I actually read an article like this today in my news feeds and it brought me to today’s article topic. Because it’s not the first time I’ve heard this position, and I think this is a dangerous posture to take.

Here’s the basics on what I read this morning. It was from a consultant that had some bad reviews online (I won’t post the link here because I don’t want to single him out). At either rate, this consultant was basically taunting his online stalkers, telling them point blank that the negative reviews and content that they had created on their blogs hadn’t affected his business at all. That business was booming and he felt he had no need at all to repair his reputation. Now or ever.

Pretty strong stuff, throwing down the gauntlet like that. Even stronger is taking the position that you are not going to work on your reputation online, hoping that the people that are satisfied with your work will be enough, and that those referrals will carry your company through thick and thin, forever.

A little naive if you ask me. Because it shows no foresight, and it leaves no room for growth. Sure, you can take care of the client base you have now, hoping they will return to you forever. That may happen, it may not. Every company suffers some losses in their client base over time, if only because clients age and die. At some point every company needs to replenish their customers and add new business, depending only on word of mouth referrals is fine, but it may not be enough.

Because more and more people rely on what they find online to determine who they are going to do business with. If you have negative reviews it is hurting your bottom line. In the case of today’s example, this consultant stated that he was currently turning away new client prospects, that he simply didn’t have the time to take care of them. Awesome, but that may not last forever. At some point he may want to grow his company. Add more staff and more clients, actually make some more money. At this point his reputation might come back around as an issue. At that point he may want to reconsider his earlier statements. At that point it might already be too late.

Understand that especially when business is booming you need to respect your online reputation and take good care of it. If you have negative stuff floating around out there you need to take care of it. Isolate it and control it. Erase it if you can. When things are booming is exactly the best time to take care of these problems. If you wait for a downturn it’s going to be more important, but it may not be possible due to cash constraints.

Bottom line is that it’s always important to repair your reputation if there is bad stuff floating around out there. It can and will come back to bite you if you don’t.