When I first started out in digital marketing, online reviews were barely “a thing.” A few customers would go on Google or Facebook and post a comment or two—but for the most part, the notion of customer reviews was limited to word-of-mouth or positive testimonials posted on websites. There simply wasn’t any reputation management software because the need wasn’t there. My, how times have changed.
Today, more than 95% of potential customers check online reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook before selecting a business or service provider. Additionally, there are more than 300 generalized and industry-specific websites where customers can review everything, from car mechanics to lawyers and accountants. Your brand can take a hit instantly, especially if you fail to respond.
Depending on the size of your small business and the industry in which you operate, managing your online reputation can be a full-time job. It is complex, challenging, and—without the right tools—overwhelming. We reviewed dozens of providers to create this list of best reputation management tools to help you cut through the clutter and choose the best option for your small business. Here’s how they stack up:
- BrightLocal: Best Overall Reputation Management Software
- Nextiva: Best AI-enabled Reputation Tools
- Sprout Social: Simplest Integrated Social Media & Review Management Tool
- NiceJob: Most User-friendly Reputation Management Software
- Birdeye: Best for Improving Customer Experience
- Reputation: Most Comprehensive Reputation Management Tools
- Doctible: Best Reputation Management Tools for Medical Practices
Best Reputation Management Software at a Glance
Providers | Pricing | Features | Learn more |
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$59/month |
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From $149/month |
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From $249/month |
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Free-forever plan Paid plan: $75/month |
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From $299/month |
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Custom pricing |
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Custom pricing |
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BrightLocal: Best Overall Reputation Management Software
BrightLocal is a software suite that includes reputation management, search engine optimization (SEO) and site audit tools, and online business directory listings management. Its relative ease of use and reporting dashboard unify reputation management into a single interface while providing you the ability to read, respond to, and highlight reviews in real time. All of this comes at a remarkably affordable $59 a month. These are just a few of the reasons BrightLocal is our best choice for reputation management software.
With BrightLocal, you can connect to more than 80 websites where customers leave reviews. These sites include popular destinations like Google, Yelp, and Yahoo, as well as dozens of industry-specific sites, like Hotels.com, caring.com, and Houzz.com. This gives you the ability to track your reputation on the “big” sites as well as smaller niche sites where customers go to compare providers in specific industries.
While it is our overall choice for best reputation management tools, it’s not necessarily the right choice for every small business. Its dashboard includes some data tracking, but it lacks the granular data of other, more advanced reputation management systems. If your business is data-driven, give Reputation a try instead.
At just $59 per month, you can’t beat BrightLocal’s price point. While it doesn’t offer a free trial, the service is month to month, meaning you can try it with relatively low risk to ensure that it’s right for you. Sign-up is easy and fast, and you can be up and running in just a couple of hours.
Don’t have time to manage your own reputation? Don’t panic! These best reputation management services will handle it all for you.
Nextiva: Best AI Tools for Managing Your Business Reputation
With Nextiva reputation management software, you can automate much of the review management process thanks to a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) engine that can categorize, sort, and automatically respond to reviews. This cuts down the work monitoring reviews and frees you up for more pressing issues, like addressing negative feedback. A ticketing and help desk system improves workflow, and a tagging and alerts system keeps you up to date as reviews come in.
Nextiva’s dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of your online reputation and allows you to track how your business is doing. A competitor analysis tool will show you how you stack up against as many as three competitors. With six months of historical data, you can see the overall performance of your brand and identify any trends that might exist.
Nextiva’s reputation management system is powerful, but it doesn’t tick all the boxes some businesses might need, particularly if they’re looking for comprehensive data or a more user-friendly experience. Navigating Nextiva’s dashboard is challenging, and it can be a little thin on reporting features. For advanced reporting, Reputation is a better choice. If you’re looking for the easiest solution, choose NiceJob instead.
Nextiva’s AI tools and all-in-one inbox can make managing your online reputation simple, especially once you’ve overcome the learning curve. The auto-responder cuts down on some of the work, while sorting and tagging reviews can keep you on top of issues as they arise. If you run into problems, Nextiva’s support knowledge base is pretty extensive and features walk-throughs of almost every aspect of using the software.
Sprout Social: Simplest Integrated Social Media & Review Management Tool
From a reputation management standpoint, Sprout Social’s tools seem basic at first glance. However, for most small businesses, this simplicity is the platform’s biggest strength. You don’t have to spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of reputation management—and since the dashboard integrates reputation management and social media into one platform, you’re able to control the narrative about your business much easier.
Sprout Social enables you to schedule social media posts as well as respond to positive and negative reviews. A handy sort feature allows you to find the reviews most in need of your attention, whether positive or negative. The single dashboard gives you complete control over your messaging, both from a review and social media standpoint. You can even reply to direct messages from the dashboard without having to log into your social media accounts.
With Sprout Social, you can monitor and respond to reviews on the following platforms:
- Yelp
- Glassdoor
- Tripadvisor
- Apple App Store
- Google Play Store
Sprout Social’s simplicity might be a deal-breaker for businesses needing more advanced reputation management tools like automated responders and review alerts. Also, Sprout Social only connects to seven review sites, including Google and Yelp. This can freeze out businesses in niche industries that need to manage more specialized review sites like Angi or Home Advisor. For more review control, go with BrightLocal or Reputation.
If you’re looking for a simple solution that unites reputation management with social media, choose Sprout Social. Its easy-to-navigate dashboard provides ample control over multiple social media platforms, and you can monitor and respond to reviews all from a single place.
NiceJob: Most User-friendly, Comprehensive Reputation Management Software
NiceJob reputation management software provides a comprehensive suite of reputation management tools for connecting across a wide range of general and specialized review sites. It packs tons of capabilities into a simple-to-use interface that you can master in just a few minutes. Also, a mobile interface allows you to keep on top of reviews while you’re on the go. NiceJob even includes a widget to display reviews on your small business website.
In addition to its ease of use, NiceJob integrates with more than 1,000 business applications, like QuickBooks, Jobber, and Intercom, so you can easily import customers’ email addresses and phone numbers to get reviews in Google, Yelp, and other review websites. You can also respond to reviews quickly and easily from the NiceJob dashboard.
While NiceJob is easy to use and comes with a lot of features, you might find it more expensive than you’d like. To save a bit of money, BrightLocal provides many of the same features at a lower price. Data reporting is also somewhat thin with NiceJob—for a more data-rich experience, choose Reputation.
NiceJob provides an easy-to-use mobile app, a web-based dashboard, and the ability to connect to dozens of review sites, including many industry-specific sites. The system is easy to use and provides ample control over your online reputation management. Try NiceJob risk-free with their free-forever plan.
Pro tip: If you lack the time or resources to undertake your own reputation management, you still have options. Enlist the reputation management services of leading digital marketing agencies like SEO Discovery, with plans starting as low as $199 per month.
Birdeye: Best for Improving Customer Experience
Birdeye reputation management software provides a series of features to boost brand engagement and customer feedback. Its built-in survey tool allows you to solicit feedback, but the reports produce actionable insights and intelligence you can use to improve customer outcomes. Coupled with the ability to monitor and respond to reviews on more than 200 websites, few other reputation management suites give you the reach of Birdeye.
The Birdeye system is built around its dashboard, which easily organizes and categorizes actions and reporting. The overview provides you with a “bird’s-eye view” of your brand on the web, while each tab gives you a dedicated set of functions for that tab’s subject. For example, the listings tab allows you to not only manage your listing, but also to review how it is performing and optimize that listing right from the dashboard.
The biggest drawback of Birdeye is its social media integration, which is spread across all three plans. For the most integration, including social media management and monitoring, you have to subscribe to the top tier of service. In many other platforms, social media management is available in the base tier of service. If you need to manage your social media platforms, choose Nextiva or Sprout Social—both of which offer social media management much cheaper.
For businesses that need to monitor reviews, well, everywhere, there’s no better tool than Birdeye. You can monitor and respond to reviews on more than 200 sites. With the Dominate plan, your social media becomes a powerhouse for generating leads and growing brand presence. Schedule a demo today with Birdeye and find out if it’s the right platform for you.
Reputation: Most Comprehensive Reputation Management Software
Reputation provides an online reputation management suite with tools to monitor and respond to reviews on more than 200 websites, manage social media, build location-specific landing pages, and more. Its extensive offerings on so many platforms make it ideal for businesses in a diverse set of industries, including automotive services, hospitality, and financial services.
If your business utilizes a customer relationship manager (CRM) or customer-driven bookkeeping system like QuickBooks, Reputation can integrate with that system to enable review and survey solicitation, as well as to track referrals. It also offers a help desk ticketing system to further improve customer communications and experience.
The biggest shortcoming of Reputation is its a la carte model. For most small businesses, a one-size-fits-all approach is both more user-friendly and affordable—and that’s certainly the case with Reputation. If you need an all-in-one reputation management system for a low price, switch to NiceJob or BrightLocal.
If your small business needs to track reviews across a wide range of review sites, as well as manage multiple locations and build a help desk tracking system, Reputation is your best option. Its team of experts will build a custom solution for your small business, including integrating Reputation’s tools into your customer relationship manager (CRM), bookkeeping system, sales funnel, and more. Schedule a demo or request a proposal on the Reputation website.
Doctible: Best Reputation Management Tools for Medical Practices
If you operate a medical or dental practice, Doctible provides a suite of tools to help you automate your reputation management and incorporate your online persona into everything you do in your practice. Its tools include patient messaging, email marketing, and communications features to keep in touch with patients. Doctible makes it easy to solicit, track, and respond to reviews on Facebook and Google.
With Doctible’s review generator, you can automate review requests from patients via text message (SMS). Patients can leave a review right from their smart device without having to log into their patient portal. If the patient wishes, they can lodge a complaint rather than leave a review—streamlining the feedback process and giving you a tool to improve patient feedback and, potentially, patient outcomes.
The single most obvious shortcoming of Doctible is that it only connects to Google and Facebook. While Google and Facebook account for the vast majority of online reviews, even in the medical space there are dozens of other medical-specific review sites that you need to track and monitor. If you want to expand your reputation management to cover those sites, choose Birdeye or Reputation instead.
Incorporating reputation management into your clinic management program helps you stay on top of what patients share online. Track reviews in real time through the Doctible dashboard and see an overview of your performance. With its integrated complaints tool, you can rapidly respond to patients who may have had a less-than-optimal experience and address their concerns—without ever leaving the Doctible system. Schedule a demo at their website for more information.
Learn more…
- Discover why reputation management is integral for effective website marketing.
- See how to leverage positive reviews in digital marketing to increase conversions.
- Find out which of the best digital marketing agencies provide reputation management as part of their core services.
How We Compared the Best Reputation Management Software
To assess reputation management software, we took a deep dive into more than a dozen programs, examining the features and tools each offered. We also relied on more than 20 years of hands-on experience managing reputations online to assess the effectiveness and usefulness of the providers we selected. Here’s a breakdown of how we assessed these providers:
- General features: All reputation management suites provide a certain set of tools to manage online reviews, respond to positive and negative reviews in real time, and solicit feedback from customers. We looked at how easy these features are to use and how effective each tool was at providing insights into your online reputation.
- Niche features: Many providers offered value-added tools like social media management or location-specific landing pages. Some offered business profile management and reputation tracking on hundreds of websites. We examined each niche feature and weighed its usefulness to small businesses.
- Ease of use: Reputation management can be complex. We studied each tool’s dashboard, read support articles, and scoured online reviews to assess the user-friendliness of each platform. Software that was easier to use scored higher than tools that might prove too complicated for novice users.
- Pricing: Reputation management tools aren’t necessarily the cheapest of business software to purchase. Nevertheless, we weighed the price of each platform against what the platform provided, giving extra weight to those that came in cheapest.
- Expert opinion: We took into account firsthand experience with reputation management, relying on our own knowledge of the processes and needs of small businesses in this space. We considered how well each platform addressed the core need: to manage your reputation online.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why do I need a reputation management strategy?
More than 95% of customers check online reviews(1) before they make a purchase decision. This one statistic makes tracking and responding to online reviews one of the most important aspects of building your brand presence and attracting customers. An effective reputation management strategy is critical to keeping abreast of what your customers are saying and providing you the opportunity to address concerns or adjust practices to improve customer satisfaction.
What are reputation management tools?
Reputation management tools include standalone software suites and web-based tools to monitor and respond to customer reviews left on sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp. These provide both raw data about reviews and insights about how best to address negative reviews that may come up. Additionally, many reputation management tools include features to streamline customer engagement, from soliciting reviews to communicating directly with customers to address their concerns.
What are some reputation management strategies?
Reputation management strategies are an important part of monitoring and growing your online presence. These strategies include directly soliciting feedback from customers, responding to that feedback as you receive it, and monitoring feedback across multiple review channels. Additional strategies require communicating with customers about potential issues and responding in a timely fashion to those issues to improve customer outcomes.
How can I manage my brand’s reputation online?
You can manage your brand’s reputation without reputation management software by going to each review site, reading the reviews, and responding to those reviews. You’ll also have to request reviews on an individual basis, which can be time-consuming. Streamlining the process of reputation management can improve your overall brand reputation by helping you stay on top of what customers are saying across multiple channels and giving you the tools necessary to communicate directly with customers or respond to reviews as needed.
Bottom Line
Managing your reputation online is a complex process, but you can simplify it by choosing the right reputation management software for your small business. Our overall best choice for reputation management is BrightLocal. It offers most of the tools and features you need at a price virtually any small business can afford. Learn more about how BrightLocal can help you improve and manage your reputation on their website.
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