5 steps to building and maintaining your medical billing company’s online reputation

With so many changes in the back office for the medical billing company industry, it’s no surprise that many billers are focused on operational shifts. But the front-facing elements matter, too. 

In 2025, medical billing companies are dealing with a complex set of risks directly related to customer acquisition. In Tebra’s “​​State of the US Medical Billing Industry” survey, billing companies reported significant challenges including rising operating costs, declining gross margin rates, and growing patient debt. With 61% of billing companies spending more on operations and staffing, and only 26% achieving gross margin rates above 20% (down from 34% in 2022), competitive differentiation has become essential.

Market differentiation can offset these risks. Providing additional, complementary services or marketing to a single type of medical practice can attract customers. So can building and maintaining a stellar online reputation.

When medical billing companies manage their online presence effectively, they do more than just marketing or advertising. A carefully curated online reputation tells a compelling story and offers social proof — both of which drive referrals.

Whether you know it or not, your company has an online presence. And if you aren’t actively maintaining it, you have no control over how potential clients see your business. As a billing company, it’s important to understand how to take care of your online presence, engage with clients, and safeguard your reputation.

Consider review platforms like Google Business Profile and Trustpilot. Prospects and existing clients can review your business for others to read. If your billing company has minimal online visibility or negative reviews, you risk appearing unreliable compared to competitors who actively cultivate positive testimonials and customer feedback.

Let’s examine how online reputation affects your business in 2025.

Research consistently shows that the vast majority of consumers use online media when searching for local business services. According to one recent Reputation survey, 67% of customers will reconsider their decision about a business after encountering negative reviews. This reality can be concerning for any service provider.

Fortunately, there's a substantial upside. Proactive reputation management, combined with excellent service, leads to positive reviews that directly impact revenue. Studies demonstrate that consumers will to pay premium prices for services from businesses with stellar online reputations, including one that found that 51% will spend more with trusted businesses. This trust premium represents a significant revenue opportunity for medical billing companies that effectively manage their digital presence.

For your billing company to stay competitive in 2025, you need to establish a robust online reputation, listen to what people are saying about you, and engage in meaningful conversation with your audience. Follow the 5 steps in this guide to successfully build, enhance, and manage your online presence and reputation:

Potential clients search online for services to benefit their private practice. They're more inclined to share their experiences on social media about the businesses that give them value. You don’t want to be overlooked while other billing companies actively engage on digital platforms, provide accurate information, connect with potential clients, and strengthen relationships with existing ones.

Your website is often the first place potential clients visit to verify your credentials. A contemporary, intuitive website is an excellent foundation from which to establish your online brand and build trust in your billing company.

If it’s been a minute since you refreshed your website, or if you’re building one for the first time, keep the following best practices in mind:

Social media continues to evolve as a critical channel for business engagement. While platforms like Facebook have matured and X (formerly Twitter) has shifted focus, LinkedIn remains the dominant B2B networking hub, with emerging platforms gaining traction for specific demographics. According to Tebra’s “​​State of the US Medical Billing Industry” survey, 43% of medical billing companies planned to prioritize social media in the coming year, up from 40% in an earlier survey.

Some social media business trends for 2025, according to the Forbes Business Council, include:

Keeping an active, thoughtful presence on social media could help your company gain visibility.

You need to find and own every listing you can. Gather all the publicly available information about your billing company and make sure it's accurate, comprehensive, and current. Where possible, link to your website and social media profiles.

How: The best way for you to find all the profiles that list your business is to conduct Google searches for your company name, variations, and key personnel over several weeks. Create a detailed tracking system for these listings, including URLs, available information, and current reviews or ratings. 

Be methodical in your search process. Once you’ve collected them, visit each platform and follow the verification procedures to confirm or update your listing information. Pay special attention to medical billing-specific directories and healthcare professional communities.

Why: Accurate listings, particularly on authoritative platforms like Google Business Profile, significantly improve your search engine ranking, which directly enhances your visibility in online searches. Managing your listings goes beyond basic accuracy — it's a fundamental component of visibility, credibility, and brand consistency.

Whether it’s a comment on your social media page or a third-party site, there are 3 things you need to do to manage your online reputation effectively:

Once you own your listings, establish a regular schedule for checking new reviews or ratings. It’s important to know how people perceive your billing company.

Track feedback systematically and share reviews during team meetings to maintain awareness across your organization. You can use these meetings to discuss any pending issues or challenges as well as celebrate successes and good work.

Responding appropriately to feedback is crucial. A simple thank you for a positive review is enough. But if the review is negative, here are some options:

For a general complaint or constructive criticism about a process or procedure in your company where the issue is straightforward: Implement changes and respond with something like, “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We value client feedback and have addressed this by [be specific]. We hope you’ll give us another opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to improvement.”

For a general complaint or constructive criticism about a process or procedure in your company where the issue is complex: Acknowledge receipt with something like, “Thank you for letting us know. We are currently evaluating how we can address this issue.” If you can make changes, let them know.

For legitimate negative experiences: Respond promptly, take accountability for what went wrong, apologize sincerely, keep the lines of communication open, and offer to continue the conversation privately to resolve the issue. Demonstrate your commitment to making things right.

For inaccurate or inflammatory reviews: Most platforms have processes for appealing problematic reviews. If a review violates platform guidelines or contains demonstrably false information, you can get it removed.

Encourage your satisfied clients to post reviews on sites which list only verified reviews — making them more representative and trustworthy than other review sites. More often than not, your clients have good things to say about your billing company and just need a reminder to do so. And reviews can support referrals, which according to our survey are a top new business driver for 72% of billing companies.

Feedback can improve overall ratings. For example, a billing company with 1 negative and 3 positive reviews listed on a business review site will receive a 66% recommendation score, while a billing company with 1 negative and 9 positive reviews will get a 90% recommendation score. This significant difference results simply from having more satisfied clients share their experiences.

Finally, providing an end-to-end digital experience can give you a competitive edge. By leveraging automation, AI, and machine learning technologies, you can further differentiate your billing company through online patient payment options, automated reminders, predictive analytics, and personalized communication.

Why does this matter for online reputation? Because often these capabilities directly impact the end user: the patient. And when patients have a better billing experience, it reflects positively on your clients, which ultimately reflects positively on you. Healthcare consumers expect digital-first interactions, and practices evaluate billing partners partly on their ability to deliver them.

Maintaining a strategic social media presence can benefit your billing company. Active social media engagement can increase client connections, attract new business, and give you exposure as a billing expert to build positive relationships with your clients. Here are some final tips to help you with your online marketing efforts:

Digital assets, including your website and social channels, benefit both established and startup billing companies. However, they represent just one component of a comprehensive growth strategy.

Despite ongoing challenges from competition and market consolidation, most billing companies maintain a positive outlook on the industry's future. Numerous growth opportunities exist for companies positioned to capitalize on them over the coming years. 

In Tebra’s recent survey, billing companies shared insights about their operational strategies, objectives, and challenges. Get the full story in our industry report.