Coming back from an injury, or trying to rebuild after your store
has been completely destroyed is a slow, agonizing process. The thought of ''is
it worth it'' will cross your mind more than once, I'm sure. But in order to
come back stronger than ever, you must realize progress is a slow process that
won't happen overnight, but instead, over time.
So, it has come to your attention that you
have somehow developed a negative reputation online. You start to see that it
is taking a chunk out of your profit and you are beginning to lose customers.
What do you do now? How do you start to repair your reputation? While there are
many ways to begin this process, and just as many options available for you to
start repairing, you must understand one of the most important things about
this. This will be a slow process from start to finish.
The progress you are looking to make won't
happen overnight--it is simply too much work involved for this to take a week
or two. It would be fair to say that you are looking at an uphill battle of a
couple of months. You have to realize that not only do you have to rebuild your
reputation, but after you are done with that, you have to get the customers you
lost back. And, that is not a guarantee.
I will say this though, depending on the
severity of your reputation damage, it won't take as long as others. However,
you still shouldn't expect to be out of the hole in hurry. In my opinion, I
think you should take advantage of this period. It gives you a chance to go
over weaknesses in your business plan. Further, you are given the opportunity
to implement a newer version of what you were doing before. In a way, it’s a
blessing in disguise, except that it has come at the expense of your business operations
for the time being.
Taking your time to ensure you are making
the right amount of progress is very important. If you choose to rush back, you
are leaving holes you received in the predicament still uncovered. You are
pretty much saying 'hold my spot, I'll be back." You cannot afford to take
any shortcuts in this situation and think you will still be able to do
business, because the sad reality is you won't have a business to operate.
As time progresses, customers will see the
changes you have made and will soon begin to migrate back to you. While the
process is long and slow, what matters is you are back stronger than before and
are now fully equipped to resume business like you were doing before.
Time waits for no man. With this is mind,
it is important to make sure you are utilizing the time you have to rebuild
your business and make it stronger and better than it was before.