Find answers to common questions about managing your business listing, responding to reviews, and growing your reputation on Word of Mouth.
Congratulations! Whether you've received a positive or a negative review, there are things you can do to manage your reputation and make the most of the word-of-mouth about your business.
We've prepared some guidelines for responding to reviews here.
Did you realise that reviews can be an extremely effective way of marketing your business? Check out our Essentials and Pro plans here.
Our paid plans (Essentials and Pro) are based around results - and we understand that you need to see a return on investment on your marketing. We make it easy for you to track your results and you can see the following information at any time:
YOUR EXPOSURE
YOUR ENQUIRIES
No. Business reviews and ratings are based solely on customer feedback and cannot be changed.
However, if you believe that a review is false, inaccurate, or defamatory, you can flag it as "Suspect or Inappropriate" and the Word of Mouth team will investigate.
One way that businesses can minimise negative reviews is by ensuring that customers have a great experience. If you'd like help encouraging more happy customers to review your business, you should also check out our Essentials and Pro plans.
Absolutely. We believe that you deserve the right of reply.
We've prepared some Marketing Tools for promoting your reviews on Word of Mouth and letting others know about your great reputation. Did you realise that what your customers say carries much more weight than anything you could say about yourself? Reviews are a great way to promote your business. Check out our Essentials and Pro plans to really ramp things up.
No. Reviews can only be submitted by paying customers of the business. However, as a business owner you can add information about your business by signing up for an Essentials or Pro plan and you can also comment on reviews to clarify something a customer has said and demonstrate your commitment to customer service.
Businesses on our Essentials or Pro plans can select their favourite review to show first on their listing and appear throughout the Word of Mouth website where people are looking for your type of business. First impressions are extremely important so this gives you a big advantage.
Depending on the type of search you are doing, businesses are sorted by "Highest Rating", "Best Match", "Most Reviews", "Business Name" or "Most Recent". You can change how you want them sorted from the panel on the left-hand side.
When we sort by "Highest Rating", we look at the average overall rating and the number of reviews each business has. Note that businesses on our paid plans are given priority as these businesses are making customer service a priority and are actively encouraging customer reviews.
When we sort by "Best Match" we look at the best match for the key words you enter. These might be contained in the business name, categories the business is in, or reviews for that business.
Most business information is entered by the first customer to review your business so it's important that you claim your business listing so that you can ensure the information is accurate and complete.
Yes, when you sign up for an Essentials or Pro plan you can add a business tagline, description, your logo or images, special offers and more. Our paid plans ensure that you maximise your business exposure and allow you to put your best foot forward when potential customers are viewing your profile.
You can avoid having businesses appear as a suggestion on your listing by signing up for an Essentials or Pro plan. Not only will you avoid other businesses from appearing on your listing, once you're on a paid plan your business will also appear as a suggestion throughout the Word of Mouth website.
No. All reviews are included for all businesses – unless we have a specific reason to retract the review based on our Fair Play Policy. However, businesses on our paid plans benefit because they can use our Problem Resolution Process.
You can read more about the benefits of our Essentials and Pro plans here.
Businesses that have claimed their listings also benefit because they are notified by email when their business is reviewed.
No. Word of Mouth operates like a web forum and users write about whichever businesses they choose. If your business has received negative reviews, the best response is to address the feedback - it often provides an opportunity to demonstrate how committed you are to customer service.
Word of Mouth works with Google and other search engines so that people searching for keywords relating to your business (including your business name) are more likely to find you on Word of Mouth (even if you have your own website). The more information and reviews you have on Word of Mouth, the higher you'll rank in Google.
Among other things, your Google ranking is determined by the number of times your business name and other words relating to your business are mentioned on your Word of Mouth listing. The more reviews you have, the more times people will mention your business name, and the higher you'll rank in Google searches.
Also, by adding a business description to your Word of Mouth listing (by signing up for an Essentials or Pro plan), you can increase your Google ranking by including specific key words that relate to your business.
Businesses on our paid plans also get tools to help them get lots more reviews - which helps enormously.