Travel operators and online reputation management

Major airline companies as well as travel companies are gearing up to better their efforts at online reputation management. Online travel sites are frequented and subscribed to by a lot of users because of the convenience factors. You can book tickets at subsidized rates and you also enjoy the convenience of booking your tickets from the comfort of your own home. However, though it is a hot online industry, it invites a lot of wrath and bad publicity if things go wrong. There are issues when the credit card charge is declined, tickets are not delivered at the right time, the seat numbers go awry or if there is a fraudulent charge on the account. At all of these times and more, the consumer has to take the flak.

Consumers make sure that they vent their dissatisfaction in blogs and forum sites. If you take the example of a website like makemytrip.com, in mouthshut.com, you will see giving reviews about how the service sucked or how they were charged in fraudulently. The allegations may be true or in some cases, even the company can be right. How does the online travel company give it clarification or provide a suitable response. It does through a corporate blog, a platform that companies like makemytrip.com have done proactively on the mouthshut.com site, in reply to consumer comments and whiplash. It is a positive step that such companies have taken to make sure that they retain their business, show their side of the picture to its customers. Above all, it improves the communication level between the customers and the company.

By virtue of the corporate blog, a lot of queries have been resolved and a lot of doubts, issues and speculations have been put to rest. Progressive companies like makemytrip.com have gone ahead and scouted through various blogs and forum sites to find out what exactly is being written about their service. This helps to take care of the loopholes and set the wrongs right. Some times companies even do not mind by passing certain charges or eliminating certain costs which consumers have to give for the sake of goodwill. A little sacrifice certainly pays and a steady monitoring helps to a vast extent. Is your firm practicing online reputation management?

Using online reputation management to the optimum

Your company may be enjoying an impressive customer patronage and may be a name in the market to reckon with. However there is always a risk of a blog post reaching the first page of the search engine listing and causing damage to the goodwill that you’ve built steadily since a long time. A negative comment spreads like wild fire in the Internet and there are many who jump in the bandwagon, some doing it seriously while some adding a negative comment just for the kicks. Either way, your sales figure can pirouette and dip if you do not take concrete steps to resolve the matter. The answer is online reputation management.

Here are some ways to use online reputation management:

1. You can respond to the negative blog with a clarifying post. You can write them as comments in the blogs and message boards that have written ill about you .If you have proofs to back your stand, it is even better. You may even add a link that takes you to your corporate blog. While countering negative post, you must make sure that you do not use harsh language or any amount of exaggeration that makes readers even more suspicious.
2. You can host a corporate blog in conjuction to the complaints forum site. Readers will definitely benefit from this because they will be able to see both sides of the picture. A corporate blog can even be hosted as a part of your main website. Make sure the language in your corporate blog is polite but assertive. Using keyword rich content in your blog works for optimizing your web-page too.
3. Taking a leaf from the second point, make sure that whatever content you are adding either to your corporate blog, message boards or even on your main site, should be keyword rich. If you optimize your web-page well, there is a fair chance that your brand comes on the first page of the search engine.
4. Make sure you add the latest stories, achievements, success stories, customer testimonials, press releases etc on various article directories apart from your main websites.
5. Get access to trade magazines which reports on your business. Find out the latest buzz and if your company is going to be a part of a trend, make sure you let the readers know about it. Market your product or even soft-sell it in social networking websites. Participate in online business communities to get the pulse of the market and find out how you can use the news and data to formulate a strategy to give more exposure to your brand.

Online reputation management-Look who is talking now

Online reputation management and the power of social media are quite important for fortifying your company’s presence, and directing traffic to your website. What exactly is social media? Well it is the platform that allows each one of us the freedom to say what you want through blogs, message boards. You are able to share your views and opinions with a lot of people who agree, disagree or endorse your statements. Public relations are no more a domain frequented by professionals and journalists. Spreading the word is an attitude of the people, for the people and by the people. As close to democracy, isn’t it?


Quite evidently, people will trust the junta(the common people) or high-brow PR experts or journalists. The empathy factor is quite high as people write in a comment or two endorsing the complaint written by a person in her blog. People are talking and how! Not just with written matter but also in an audio-visual format. Which means, that people are now uploading pictures, videos of any scenario of bad customer experience so that others can see the naked truth in full color. Blog posting or pod-casting can be summed up as once bitten, twice sly. No one can take the good ol’ consumer for a ride.


No company can satisfy all of its customers all the time. There are bound to be some criticisms for a discrepancy which can happen either voluntarily or involuntarily. Companies therefore have to monitor each and every piece of content with reference to their brand that is dished online. Monitoring and tracking the blogs and message boards thus becomes a crucial part of online reputation management. Companies have to do their duty diligently and smartly. One of the best methods to sustain their brand image and increase their customer base is through online reputation management. By virtue of this strategy, you will be able to give more exposure to your brand and make sure that your brand rules on the first page of every search engine.