Frequently these days, more of our clients are coming to us completely stunned. Because this particular type of reputation management client doesn’t even do business online. They own no website and they do not depend on the internet for any of their revenue.

Or do they?

More and more offline, bricks and mortar businesses are finding out that they do in fact do business online. That the reviews of their products and services by their clients / customers on the internet are effecting their sales and their company overall. Especially if the content online happens to be negative.

For years, offline companies have considered themselves exempt from online reviews of their products and services. But the internet is constantly evolving, as are consumers. If the consumer thinks they didn’t recieve the service or quality of product they felt they should, they will often take it online, posting a review on RipoffReport.com , Yelp.com , My3Cents.com , ComplaintsBoard.com , or any of a million other rants and complaints venues out there. They will have their pound of flesh and they will have their revenge, and in the end, the offline business will take the hit.

That hit will come in the form of lost future sales. Understand, you don’t have to do business online via a website for these review forums to impact your business. You only need to do business with the public. If you own a grocery store, an insurance company, a used car lot, or any type of local business, you too can now be attacked.

This is becoming more of an issue for local businesses and the customer reviews in the local search results. Understand, if you own a pizza parlor in Downtown, USA, perspective customers are checking out the reviews in the Google local search results. If they find bad service reviews or complaints that your products are awful, they will not visit your restaurant. If they are doing a search and find a million blogs screaming about how bad you are, they will stay away in droves.

Yes, you need to worry about your reputation online, even if you don’t think you do business online. Because in the end, you’ll find out that you do.

If you need help with managing your online reputation, give our office a call at 800.818.6286 for a free consultation.