chatbots ensure that you will not experience complaints from customers as a result of delays in answering customer concerns. Therefore, through Machine Learning, Chatbots can be able to understand the natural language and respond to customer concerns appropriately.
Example:
Mastercard uses a Facebook Messenger chatbot to allow customers to check on account transactions. This has enabled the company to deliver excellent customer service. This is a good move since the Mastercard clients are able to get instant replies to enquires made. This is possible through the use of advanced algorithms for Machine Learning hence the chatbot can learn natural language, interpret and respond appropriately. The Chatbot typically replies instantly.
Source: cnet
#3 Using AI to Offer Personalized Customer Experience Hence Guarding Companies Reputation
Personalized customer experiences also help in online reputation management. To deliver a personalized experience, a business needs to clearly understand customer demands. Through collecting customer data on social media and purchase history, companies can understand the exact customer demands.
According to an eMarketer report, 52% of consumers find trouble when searching for the exact products that they need. Upon purchase of a certain product, this customer is disgruntled as the delivered product is not likely to meet the expectation. Thus, it is important that such a company uses Artificial Intelligence to understand customers preferences to deliver a personalized experience.
For marketers, AI helps meet the demand for highly individualized experiences. Thus businesses can better reach and target their consumers for a better experience. This helps in reducing customer complaints online guarding the business reputation effectively. Data from BCG research indicates that the brands that use advanced digital technologies to offer personalized experiences are seeing an increase in revenues.
The Artificial Intelligence technology creates an incredible framework for achieving personalized experiences. This is through building on the feedback mechanism, collecting and using all the touch points, and training systems on unbiased data by consuming provided data. Customers who experience personalized service delivery are often likely to share the experience online. This means that the company will be building their online reputation by investing in AI to serve customers better.
Read more: How Artificial Intelligence Can Optimize Competitors Monitoring
#4 Using AI to Counter Spread of Fake News
Businesses have been adversely affected by the spread of fake news. The fake news has seen businesses suffer an extensive reputational damage. With the ever-increasing number of social media platforms, it is easier for haters to spread the fake news about your business. So how can a business effectively achieve online reputation management in the Era of Fake news attack by haters and business rivals? The best approach is through the use of Artificial Intelligence to deliver effective fight against the spread of fake news.
Example
A good example of a company that suffered fake news in 2017 is Starbucks. The company became a victim of fakery when tweets were developed advertising the “Dreamer Day” when the coffee chain would give out free frappuccinos to undocumented US migrants. This fake news spread online, and adverts that included the company’s logo were used. This was done under the hashtag:”#borderfreecoffee”. Here is a screenshot showing how Starbucks responded to this tweet.
There is no doubt that if Starbucks wasn’t quick enough to dismiss the fake news, this would have led to serious reputation damage for the company.
Artificial Intelligence is a great technology for online reputation management. This is because it is one of the technologies that help businesses to fight the spread of fake news. Therefore, organizations should focus on the use of AI for fighting fake news spread. A recent study by the academic journal science showed that it takes true information on Twitter six times as long as misinformation to reach 1,500 people. Basically, false information spreads faster compared to true information. Artificial Intelligence can win the wall against the spread of false information.
Artificial Intelligence for online reputation management helps by providing certain elements that help in rating news for authenticity. Ideally, it helps in finding words or patterns that throw light on the fake online news and stories.
#5 Using AI to Actively Gather Testimonials
Online testimonials offer a good chance for businesses to build their reputation. In online reputation management, it is important for a business to illustrate positive comments from their customers. This includes gathering testimonials from existing customers and also the positive online comments to illustrate how the company’s products offer value to the customers. Therefore, a company that is struggling with online reputation management can apply AI to gather testimonials and positive comments. These testimonials are then reflected on a company’s website or social media platform as an online reputation management strategy.
Advanced Data Analysis techniques are applied to analyze what customers are saying on social media. The algorithm is intelligent enough to understand the tone and language used on posts. Through natural language processing algorithms, a business will be able to pick on the positive testimonies.
To Sum Up
Artificial Intelligence is effective when it comes to online reputation management. Businesses that are looking at the best techniques for online reputation management can use AI as an efficient approach. This is so as to monitor the customer’s response on different platforms. These include social media and online review websites. Therefore, a business can track posts by their customers to identify any possible pain points. Another way through which AI helps in online reputation management is in ensuring customer service is effectively delivered. Customers want to be able to get instant replies from businesses. Any slight delays will lead to customers complaining of inefficiency. This ruins a company’s reputation. Through the use of AI and chatbots, customers concerns can be addressed effectively. The other uses of AI in online reputation management include offering a personalized customer experience, countering the spread of fake news and gathering customer testimonials.
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