The communication cadence is calibrated to keep clients confidently informed without consuming their time. Weekly written updates summarize what moved in the program, what is in flight, and any pattern shifts in monitoring data. Biweekly to monthly calls cover strategy, decisions on upcoming work, and coordination with the client’s PR firm or counsel where relevant. Detailed monthly reports provide written assessment against KPIs with IMPACT™ and AIQ™ data summaries and full underlying data available on request. Ad hoc alerts during active situations are same-day or same-hour when something meaningful shifts in search, AI, or Wikipedia layers, with assessment and recommended response. The cadence adjusts to the situation: weekly cadence becomes daily during crises, monthly reports run quarterly during quiet maintenance periods. The default is responsiveness with restraint.

The standard contact paths: the website at fiveblocks.com for inbound inquiries; the general email at info@fiveblocks.com for non-client correspondence; the New York office line at +1 212.695.0855 for any caller. Existing clients work through their named principal contact directly. The product lines have their own contact paths: AIQ™ questions and self-serve sign-up at aiq.fiveblocks.com; WikiAlerts™ at wikialerts.fiveblocks.com. Press inquiries should reach Sam Michelson directly through the website. Partnership inquiries from PR firms, agencies, and law firms go through info@fiveblocks.com and are routed to the partnership team within one business day.

The standard intake follows a consistent sequence. First, an initial consultation: a thirty to sixty minute call where we listen to what the client is trying to achieve, what has happened so far, and what success would look like. We do not pitch on that call. Second, a digital landscape assessment: we run IMPACT™ across the client’s branded SERP and priority queries, AIQ™ across the eight AI engines, and a Wikipedia, Knowledge Panel, and entity review, producing a written read of the current state. Third, a tailored proposal: a written document with the recommended program scope, methodology, timeline, KPIs, and pricing, along with a Letter of Engagement. The intake process typically runs two to four weeks from initial contact to signed engagement, with the assessment phase being the longest segment.

We do not offer guarantees, and we are skeptical of any firm that does. Search engines, Wikipedia, and AI platforms operate according to their own policies and algorithms. What we do offer is a rigorous, transparent, and experienced approach – one that has produced measurable results for clients across a wide range of industries and situations. Our proprietary technology tracks progress continuously, and we report honestly on what is and is not working.

Engagements are structured as monthly retainers with fixed scope, billed in advance. Pricing reflects the program’s complexity rather than hours: an engagement requiring a Wikipedia article build under disclosed COI, executive Knowledge Panel work, multi-market IMPACT™ coverage, AIQ™ across the eight engines with peer comparison, and crisis-readiness on-call has different economics than a single-market monitoring engagement. Integrated programs combining multiple service lines are priced as one coordinated workstream rather than as the sum of components, because the methodology is unified and the work compounds across layers. Specific pricing is detailed in each proposal, calibrated to the diagnostic findings and the agreed scope. Standard engagement terms are 6 or 12 months because durable reputation work runs on Google’s timeline rather than a 30-day cycle.

Confidentiality is a structural commitment that shapes every engagement. The Letter of Engagement includes confidentiality provisions covering the existence of the engagement, the work performed, and any client information we encounter in the course of the work. We do not list clients on our website, do not display client logos, and do not seek case-study permission as part of standard intake. Where clients give explicit written permission to acknowledge the relationship, we do so within the limits they define; we do not pressure for permission and most clients prefer not to give it. Internal access to client information is on a need-to-know basis with named team members rather than the full firm. The discipline costs us some marketing visibility and is a non-negotiable part of how we operate.