Your business reputation isn’t just what people say about you — it shapes customer trust, influences purchasing decisions, and directly impacts revenue. Consider this: 93% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. A single negative experience, amplified across review sites and social media, can deter potential buyers, while glowing recommendations can fuel steady growth.
However, brand reputation extends beyond the realm of the digital world. It lives in everyday conversations, what customers say to friends, family, and colleagues. The way businesses manage their reputation has evolved, shifting from word-of-mouth reliance to sophisticated online tools that track, analyze, and enhance customer feedback in real time.
That’s where reputation management solutions come in. Whether you’re a small business looking to improve your local standing or an enterprise managing thousands of locations, choosing the right solution can make or break your customer experience strategy. This guide will walk you through the landscape of reputation management, and compare different approaches — from software platforms to full-service providers — so you can find the best fit for your business needs.
Reputation management is the process of shaping public perception by monitoring, influencing, and one of the major benefits of it is maintaining a positive brand image across both digital and physical channels. Good reputation management should be proactive. It should involve actively tracking and acting on customer feedback to ensure experience truly resonate with their customers.
Unfortunately, many reputation management software and strategies are reactive, with a focus on damage control after something has gone wrong, instead of preventing a negative experience in the first place.
Investing in good reputation management delivers significant advantages, including:
By strategically managing your reputation, you’re not just protecting your brand, you’re actively driving growth and long-term success.
Online reputation management involves social media engagement, review monitoring, and SEO, ensuring that positive content appears prominently in search results. Offline reputation management focuses on word-of-mouth, in-person customer interactions, and the overall experience customers have with a business. While these may seem separate, they are deeply interconnected; a poor in-person experience can quickly turn into a negative online review, while strong digital engagement can enhance brand perception and trust in the real world.
As digital platforms and social media have become dominant, reputation management has evolved from traditional PR methods to real-time, data-driven approaches. Businesses now have access to tools that allow them to proactively manage feedback, respond to concerns, and amplify positive customer experiences.
Key reputation management solutions include:
When it comes to managing your reputation, businesses typically have two main options: hiring a reputation management company or using reputation management software or tool, or a combination of both. The right choice depends on your needs, budget, and the level of control you want over the process.
Hiring a reputation management firm may be the right move if:
For businesses looking for a more cost-effective and scalable solution, reputation management software may be the better choice — offering automation, real-time monitoring, and actionable insights without the need for an external agency.
Reputation management software is ideal for businesses that want to take a proactive, in-house approach to monitoring and improving their reputation. Consider this option if:
Choosing the right reputation management solution depends on your business needs, budget, and level of control you want over your brand’s public perception. Below is a comparison of some of the top reputation management companies and tools available today.
AskNicely is a customer experience and reputation management platform designed to help businesses collect real-time feedback, drive customer loyalty, and improve frontline team performance. You could have all the insights in the world, but without acting on them, they mean nothing. So AskNicely provides an automated approach to acting on feedback, including reputation management.
Key features:
Reviews:
Users appreciate AskNicely’s intuitive interface, seamless automation, and ability to drive measurable improvements in customer experience through proactively engaging with customer feedback.
Pros and cons:
✔️Proative - focuses on improving customer experience to enhance reputation
✔️ Easy to use with strong automation features
✔️ Helps businesses take real-time action on customer feedback
✔️ Encourages frontline engagement with real-time insights
✘ Primarily designed for service-based businesses, which may limit its applicability to certain industries
What kind of companies use AskNicely?
AskNicely is best suited for service-driven businesses, including multi-location brands in industries like healthcare, finance, home services, and education. Companies that prioritize frontline employee engagement and customer experience improvement will benefit most from its capabilities.
G2 ratings:
AskNicely consistently receives high ratings on G2 for ease of use, customer support, and its impact on customer experience management.
Birdeye is a reputation management platform focused on online reviews, messaging, and surveys. It helps businesses manage their online presence across multiple review sites.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Local businesses looking for an all-in-one platform for online reviews, messaging, and lead generation.
Pros
✔ Strong review management and automation features
✔ Includes customer messaging for direct interaction
Cons
✘ Heavily focused on negative reviews rather than broader customer experience management
✘ Limited frontline team engagement tools
✘ Can be costly for small businesses and startups with multiple locations
Reputation.com is an enterprise-level platform that manages online reviews, social media, and customer surveys to help brands improve their digital presence.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Large enterprises that need a centralized platform to manage reviews and social media at scale.
Pros
✔ Comprehensive analytics and reporting for reputation trends
✔ Multi-location management for large enterprises
Cons
✘ High cost, making it less accessible for small businesses
✘ Complex platform with a steep learning curve
✘ Less emphasis on real-time customer experience improvement
Podium is a messaging and payments platform that integrates reputation management with customer communication tools, helping businesses collect reviews and interact with customers via text.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Businesses that rely heavily on text-based customer interactions and want a combined messaging and reputation management solution.
Pros
✔ Strong focus on SMS and text-based customer engagement
✔ Automates review collection in a seamless way
Cons
✘ Primarily designed for messaging, not deep CX insights
✘ Can be expensive for small businesses
✘ Limited reporting compared to more CX-focused platforms
Yext is a digital knowledge management platform with reputation management features, primarily focusing on business listings, SEO, and review monitoring.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Brands that prioritize SEO and need a centralized system for managing online business information.
Pros
✔ Excellent for local SEO and business listing consistency
✔ Streamlined review monitoring across multiple sites
Cons
✘ Primarily focused on search presence rather than experience improvement
✘ Lacks robust feedback collection tools
✘ Less emphasis on actionable frontline engagement
Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening platform that helps businesses monitor brand reputation through news, social media, and online conversations.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Brands that need comprehensive media monitoring and competitive insights.
Pros
✔ Strong AI-powered sentiment analysis
✔ Great for tracking brand mentions across various media
Cons
✘ Primarily designed for PR and media, not customer experience improvement
✘ Lacks real-time customer feedback tools
✘ Can be overwhelming for small businesses with fewer resources
WebiMax offers reputation management services that focus on helping businesses improve their online image through SEO, content creation, and review management. They provide both proactive and reactive solutions to manage brand reputation across various online platforms.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Businesses that need SEO-focused reputation management with a strategic approach to improving online visibility.
Pros
✔ Comprehensive SEO services for improving search rankings
✔ Crisis management services for brands in need of reputation repair
Cons
✘ Heavy focus on SEO, rather than real-time customer feedback
✘ May be too technical for businesses without in-house SEO expertise
✘ Expensive for smaller businesses
NetReputation provides services to improve a company’s online presence and reduce negative search results. It offers reputation repair, SEO, and review management as part of its service package.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Businesses and individuals needing quick action to repair a tarnished online reputation, especially those affected by negative press or reviews.
Pros
✔ Focus on reputation repair, especially for businesses with significant online challenges
✔ Strong SEO strategies to push down negative content
Cons
✘ More focused on repair than proactive reputation building
✘ Limited tools for continuous customer feedback collection
✘ High cost for reputation repair services
Thrive is a full-service digital marketing agency with a strong focus on reputation management through SEO, social media, and review management. They help businesses boost their online image with both organic strategies and paid efforts.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Companies looking for an all-in-one agency solution that integrates reputation management with broader digital marketing strategies.
Pros
✔ SEO-driven reputation strategies for improving online visibility
✔ Strong social media engagement tools
Cons
✘ Primarily service-focused, not built around real-time customer feedback
✘ Agency services can be expensive for small businesses
✘ Can be difficult to scale quickly due to the service-heavy model
GoFish Digital specializes in online reputation management with a focus on repairing and enhancing a brand’s reputation. They provide services like SEO, social media management, and review monitoring. They also help business owners with reputation management strategy, press releases, pay-per-click (ppc) marketing services, and more.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Businesses or individuals needing a comprehensive reputation management plan, particularly those who are looking for crisis management.
Pros
✔ In-depth SEO and social media strategies for boosting reputation
✔ Crisis management expertise for brands facing negative publicity
Cons
✘ Primarily focused on reputation repair rather than proactive reputation building
✘ Services can be costly for smaller brands
✘ Less emphasis on real-time customer feedback collection and action
Sprout Social is a social media management platform that offers reputation management tools, focusing on social listening and engagement to manage a brand’s online reputation.
Key features
Who it’s best for
Brands that rely heavily on social media for customer engagement and want to manage their reputation through these channels.
Pros
✔ Excellent social media reputation monitoring and engagement tools
✔ Real-time sentiment analysis to track brand perception
Cons
✘ Focuses mainly on social media, not comprehensive reputation management
✘ Lacks robust review management and survey collection tools
✘ Does not offer in-depth analytics for customer experience improvement
While the reputation management software discussed above focuses on addressing the surface-level symptoms of a brand's reputation — such as managing reviews, social media mentions, and online crises — AskNicely takes a deeper, more proactive approach.
By gathering real-time customer feedback and analyzing it to drive actionable improvements, AskNicely helps businesses tackle the root causes of customer dissatisfaction. This results in a more holistic and lasting improvement in customer experience, which, in turn, naturally enhances a brand’s reputation both online and offline. Rather than just masking the problem, AskNicely empowers businesses to continuously improve, creating a stronger foundation for long-term reputation success.
