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The reputation of your business is the most potent aspect regarding the long term success of the entirety of your marketing efforts. You reform your reputation every day with every person who interacts with your business. In fact, you have not one business reputation, but many reputations that arise in the minds of customers with whom you interact in the execution of your business activities. Equally important to understand that you have a reputation with those who have no experience with your business but have grown aware of you from others.

There is a famous song by Joan Jett from days gone by called 'Bad Reputation.' Joan was a great musician of her age, but she was also a cunning marketing person. She postured herself as the bad girl of rock, and the song 'Bad Reputation' was a great success. In the ever nonconformist scene of alternative rock, a woman proud to flaunt her bad reputation was very novel. She likely lied a little in the song when she sang 'I don't give a damn about my bad reputation' as she likely cared a lot about her bad reputation, it was her marketing strength! She harnessed that reputation to achieve lasting fame.

Sadly for the majority of us, a low reputation does not prove to be a useful marketing goal to grow our business. The only exceptions outside of musicians might be trial lawyers, repo men, or bail bondsmen who are, in a way, respected for their aggressiveness and sometimes abrasive personalities. For the rest of the world it just doesn't work that way.

You must know that every action, and everything your employees do, regarding your business contributes to your reputation. No Mulligans exist in business. You can strive to make things right that might have contributed negatively to your business reputation. In fact, repairing issues appropriately can prove to be the silver lining. However, you can't change the memory of what caused someone to take a low view of your company.

Every interaction you have with people you encounter in your business has one of three endings that affect your reputation. Two of these endings are not desirable, the other one is great!

Experience number one is one you have with a client, or potential client, in that while you don't embarrass your business or company, but you also don't do anything to stand out from anyone else. This may not seem like the most harmful result, but it comes close. At best, you've managed to be listed as average in the mind of a customer. You will likely be either forgotten in the future, or thought of as someone that 'did OK' last time.

The second result is when you, or your employee, has erred massively enough to make certain the customer is enraged at you. It can get no worse for your business. Besides losing a customer, you have left no doubt that you have lost people who hear about you through that customer. The negative potential is gigantic. If you as a business owner are aware that you have permitted this to transpire, then you have no right to complain about the negative impact it will have. But a great many times the business owner is completely unaware of what has happened if one of the employees caused the problem, or not during their own interactions with the customer. You can't assume that dissatisfied people will take the time to inform you what happened. Often they simply never return and you have no way to correct it. If you learn of the problem, and then fail to make it right, then again you have every right to the bad reputation it makes. However, if you take the opportunity to go above and beyond to correct the issue, you will have employed a wonderful chance in business - to demonstrate to a customer that you want their loyalty and will always do your best to show interest.

Ending number three is what everyone who owns a business should strive for in each and every interaction with clients. You want to make the customers, and potential customers, believe that in addition to furnishing high-quality services or materials, you care deeply about how those products or services provide for a customer's wants. It concerns gaining trust with your customers so that they know you are competent, fair, and focused on meeting their needs. If you accomplish this goal you can trust that you've cultivated a loyal customer who's value far surpasses any purchase they may make today.

Aiding in the creation customers of this loyalty is our services' focus. Hopefully if you have an interest growing your business based upon our tactics you will give serious consideration to subscribing to our services.

BizRave Inc. provides marketing consulting and internet marketing services for small businesses. Please visit BizRave.com for more information and articles on customer relationship based marketing.