A Willis Towers Watson (WTW) survey on reputational risk has found 86% of clients fear revenues will be impacted by negative publicity, and less than half say they have adequate tools to manage and monitor potentially damaging comments in the public domain, particularly in social media channels.

About 68% say their businesses have no framework in place to quantify reputational risk and nearly 80% of risk managers believe there will be more focus on the threat over the next five years.

The broker says the findings reflect the way information is consumed these days, which is primarily through social media platforms.

“Social media platforms are not subject to stringent ethics and reporting quality,” WTW says. “Negative public commentary about products and services can spread incredibly quickly.

“These are difficult for organisations to target and control through traditional public relations methods.”

The survey finds just over a quarter felt their businesses are insured for reputational risk damage and about 41.5% are interested in understanding the needs of a comprehensive reputation-risk insurance product.

WTW says it has partnered with a technology firm to design a platform for clients to monitor reputational threats in real time and provide them with reputational impact scores against their peers for issues and risks.

It intends to complement the platform with an insurance solution for this previously uninsurable risk.