How to Manage Your Online Reputation as a Franchise Owner

Managing a positive reputation as a business owner is crucial, regardless of the industry you work in. Warren Buffet put it best when he said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”

Business reputation management can be tricky, however. Reputation management requires consistent time and effort, as well as a commitment to facing your professional flaws and correcting them in response to customer feedback. That self-reflection also allows your business to show what it does well. In our case, that’s connecting job seekers and employers to drive careers, grow businesses, and better the communities we call home. Positive reviews build great rapport with our clients and job seekers. They build trust among people considering working with you, which can lead to increased business relationships and revenue for the bottom line. 

At Spherion, we equip our franchisees to proactively seek out online reviews and respond genuinely with plans to keep doing what is working for our clients and candidates while improving upon areas that don’t meet expectations. 

How to Collect Online Reviews 

From the moment franchisees start the franchise process with us, we provide on-going advice to them about how to best collect customer reviews. The process can vary, but no matter how you go about it, you should ask for reviews at regular intervals: 

• When onboarding
• When placing candidates in jobs
• During their assignment
• As they transition to another role or company

We always follow FTC guidelines for collecting authentic, verifiable reviews on any platform. We believe in transparency with online reputation management and accept all feedback, good and bad. 

At the end of the day, we want to hear from our candidates and employers to find out how we can better serve them. 

How and When to Respond to Reviews

We encourage our franchisees to respond to every review. Job seekers and employers who take the time to give us praise or constructive feedback deserve the courtesy of knowing we appreciate their time, effort and sentiments. When reviews aren’t so positive, we recommend including a personal touch in the response that encourages the reviewer to reach out to our staff via phone or email so we can discuss the matter further and try to find an acceptable solution that all parties can agree upon. We also back our franchisees with operational, legal and HR support if needed because at Spherion, you never franchise alone. That holds true when it comes to building and maintaining your local office’s reputation.

Why Online Reviews Matter

In most cases, perception is often reality. Online reviews can sway potential job seekers and employers about whether or not to work with your business. A negative review trend can adversely affect revenue by influencing people who are researching your business online that they may need to satisfy their staffing needs elsewhere. 

On the other hand, positive reviews can encourage more people to work with your business, which can boost your progress toward your revenue or volume goals.

The 800 Award

At Spherion, we work with a reputation management partner, Reputation.com, to help with brand management and establish Spherion’s positive franchise reputation. Reputation.com offers a badge of honor for any business that consistently maintains a Reputation score of 800 (out of a perfect 1000) or above. The award is an important indicator that a business is effectively responding to customer feedback by turning that feedback into real improvements in their products, services, and processes. Many franchisees in the Spherion network have achieved this honor, including our franchisee Marme Kopp in Jacksonville, Florida. We celebrate franchisees who proactively communicate with clients and incorporate their feedback into their business strategy, like Marme.

Online reputation management is essential

Reputation management, in particular online reputation management, is essential to success in today’s fast-paced staffing world. Spherion’s dedicated reputation management tools allow franchisees to show what they do well and improve on what needs to be fixed within their business. We’re proud of our franchisees for representing Spherion’s core values and doing all in their power to create the best experience for each and every client—through building on  excellent reviews they receive, and for authentically responding to negative reviews while taking steps to improve. To learn more about how Spherion empowers franchisees to succeed in areas like reputation, visit our franchising section.