How to Maintain Your Reputation as a Manufacturing Firm

Phil Black - PII Editor 13/09/2022

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Maintaining a good reputation as a manufacturing firm can be hard. Often, employees focus on more pressing tasks. However, a good reputation is something that takes a while to build up and needs effort to maintain. It might be wise to bring in professionals to help or to focus management strategy to ensure that the firm's reputation is being considered properly. With this in mind, how do you build and maintain your reputation?

Manage your public relations

A PR company can help build brand awareness and generate interest in a business. It may not be necessary to work with one full-time, but it is useful to at least have a public relations strategy in place. This can help focus any marketing efforts and ensure that the image projected to the world is the right one for the firm and reaches more customers. It also means that if something goes wrong with the company's reputation, there is a plan in place to deal with the damage quickly and effectively. How a company responds to a problem under the world's scrutiny can either result in a PR disaster or boost the company's image.

Insurance

People are usually more lenient if a firm has suffered a setback out of its control (such as a fire), but if the company has the correct insurance in place to get up and to run again quickly (or even allow you to still fulfil orders), their reputation will soar.

In contrast, if it is negligence that has led to a difficult situation, you still need to be able to deal with the situation quickly and without cost to the rest of your business. Without the proper protection in place, it can be hard to stay calm and respond rationally. However, if the firm has full insurance protection, it is easier to relax and know whether the claim is justified or not. For example, you need to have the right errors and omissions insurance coverage to deal with it effectively and promptly.

Focus on areas of importance to the world

Certain areas of a business attract more attention from the world than others – over time, these change. If a firm does not pay attention to these (or even be outright negligent), it can suffer severe reputational damage.

One area that cannot be neglected in today's world is employee welfare. As a result, customers and businesses choose to only interact with companies that show this area is important to them.

Employee welfare should always be high on a firm's priority list – if only because a happy, healthy workforce is a more productive one. Health and safety standards must be high, and employees who flag any unsafe practices should be fully supported. Regular breaks and time off should be encouraged, and managers should learn to delegate and not micromanage. Social media has meant that any bad welfare practices can and will be highlighted – causing massive reputational damage as they have the benefit of proof.

Quality

If a business's reputation relies on the quality of its products (particularly compared to competitors), it can't afford to slip. This might mean extra care is taken in selecting raw materials. It might mean using new or well-maintained equipment. This is not an area where it pays to cut corners, even to save a bit of money. Therefore, it is important to ensure that any revenue sources are solid to maintain an income stream. Having a good reputation and wielding it properly should help with this.