Five Blocks began operating in 2003 as a web marketing firm focused on e-commerce selling mobile phones. With an initial investment of $60 (cost of a domain name and hosting account), Five Blocks built a website. We quickly emerged as a leader in the sector, with hundreds of daily orders, generating tens of thousands of dollars in revenue in a matter of months.In 2006, we noticed a significant drop in phone orders and a much higher rate of shopping cart abandonment, though our site visit and sales offer numbers hadn’t changed. After some investigating online, we discovered that one customer’s negative comments were adversely affecting our sales. To put it another way, we were failing the so-called reputation test.
We contacted the customer directly, and resolved the issue. Expecting our company’s negative search results to disappear, we were surprised to discover that the problem had actually gotten worse. Our efforts had the opposite effect; the results gained prominence and climbed in the rankings. We explored our options, consulting with numerous technology companies and were unable to find a real solution to our problem. So… we set out to solve our reputation challenge ourselves. The Five Blocks Online Reputation Management solution was born.
A short time after we developed the technology and method to solve our problem, other companies we had consulted with expressed interest in our solution for their clients. We were subsequently approached by two channel partners in dire need of these services and saw the writing on the wall. Re-investing revenue generated from the original business, Five Blocks acted as our own angel investor, enabling the company to build the technology behind our online reputation management solution so it could scale. Flash forward to two years later and more than 70 percent of our firm’s revenues were generated by our Online Reputation Management service (at the time called Rep Relations).
Today, Five Blocks provides strategic Online Reputation Management and Digital Brand Alignment programs to some of the world’s leading brands and high-profile executives across a range of industries. Five Blocks’ organic entrance into the reputation management space has translated into our team’s dedication and sensitivity to this problem.
Having focused most of our time and energies to solving this problem over time allowed Five Blocks to develop a unique technology and approach to analyze and influence search results. We enable our clients to make informed digital branding and reputation management decisions to strengthen their positive presence online.
