Why Agencies Don’t Offer Reputation Services—And the Hidden Opportunity They’re Missing
Why agencies don’t offer reputation services is a question that unveils overlooked challenges and opportunities for growth. Last year, GatherUp conducted a revealing survey that spotlighted the challenges marketing agencies face and the gaps in their services. Over half (56%) of the agencies surveyed admitted their biggest struggle was landing new clients, while 36% pointed to the difficulty of managing client expectations. On the flip side, their clients—small businesses—stated clearly what they needed most: help with SEO, web design, and digital advertising. Yet surprisingly, review and reputation management barely made the cut, coming in at just 14%.
And that’s where the goldmine lies—hidden in plain sight.
As agencies focus on services like SEO and web design, which often require months of effort before results are tangible, they’re leaving a significant opportunity on the table: reputation management. But why agencies don’t offer reputation services often stems from misconceptions about complexity, profitability, or scalability. Offering a simple, results-driven service like review management can transform how agencies bring in new clients and manage existing ones. While it’s understandable why many agencies hesitate—misconceptions about complexity, ROI, or scalability hold them back—the truth says otherwise.
The Fast Track to Client Success
Reputation management is a quick-win strategy. It gives agencies the ability to show value almost immediately by improving a client’s reviews, monitoring their brand, and boosting their online visibility. With tools like review automation and listings management, the process becomes seamless, fast, and efficient.
So, what’s stopping marketing agencies from seizing this opportunity? In this post, we explore why agencies don’t offer reputation services and debunk the top 12 myths that hold agencies back from diving into reputation management—and we’ll show you the truth about why this is one service you can’t afford to overlook. Stick around to find out how offering reputation management can finally address two of the biggest challenges agencies face: getting new clients and managing expectations with ease.
12 Myths (Reasons) About Why Agencies Don’t Offer Reputation Services—and the Truth That Debunks Them
When it comes to the services that marketing agencies prioritize, reputation management often falls by the wayside. But why? Reputation management is one of the fastest-growing service opportunities, with a proven ability to boost client visibility, trust, and ROI. However, common misconceptions keep many agencies from diving into this valuable market.
Below, we break down 12 myths that prevent agencies from offering reputation services and reveal the truth behind them. It’s time to uncover why this untapped opportunity deserves a spot in your agency’s portfolio.
1. Lack of Expertise or Resources
Myth: Reputation management requires skills in review monitoring, response strategies, customer engagement, and leveraging review platforms, which some agencies may not possess. Agencies avoid offering the service because they may lack the trained personnel or the tools needed to implement robust reputation solutions.
Truth: Review and reputation management tools, such as AI-powered automation platforms, make it easy and scalable for agencies to offer this service without needing deep expertise or a large team. Partnering with white-label providers like Review Dingo can also reduce the workload and improve client satisfaction.
Many agencies hesitate to offer reputation management services due to a perceived lack of expertise or resources, as it involves skills like review monitoring, customer engagement, and leveraging review platforms. This often leads them to avoid the service, fearing they lack the tools or trained personnel to execute it effectively. However, with the rise of AI-powered tools and scalable solutions, agencies can overcome these barriers easily. These technologies simplify the process, enabling agencies to offer high-quality reputation services without requiring extensive knowledge or large teams. Additionally, white-label providers can further reduce the workload while ensuring client satisfaction.
2. Perceived Complexity
Myth: Managing a client’s online reputation can seem complex, requiring tools for tracking reviews, maintaining listings, responding to feedback, and handling negative reviews proactively. Agencies may see it as time-intensive and resource-draining, deterring them from incorporating it as a service.
Truth: Technology simplifies the process. Automated solutions can centralize reviews, generate replies, and even identify key trends in customer feedback, engaging customers while freeing up agency time. Agencies can offer these high-value services with minimal effort.
Marketing agencies often perceive reputation management as overly complex, involving tasks like tracking reviews, maintaining listings, and responding to feedback or negative reviews. As a result, they avoid the service, assuming it will drain resources and cause inefficiencies. In reality, automated tools streamline these processes by centralizing review management, generating replies, and analyzing customer trends. This allows agencies to offer high-value reputation services with minimal time investment or effort.
3. Low Profit Margins
Myth: Some agencies may perceive reputation management as a low-margin service, especially when compared to high-ticket services like paid advertising or SEO packages. The potential revenue may not justify the effort, leading agencies to focus on other services instead.
Truth: Reputation management services have high ROI potential through recurring revenue models. Offering this service creates long-term client retention, cross-sell opportunities for additional packages (e.g., social media), and a consistent income stream.
The misconception that reputation management offers low profit margins drives agencies to prioritize more expensive services like paid ads or SEO. They assume the revenue won’t justify the effort. The truth, however, is that reputation management generates consistent recurring income through subscription models. It also fosters long-term client retention and enables profitable upselling opportunities for additional services such as social media, chatbots, or listings management. This makes it a lucrative and sustainable revenue stream.
4. Limited Demand Awareness
Myth: Agencies may not realize how crucial reputation management is to their clients, especially for local businesses that depend heavily on reviews for customer acquisition. A lack of client requests or awareness about the demand may lead agencies to ignore this service area.
Truth: Studies show that 91% of consumers read reviews, and a business’s reputation directly impacts their decision to purchase. Positioning this service as a critical need for reputation-sensitive industries can unlock untapped demand.
Some agencies overlook reputation management because they believe there’s little client demand for it, especially without explicit client requests. This false perception causes them to miss the importance of online reviews, which are critical for customer acquisition. Research shows that most consumers rely on reviews to make purchasing decisions, making reputation management essential for industries like healthcare, retail, and hospitality. Educating clients about its importance can unlock hidden demand and drive new revenue opportunities.
5. Preference for Core Services
Myth: Many agencies prefer focusing on their core strengths, such as content creation, PPC management, or social media advertising, rather than venturing into a relatively unfamiliar service area. Reputation management does not become a priority, even if the agency has the resources to implement it.
Truth: Adding review and reputation management complements core services like SEO and paid advertising, as it improves visibility, customer trust, and click-through rates—significantly boosting the ROI for existing packages.
Agencies often stick to their core strengths, such as SEO, PPC management, or content creation, sidelining services like reputation management, which they view as unfamiliar territory. This prevents them from exploring its immense potential. In truth, reputation management complements core offerings by boosting visibility, improving click-through rates, and enhancing customer trust. Adding this service not only strengthens existing packages but also amplifies overall ROI for clients, making it a valuable and seamless add-on.
6. Automation and AI Concerns
Myth: While AI-powered tools make reputation management less labor-intensive, some agencies may lack awareness of these tools or worry about the upfront costs of adopting them. Without the right technology, agencies may see reputation management as too overwhelming or costly to manage.
Truth: Many white-label and SaaS platforms, like those offered by Review Dingo, provide cost-effective, AI-driven solutions that automate key processes like review monitoring and responses. This results in a high-value service with reduced agency effort and upfront investment.
Agencies may be hesitant to adopt reputation management due to concerns surrounding complex AI tools or the potentially high cost of implementing such solutions. This leads them to believe it’s overly labor-intensive. The reality is that many AI-powered platforms are both cost-effective and easy to use, automating review monitoring, response generation, and trend analysis in a scalable way. This allows agencies to provide top-tier reputation services with minimal upfront investment or manual work.
7. Fear of Negative Feedback Liability
Myth: Agencies may avoid involvement in reputation management out of fear of mishandling client reviews, escalating negative feedback, or facing liability if a review response backfires. This fear of making things worse prevents agencies from offering the service altogether.
Truth: Proactively managing reviews, especially negative ones, demonstrates exceptional customer service and builds trust. Equipped with AI-generated response templates and training, agencies can confidently respond in a way that improves client outcomes and experiences.
Some agencies avoid offering reputation management services due to concerns about mishandling sensitive feedback or escalating negative reviews. They see this as a liability risk that could damage client relationships. However, proactively addressing negative reviews enhances customer trust, showcasing excellent service. AI-driven response tools and pre-designed templates help agencies confidently navigate these delicate situations, turning potential liabilities into opportunities for improved client outcomes.
8. Unclear ROI for Clients
Myth: It can be challenging to tie reputation management to measurable client ROI, especially for clients who demand immediate or tangible results. Agencies may assume clients won’t see the value or justification for paying for such a service.
Truth: Improved reputations lead to better local search rankings, more foot traffic, and increased conversions. Businesses with strong reviews see direct financial benefits, making it easy to quantify the ROI for clients through measurable KPIs like revenue or clicks.
Agencies sometimes struggle to tie reputation management to measurable ROI, leading to client skepticism about its value. This assumption often prevents the service from being offered. The truth is that a strong online reputation directly impacts key metrics like local search rankings, customer foot traffic, and conversions. By tracking these metrics and using KPIs like revenue or clicks, agencies can demonstrate how improved reviews lead to financial growth for their clients.
9. Lack of Scalable Processes
Myth: For agencies handling multiple clients, there may be no streamlined or scalable workflow for managing reputation services across accounts. Agencies avoid offering the service to prevent operational bottlenecks.
Truth: Modern tools allow agencies to manage review and reputation services for multiple clients through centralized dashboards, automation, and white-label options. Scalability is no longer a barrier to entry in this space.
Agencies handling multiple client accounts may avoid reputation management due to concerns about scalability and the lack of streamlined processes to manage various tasks. This fear of operational bottlenecks drives hesitation. Modern platforms address these challenges with centralized dashboards, automation, and white-label solutions, enabling agencies to handle reputation services across numerous clients efficiently—all without adding complexity or workload.
10. Fear of Scope Creep
Myth: Reputation management often involves responding to customer reviews or addressing sensitive feedback, which could fall outside the agency’s agreed-upon scope of work. Agencies avoid adding services that risk spiraling into costly additional work.
Truth: Setting clear expectations and boundaries upfront eliminates scope creep. Agencies can define response levels (e.g., only responding to specific types of reviews) and focus on automation for low-effort, high-impact solutions.
Agencies are often hesitant to offer reputation management due to the risk of scope creep, as responding to reviews or managing customer feedback could lead to additional unplanned work. This fear prevents them from adding this valuable service. Setting clear scope boundaries and leveraging automation tools can eliminate this issue. Agencies can focus on predefined levels of involvement while delivering efficient, high-impact solutions that stay within established deliverables.
11. Insufficient Marketing for Reputation Services
Myth: Agencies may not fully understand how to position or package reputation management as a high-value service for their clients. Without clear communication of its importance, agencies hesitate to offer it as part of their portfolio.
Truth: Reputation services are easy to cross-sell as part of value-added features. Positioning it as a critical driver of customer trust and conversions makes it an attractive offering for clients looking to improve visibility and credibility.
Agencies often fail to market reputation management services effectively because they don’t know how to package or position it as a high-value offering. Without emphasizing its benefits, they hesitate to include it in their portfolios. The truth is that reputation services are easy to pitch as drivers of customer trust and conversions. When marketed as essential to building visibility and credibility, reputation management becomes an attractive and straightforward cross-sell for prospective clients.
12. Underestimating its Market Value
Myth: Agencies may not view reputation management as a differentiator or recognize its importance in improving search rankings, conversions, and customer trust. It’s deprioritized in favor of trendier services like social media growth or influencer marketing.
Truth: Reputation management is a profitable multi-billion dollar industry. This positions agencies to capture a share of this lucrative space while differentiating themselves from competitors that neglect this demand.
Agencies underprioritize reputation management, assuming it doesn’t add significant value compared to trendier options like social media growth or influencer marketing. This misconception leads them to miss out on its enormous market potential. In reality, reputation management is a rapidly growing $12.25 billion market with a 17.1% CAGR. It offers agencies a chance to differentiate themselves and capture lasting client relationships, making it one of the industry’s most lucrative opportunities.
Final Thoughts
By addressing these false beliefs with clear, data-backed benefits, agencies can confidently adopt reputation management services, providing immense value to their clients while unlocking a profitable and scalable revenue stream for their business.
Reputation management isn’t just another service; it’s an untapped opportunity to improve client retention, expand service offerings, and create measurable ROI. As misconceptions around complexity, profitability, and scalability are dismantled, it’s clear that reputation management is both achievable and highly rewarding for agencies of any size.
The question taken from this survey is no longer why agencies don’t offer reputation services but rather how quickly they can establish themselves in this fast-growing market. Those who embrace reputation management today position themselves as forward-thinking, essential partners for their clients’ success tomorrow. Don’t miss out on the hidden opportunity—it’s time to turn reputation management into your agency’s secret weapon.
If you’re ready to explore how reputation management can transform your agency’s offerings, consider reaching out to us at Review Dingo. Contact us today to book a discovery call and learn how we can help you unlock this lucrative opportunity. Let’s begin this journey together!
FAQs About Online Reputation Management
What is online reputation management, and why is it important for brands?
Online reputation management (ORM) refers to the practice of monitoring, influencing, and maintaining the perception of a brand or individual on the internet. It is crucial for brands because it directly impacts consumer trust and purchasing decisions. In today’s digital age, potential customers often conduct online research before engaging with a brand. A strong online reputation can lead to increased sales, while a poor one can deter potential customers. Therefore, managing your online presence is essential for sustaining a successful brand.
What are the main challenges in reputation management?
The main challenges in reputation management include handling negative reviews, dealing with fake reviews, managing public perception during a crisis, and the overall complexity of monitoring numerous review sites and social media platforms. Additionally, brands struggle with the speed at which information spreads online, making it difficult to control narratives. It requires ongoing effort and effective strategies to address these challenges.
How can brands effectively monitor their online reputation?
Brands can effectively monitor their online reputation by utilizing reputation management software and services that aggregate mentions across various platforms. Regularly checking review sites and social media channels helps brands stay aware of customer feedback. Setting up Google Alerts for brand mentions can also provide timely insights. Engaging with customers through surveys and direct communication can further enhance monitoring efforts.
What role do online reviews play in reputation management?
Online reviews play a significant role in reputation management as they provide a direct reflection of a customer’s experience. Positive reviews can enhance a brand’s reputation and attract new customers, while negative reviews can tarnish it. Brands should actively manage their reviews by encouraging satisfied customers to leave feedback and addressing any negative reviews promptly and professionally. This engagement can help improve the overall customer experience and foster trust.
What are the benefits of hiring a reputation management agency?
Hiring an agency that offers reputation management can provide numerous benefits, including expertise in navigating complex online landscapes, access to advanced reputation management software, and a dedicated team focused on enhancing your brand’s online reputation.