How to Choose the Best Reputation Management Company for Your Needs

Whether you’re a business owner or head of a team, finding a reliable reputation management services provider to suit your business objectives can be a challenge. Some might see it as an act of faith: when you hire a reputation management company, you’re entrusting them with an important aspect of your business. 

With 58% of surveyed US adults agreeing that a company's reputation is a major factor in purchasing a product or service, it’s clear that reputation matters. What’s more, reputation management is key to increasing your business visibility and building trust with your customers. 

In particular, your online reputation, spanning multiple social channels, can be difficult to consistently manage. Reliable reputation management that promotes your business in a transparent and compelling way is undoubtedly a valuable asset.

• What Do Online Reputation Management Services Include?
• Tips for Choosing the Right Online Reputation Management Company
• How We Help Companies Improve Online Reputation

What Do Online Reputation Management Services Include?

An online reputation management company delivers a host of services that create measurable business benefits. Every reputation management company is different, so it makes sense to research the pros and cons of reliable companies you want to work with. 

Businesses around the world are recognizing the value of bringing an online reputation management company on board to support their brand reputation efforts. In fact, the global online reputation management market is expected to expand by 14.3% annually, reaching a valuation of USD 440.11 million by 2027.

Reputation monitoring

Reputation monitoring involves tracking brand mentions across social media, review websites and online platforms. Analyzing the results helps you to respond promptly to negative comments and supports a positive online presence. 

With 88% of customers saying they are highly likely to use a business that responds to all reviews, it’s clear that businesses that clearly and quickly communicate are consolidating customer engagement. 

Review management

Review management enables you to assess negative comments and reviews online so you can minimize their impact and resolve issues directly. This helps brands grow star ratings to help build stronger customer relationships. Delving into review insights will help you focus on how to improve online reputation. 

Search engine reputation management

Enhancing visibility and positive content in search, this process enables you to implement targeted SEO strategies to suppress negative search results and improve your search engine rankings. Overall, this helps you take control over your brand narrative and engage more closely with your customers. 

Social media management

Optimizing your presence online, social media management helps generate valuable online content that actively engages your customers. As you boost your social media presence, you’ll be able to respond more quickly to customer inquiries and drive more customer leads. 

Targeted marketing solutions

Focusing your marketing efforts on customized activities that expand your reach and target competitors’ customers can deliver measurable results. Examples include content marketing, email campaigns, and targeted ads, which all help build brand recognition. 

Tips for Choosing the Right Online Reputation Management Company

Defining your business goals and customer service aims will help you find the right online reputation management (ORM) company that aligns with your brand missions. The tips below will help you select an ORM service that positively supports your brand vision.

Understand Your Goals

Before you start to look for a reputation management consultant or ORM company, it’s likely you want to have a set of clearly defined goals that meet your customers’ expectations. Do you want to improve your customer review response time or reply more constructively to negative reviews?

With a set of clear goals, you can look for a reputation management company that aligns with your needs. 

Research Potential ORM Companies

Looking at a range of online reputation management companies will help you understand your options. Read reviews and testimonials left by previous customers and consider the service offering, price and customer service package to find the reputation management consultant that delivers your business requirements. 

Check Company Portfolio

If you’re about to invest in bringing an online reputation management company onboard, gathering evidence of their credentials and experience helps create trust and credibility. 

Generally, if a company has a strong reputation for managing brand presence and a range of industry certifications and awards, they should have the expertise to support your goals. 

Find Customized Solutions

If you’re serious about garnering customer trust and activating reputation repair when necessary, then a general reputation management offering will not hit the spot. An online reputation management company that tailors their services to your business goals should be a more successful partnership. 

Look for Clarity

An open and transparent reputation management service that willingly shares the specifics of its processes is a stronger bet than one that is reluctant to provide information about its activities and the impact these have on its clients. 

Avoid Companies Suggesting Black-Hat Tactics

Black hat SEO techniques are designed to get you to the top of search engine results, but are usually contra to search engine company terms and conditions. If an ORM company suggests you practice keyword stuffing, invisible text, purchase backlinks or other unethical methods, this may damage your brand reputation. 

Other black-hat tactics you may want to avoid include astroturfing and review removal. Astroturfing occurs when a company publicly uses a comment or claim about their brand that appears to be from genuine customers but was actually generated by the company itself. 

The tactic of review removal can be very harmful for businesses. If it becomes well known that a brand has actively hidden negative reviews, their trust and credibility could be in serious jeopardy with customers. 

Confirm Communication Channels

If you can’t communicate effectively with an online reputation management company, then this may be a warning sign that the collaboration won’t be fruitful. Before you commit to a company, make sure that the communication channels are open and that you share mutual objectives. 

How We Help Companies Improve Online Reputation

Business reputation management is constantly evolving. Putting your brand’s online reputation into a consultancy’s hands can be a leap of faith, but doing your research and working with a company with a proven track record should result in greater brand visibility. 

As a reputable online reputation management company, PissedConsumer has numerous cases of helping businesses cope strategically with crises and improve their online reputation. 

Decreased Customer Complaints by 47% in Two Months

With a business that is now blooming, this client has a gardening company providing wholesale plants, trees and shrubs in the United States. Last year, the business began to notice an increase in negative feedback regarding their customer service with long waiting times and unanswered queries. 

After viewing online reviews left by frustrated customers and a noticeable impact on sales, the company decided to work with PissedConsumer as an expert online reputation management and customer support service. 

Our process began with reputation management and customer service audits which revealed some customer service issues, such as a lack of professionalism with some customer service agents, reduced data reliability and little process automation. 

In fact, much of the customer inquiry processing was done manually which was time-consuming. There were also multiple data systems in place, causing confusion and affecting customer service team performance. 

Once these audits were completed, we implemented some effective solutions that improved customer service operations and customer relationships.

1. Dedicated customer service team: a group of customer-centric experts who apply best practice in customer communications. 
2. Customer support workflow: a transformative customer service workflow, including templates for customer queries, communication scripts and complex case support with a systematic and consistent approach. 
3. Omnichannel customer service: customers have a smooth and reliable experience across all communication channels, including phone, email and chatbot services. We recommended using Gorgias as a single customer service solution alongside BigCommerce and ShipStation for consistent data flows contributing to performance improvements. 
4. Review management: We research the most appropriate platforms for clients and put strategies in place to raise their star ratings, such as TrustPilot, PissedConsumer and Sitejabber. 

Since we started processing all of the client’s reviews from 2022, customers who had negative experiences were contacted for issue resolution and encouraged to re-rate our client by sharing this with other customers in online review platforms. 

The results speak for themselves. Our collaboration has produced a 47% decrease in complaints and issue resolution times have reduced by 64%. First-time response has substantially decreased by 78%, with one-touch tickets resolution increasing by 14%. 

The client is now benefiting from an improved online brand reputation, and customers have the advantage of a smooth, efficient, and nurturing purchase experience. 

Enjoy the Wins with Professional Reputation Management

Reputation management is now a multi-layered process which needs time and careful supervision. Negativity can cause reputational damage if you don’t react quickly and resolve your customers’ issues. 

A professional reputation management company can implement specialist methods to strengthen and streamline your business operations and ensure customer satisfaction.