^[1]Did you know that according to Google’s publication, Winning the Zero Moment of Truth ^[2], 20% of all online searches are for local products or services and this number jumps to 40% for mobile searches.

If you own a business or are responsible for a business, do you monitor your reputation online to see what clients and other people are saying about you?

Given the statistics above, if you are not monitoring your online reputation, you really need to start doing this as it can significantly impact your business – both positively and negatively.

As an example, think of a product or service and then search this product or service on Google and include your city.  In most cases, you will be given the Google+ Business Listings at or near the top of the search results.

Now put yourself in a potential clients shoes.   If these potential clients have a choice between a company with a significant amount of great reviews and one that has bad reviews or even no reviews, I would bet that in most cases these potential clients would choose a company with positive reviews over companies with bad reviews or no reviews.

Give this a try. Put your product or service and your city in Google and see what the results are.

You will see one of 4 results:

• Good reviews
• Bad reviews
• No reviews
• A mixture of good and bad reviews

If you have nothing but good reviews or a very high concentration of good reviews and very few bad reviews, then keep doing what you are doing.  If you have a lot of bad reviews or no reviews, then you will be turning business away and you should look at the following 3 recommendations:

1. Monitor Your Online Reputation – You can monitor your online reviews by going online and searching your company name and seeing what people are saying.  If you want to automate this process, you can set up Google Alerts to monitor any mentions of your company name.
2. Get More Positive Reviews – If you have a happy customer, then ask them to post a review online.  My suggestion is that you should always have someone try to post to Google+ (which use to be Google Places) first.  You should also figure out what some of the best review sites are for your industry and have people post to these sites too.
3. Respond to Bad Reviews – Make sure that you respond to any bad review that you have gotten.  Responding to bad reviews is an excellent way to turn a bad situation into a positive situation.  If someone isn’t happy with your service, then see what you can do to make it better for them.  By responding to bad reviews, you will show others that you are listening and that you do care.

If you monitor and manage your online reputation and add great reviews, this should have a positive effect on your business.  Make sure that you include an Online Reputation process to your every day work practices.

Keyboard ^[3] Photo via Shutterstock