The discussion of the authenticity of reputation management service for businesses online creates confusion while creating a gray area between the ethical and non ethical points of discussion. One side contains any customers posting genuine reviews online that are based what they actually experienced with the business. These reviews are prevented to be shown up to the consumers searching for genuine reviews, instead of providing them any support and assurance for improvement in the services.
On the other side, some people have reasons to wipe out the business reputation and they post such negative comments and reviews online. Such, reviews need to be removed or restricted from being viewed by the consumers in search for genuine information. Thus, the first part instills an idea of reputation management services being unethical practices, while the second part supports these services stating them ethical. This is where the moral value of this service comes in the play.
Objective of Online Reputation Management Services
The chief intention of such a service is to suppress all the negative information available on the internet for a particular brand or business available online. This information can be a genuine review of a customer who actually had a bad experience with the business or can be an act dedicated to diminishing the business repo.
The task of building repo online is completed by optimizing various websites containing positive comments and reviews related to the business or by adding positive reviews and promoting those. The service is carried on with a prime goal of wiping out all the negative elements existing online, aimed at creating harm to the business. But this act also clears out many legitimate reviews that have been posted with an expectation of getting a resolution for their bad experience, restricting any solution to a customer’s issue and decrementing business repo among such customers
The Gray Area
Thus, this is where the gray area arises in the discussion creating a point of consideration when wiping out offensive remarks takes away genuine complaints leading the business to ignore potential grievances. Many reputable online service providers suggest business owners to provide appropriate response to genuine complaints found online and then wiping off the leftover biased remarks. An approach to resolve genuine queries before making them disappear provides a better response to a business, even from customers having bad experience with the business services at the first time also.
Finally, the moral of using a service to build a reputation online for a business depends entirely with the business officials as how they plan their strategies to gain reputation. A business owner needs to choose the best services available online providing ethical solutions to repo building needs of a business. The approach of listening to the genuine complaints of the customers and then working with them to provide a healthy solution to the customer’s demand is the most preferred way to add ethical values to the service. This approach will help a business to generate a long-term reputation and a healthy relationship with their customers.
Sonika has been working with an online marketing company. She has undertaken various assignments about Online Reputation Management Services. Apart from that, she has written valuable articles about this subject to educate people in the web world.
