What's your Reputation Quotient?

By: Robert F. Abbott

Article Summary: Enjoying a good reputation with the public takes corporate communication strategies and skills in several areas.

Haven't heard of the Reputation Quotient? Well that's two of us. I just recently discovered the RQ, as it's called.

In a nutshell, Reputation Quotient refers to a company's ranking in an annual corporate-reputation survey by the Reputation Institute and the market-research firm Harris-Fombrun. It includes only highly visible corporations, and rankings are based on extensive polling of American consumers. Think of it as the Peoples' Choice Award for corporate reputations.

As with most awards, the rewards are somewhat abstract. But, for companies that can't easily differentiate themselves from competitors, the award will have value. For the others, there's always that indefinable but prestigious idea of goodwill. Which may or may not translate into greater sales and profits.

Criteria for the reputation quotient award include emotional connection, quality of products and services; social responsibility; financial performance; vision & leadership; and the workplace environment.

Overall, the best way to win the award is through great customer service, which turns out to be a key component of emotional connection and other criteria. As a senior Harris executive notes, excellent customer service leads to a stronger emotional connection with customers, as well as increased confidence that the company stands behind its products.

Let's note how big a role corporate communication, both internal and external communication, might play in winning the award. Customer service, for example, is almost entirely about communication. In particular, it involves listening to customers and their troubles. It's not just solving problems, it's also providing a sympathetic ear and an empathetic tone.

Product or service quality, as we know from Total Quality Management days, begins with customers, with listening to and watching them. In essence, they send messages and we'd better be listening. Quality is always judged by the consumer, not the vendor.

Financial performance may not fit our common ideas about communication, but it does have a place. Strong financial results communicate that shareholder interests have been served, that jobs are secure, and that suppliers can safely extend credit.

Vision and leadership - there's not much other than communication in this double-barrelled criterion. Yes, some character traits affect vision and leadership, but most of all they involve the articulation of a common goal, and someone who will guide the organization as it moves toward the goal. And, how does a leader guide an organization? With good communication, of course.

Workplace environment has many components, including corporate communication. Think of the critical role of communication in allowing the integration of diverse operations, of its role in lubricating the social gears, and of its basic information-transfer function.

In summary, corporate communication plays an overarching role in creating and maintaining reputations, both personal and corporate. It weaves itself into and through every criterion that defines an organization's reputation quotient. Your company's public reputation could get a boost with social online portfolios CEO or top executives. See  Sisel's Tom Mower for example.