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What Is It?
According to Christine M. Barney, CEO of Miami-based rbb
Communications, reputation management has its roots in the term
“goodwill,” which has long been considered an intangible business
asset. “It’s the art of protecting your brand from anything that would
disrupt its ability to thrive,” she says. “You have to review every aspect
of your performance so that your brand matches what you want to see
in the mirror.”
“Public relations professionals have included reputation manage-
ment among their myriad responsibilities from day one,” says Chris
Boesch, vice president of corporate communications at Interval
Leisure Group. “What’s changed the landscape is the number of
channels and the speed at which news is now disseminated. It’s
critical for the PR team to work closely with all departments to
ensure that messaging is strategically driven and consistent across
the organization.”
A company’s ongoing reputation affects its ability to succeed.
Companies with the best reputations can attract the best employees.
Companies with strong reputations are perceived as providing more
value, so they may be able to charge higher prices. Their customers are
more loyal and buy broader ranges of products and services. This halo
effect can mean financial markets will believe that these companies will
deliver sustained earnings and future growth, so they will have higher
values and lower capital costs.
It has to begin at the top, says Jacques Hart, CEO of Miami-based
Roar Media. “Executive management has to set the tone. It’s incumbent
upon them to communicate the company’s values far and wide.”
For example, an engineer could take a shortcut on a product design
in order to meet a deadline, which ends up causing accidents. If the
engineer believed that the company places safety above speed,
perhaps she would have missed the deadline but delivered
safer specs, which would have protected the company’s
reputation (and prevented injuries).
Stevi Wara, vice president of creative services and
brand management at Diamond Resorts International,
agrees. “The entirety of reputation management lies
with leadership, ensuring teams are living up to the
brand promise,” she says. “Our PR and social media teams
can run a successful campaign, but all of that means nothing if the cus-
tomer’s experience is not analogous to the brand promise. How was
the customer treated during the sales process? How was the guest’s
experience at check-in? How quickly did we respond to an inquiry, and
what is the guest going to say about their experience? All of this has an
impact on the company’s reputation, so we take the guest experience
very seriously.”
At Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Edward Kinney, global vice
president, puts it simply: “Culture drives execution, and execution
drives results.”
Corporate Responsibility
Although everyone plays a part in reputation management, someone
still has to have primary responsibility. Who that is will depend on the
company, but that person must have the authority to
direct messaging across multiple channels.
“Public relations and reputation management are
joined at the hip,” Kinney says. “You need to have a
proactive strategy that you continue to reinforce
through all channels. In social media, for example, you
have marketing of member offers and brand messaging; you’re
managing dialogues with existing owner services, such as creating a
signature drink or hosting a music festival; and then the third arm is
issue resolution on a real-time basis. It all has to work as one.”
At Starwood Vacation Ownership, reputation management is
managed by the company’s communications team. “This has allowed
us to take a strategic and integrated approach to maximize our oppor-
tunities in providing quality and consistent communications to owners
and guests across all channels,” says David Calvert, director of brand
communications and social responsibility.
Hart, whose firm has worked with many different companies, says
that those who integrate marketing and PR under one umbrella are
most effective. “Conversely, some have decided to bifurcate, and they
can compete against each other,” he says.
Often, companies hire firms that specialize in reputation manage-
ment to manage social media and online content. “An outside
perspective can help identify threats and provide best practices in
building an online presence,” Barney says. “It also helps because
outside counsel doesn’t have their own turf, so they can build bridges
between departments.”
Online Tactics
Because so many consumers do online research before
buying anything, an important element to reputation
management is pushing positive content onto the
Web. Creating resort videos to post on YouTube, and
maintaining a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, and an
Instagram account are all ways to create sites that show
up in search engines when consumers type in your brand. Regularly
posting content means that search engine algorithms will rank those
sites higher than those with static content.
Review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor also play a role. “The
idea of an expert has changed; people are interested in the opinion of
their peers,” Barney says. Although negative reviews will happen —
no one is perfect — a quick response from management can turn the
review around. A 2015 study by Medallia found that hotel properties
that actively engage with social media reviews grow occupancy at
double the rate of properties that don’t. But don’t take forever to
respond: Properties that responded to feedback in less than a day on
average had average occupancy rates 12.8 percent higher than proper-
ties taking longer than two days.
The worst response? Posting fake reviews. “You have to embrace
honesty and transparency,” Roth says. “As ARDA or Vacation Better,
we would never pretend we’re a happy timeshare owner. In today’s
world, you can’t hide behind anything.”
Using listening tools (see “Listening In” on page 16) can alert you
when your company is being mentioned online, both positively and
negatively. “It can take time to set that up and identify the keywords
that are applicable, but you need to be intent on listening to what’s
being said and have a process to deal with it,” Hart says. “You can
come up with boilerplate copy that customer service or social media
staff can use. If needed, they can say they need time to research and
respond in a thoughtful manner. The biggest thing is to anticipate what
may occur and have the infrastructure in place to respond.”
Timeshare’s Challenge
With a product that’s primarily sold and delivered in person, vacation
ownership has myriad touchpoints that can enhance or detract from
both the overall industry’s and individual company’s reputations. Then
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