How to Become a Highly Rated Business in 2023

The 2022 Highly Rated Businesses on Localsearch.com.au have been announced.

These top 100 outstanding providers have been selected from more than 28,000 regional small businesses who have been rated outstandingly in their community.

Many of the businesses on the list are claiming their place for the second time in a row.

But how do they do it?

In this guide, we’ll be telling you how to get more reviews and maintain a good review rating average to better your chances of making the Highly Rated Business list in 2023.

View the Most Highly Rated Businesses of 2022.

3 Easy Steps to Become a Highly Rated Business in 2023

1. Get more reviews.

The ideal number of reviews you need depends on:

1. How many reviews you have.
2. Your overall star rating.

For those who are starting with no reviews at all, recent surveys show 90% of consumers read 10 or fewer reviews. In fact, research shows 23% of consumers say for reviews to impact their buying decision, said review needs to be less than 2 weeks old!

However, a report shows consumers expect an average of 112 reviews before making a decision.

With the strategies below, you should be able to squash both problems by regularly receiving reviews, which will quickly build up your total number of reviews.

2. Increase your average star rating. 

Ok, so you’re receiving reviews every week, but you’re getting the occasional negative review. How much do bad reviews impact your business? It turns out, they can help your business.

Studies show the ideal star rating for a business to have is 4.2 to 4.5 stars. This is because consumers want the business to be reputable, but they also tend to believe a business with a perfect rating has manipulated their reviews.

The good news, if you focus on running activities to effortlessly receive reviews regularly (remember, a few every week or so), you should be able to maintain a high star rating. Then, if you receive a negative review or two, they help you keep balanced.

3. Verify your business profile on Localsearch.com.au. 

There are many benefits to verifying your Localsearch.com.au business profile, including:

• Putting your business higher in searches on Localsearch.com.au for what you do, where you do it.
• More features to help you stand out from the crowd.
• Consideration for Highly Rated Business Program, for those who meet that year’s requirements.

Learn more about the many benefits of Localsearch.com.au.

How to Increase Your Positive Reviews in 2023

1. Ensure you have good post-transaction customer care. 

Providing a good customer experience during a transaction (whether that’s online, in-store or when you’re providing a service) is a given for receiving positive reviews. However, it’s what you do after the transaction is complete that can increase your reviews and average star rating. It can also assure you repeat business too.

Does the customer know what to do if something goes wrong post-purchase or service? Do you reach out with any loyalty discounts or touchpoints? How do you handle any complaints?

All of these things can greatly impact your review rating as is just as important as the initial interaction with your business itself.

2. Prompt your customers to leave you reviews. 

Your mind may be on your business, but your customers’ minds are already onto the next thing. What’s for dinner? Do I have onions at home? When was the last time I brushed my teeth?

So, a gentle reminder is a perfect way to help increase your reviews. And it doesn’t always have to mean prodding your team to ask the customer then and there at the checkout or when they’re on the phone.

Ways to ask for more reviews:

• Add a QR code on your cash register or in your office linking to your review platform of choice with a call to action to leave you a review.
• Include a call to action (even a QR code) on your invoices, receipts or post-transaction emails.
• Embed a ‘How did we do?’ link in the email signatures of all your customer-facing team.
• Put a little sign on your tables (if you’re a restaurant or have waiting areas).
• Ask your developer to add a ‘leave a review’ widget to your website, especially on product pages.

It’s that easy!

3. Funnel reviews through a reputation management system.

A reputation management system (like Podium) can make increasing your positive reviews incredibly easy. Here’s how they all generally work:

• The customer makes a transaction (sale of product or completion of service).
• They receive an email or SMS asking them to rate their experience.
• If they rate their experience from 1 to 3, they’ll be directed to a feedback form.
• If they rate their experience a 4 or 5, they’ll be requested to leave you a review on their platform of choice (or the ones you display as an option).

The great thing is, most of these platforms can integrate with your customer management system, so you don’t have to do a thing once you’re integrated.

4. Respond to all reviews, good and bad.

Responding to online reviews as quickly as possible can make all the difference.

We already know people love reading online reviews and seek out negative ones at that. Your professional response in trying to resolve the matter or showcasing your brilliant customer service helps those people know if something goes wrong, and what they can expect. This is where how you respond is incredibly important.

Example response to a negative review:

“Hi Bob, It’s unfortunate to see you’ve not had the positive experience we’re so well known for. We would love to make it up to you. Next time you come in, please ask for Miss Manager and we will do our best to resolve this for you.”

Now, why respond to positive reviews? Everyone likes to feel valued and responding to positive reviews helps these customers or clients know they are more than just a number transaction to you and your business. This helps to increase repeat business.

5. Add review links to your website.

Adding a review feature to your product pages is not only good for people to see first-hand other peoples’ experiences with your products, but it also helps encourage reviews too.

You can prompt people to leave reviews but having the leave a review feature on your product pages also reminds people to share their experience if they’re coming back to your website — hopefully, to buy more!

If you’re not sure how to add a review feature to your product pages, it’s something any good developer should be able to do for you. Remember, Localsearch provides affordable website services, so we are able to help, if you need it.