Reputation economy

Photo courtesy of morguefile user Yoel

Photo courtesy of morguefile user Yoel

According to the National Business Review, “People’s willingness to buy, recommend, work for and invest in a company is driven 60 percent by their perceptions of the company and only 40 percent by their perceptions of their products.” If your company has a good reputation people will do business with you. If it has a bad reputation you won’t be in business very long. This isn’t a new concept. The only difference is now if your company doesn’t deliver you could end up with a bad online review.

There are a few things you can do to build, protect and, enhance your reputation. In an article that appeared in Forbes, Darrah Brustein, the founder of Network Under 40, suggests going a step beyond what is expected. She says, “Did someone ask for a reference from you? Offer three. Did you say you’d save them 10 percent? Save them 15. Did you say you’d follow up in 24 hours? Follow up in 12.”

Going above and beyond can take a lot of different forms. Every year at TDS we send our managedIP Hosted customers a survey. We want to know if they’re happy with the product and what additional features/services they would like us to provide them. In a recent survey our customers expressed an interest for more training on the system. In 2013 we hosted an in person training session for our customers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. TDS’ Manager of Commercial Lead Generation Jennifer Lichtie says, “The training was very successful. It got great customer reviews!”

The problem with in person trainings is you have to be present to attend. With work schedules and personal lives it can be difficult to find the time. To make attending the trainings easier TDS is offering webinars on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 9 a.m. Each hour long session covers a different topic which can range from managing calls to using enhanced features in the web portal. Signing up for each training is free and you never have to worry about missing a session. Recordings of each webinar are normally available online about 24 hours after the event.

Most importantly we leave a significant amount of time to answer customer questions during each session. Jennifer says, “TDS wants our customers to take full advantage of their communication system to ensure their business is taking advantage of all the values the system brings. We want to offer our customers the tools they need to feel comfortable with our managedIP Hosted product.”

Jennifer also adds that we’re always looking for ways to improve the webinar experience. She says, “We have sessions planned for the rest of 2015 and into 2016. We will be asking our customers what else they want to learn about in the future and then we’ll do webinars on those specific topics too.”

Writing for Forbes in 2013 Contributor Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, a Gen-Y research and management consulting firm, and international bestselling author said, “Reputation builds trust.” What are you doing to build your reputation? Feel free to leave your thoughts below in the comments section or reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog!

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Guest bloggers for the TDS Business Blog.

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