TrustRadius zeroes on in ESG

Until now, Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) has been largely overlooked by the peer review sites crowdsourcing reviews from enterprise buyers. It’s not one of the core evaluation questions for reviews.

But ESG is not going away. As it gains momentum, the Tech Cares initiative from TrustRadius is a start in pushing ESG up the agenda for enterprise review sites. It’s also a new metric to differentiate between vendors in heavily commoditized markets.

Established by TrustRadius in 2020, Tech Cares “recognizes B2B technology companies that go above and beyond to provide impactful corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs for their employees, the environment, and people around the world.”

It’s an answer to one of vendors’ most frequently asked questions about enterprise peer review sites: What are the upsides of running review campaigns on multiple enterprise review sites?

Vendors often choose to work with TrustRadius because it’s a great source of quotes from named customers – and vendors can buy access to buyer intent data, plus Salesforce integration.

There’s also the possibility of reaching a broader spectrum of customers and prospects. TrustRadius CEO Vinay Bhagat has a Venn diagram showing only minimal overlap between TrustRadius and other enterprise review sites.

Tech Cares could emerge as another key reason for vendors to consider TrustRadius. So far, it focuses only on CSR – the factors holding businesses to account, but it could easily be widened to crowdsourcing quantitative data on enterprises’ commitment to ethics.

According to TrustRadius: “Award winners were chosen based on impactful CSR initiatives in one or more of the following categories: volunteerism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, charitable organizations and fundraising, support for in-office and remote employees, or environmental sustainability initiatives.”

Our take: Any tech vendor serious about ESG should consider the TrustRadius Tech Cares initiative to be an onramp. TrustRadius is making it easier for vendors to establish what good looks like. Vendors can also win recognition for making a commitment to corporate social responsibility and measurable impacts.