Managing Your Online Reputation with Author Joel Mandelbaum

The most recent episode of our podcast “Solving the Driver Problem” features Joel Mandelbaum, author of the best-selling book Winning Online: Increase Your Visibility and Crush Your Competition. 

Rea and Mandelbaum discuss how to manage your online reputation and use it to improve your driver recruiting efforts. To learn more about how to capture positive reviews and give your potential drivers a positive first impression, check out their conversation.

Why is Online Reputation so Important For Driver Recruiting?

“Just like no one’s going to buy from you if they don’t trust you, no one is going to work for you if they don’t trust you. They’re going to want to know what other drivers think.” - Joel Mandelbaum

If you’re looking to buy a phone case on Amazon, are you going to snag the one that has an average review rating of three-stars, or the one that has five? We all like a little assurance before we buy something, and it works similarly with your drivers. 

Before a driver will even apply to your company, they’re on Glassdoor and Indeed checking out what other drivers have to say about you. You don’t need us to tell you that the competition is stiff. You’re vying with dozens of other carriers for those all-star drivers, and online reputation plays a major role in their decision-making. Without glowing reviews online, you’ll struggle to land high quality drivers. They’ll go down the street and work for your competitor if they have better driver reviews than you do.

The First Step in Improving your Employer Brand 

“The starting position should be, what’s your positioning online? In other words, what are people saying about you online? If you haven’t checked your company’s reputation, you’re really working blindly.” - Joel Mandelbaum

You could have a problem with your online reputation and not even realize it. It could be costing you missed opportunities on drivers and lost time with drivers not showing up to interviews. Before you can do anything about it, you have to see what’s out there about your company.

Mandelbuam recommends getting on Yahoo, Google, and Bing and searching for reviews about your company. Try a few different word combinations, and even throw in phrases like “rip-off” or “scam” to see what your company name is attached to. You may be surprised at what you find.

Once you find out how severe the problem is (or isn’t), then you can formulate a plan. Here are a few next steps every company should take:

• Integrate reviews into your website
• Encourage your best veteran drivers to leave reviews about you online
• Reach out to sites to remove untrue reviews about you
• Professionally address negative reviews and offer to resolve the issue

Get Serious About Your Online Reputation

If you want to solve your driver problem, then it’s time to get serious about your online reputation. Drivers look at and care about the reviews of your company. They don’t want to waste their time applying for poorly-rated carriers. Take control of your employer brand and let drivers know you’re a great company to work for.

Useful Links:

• AvatarFleet's Building a Driver Brand Statement eBook
• AvatarFleet'sBuyer  Personas Templates
• Winning Online: Increase Your Visibility and Crush Your Competition
• Tips for building your employer brand