Word of Mouth's Happy Customers Program is 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

• Listing Views - the number of people that have seen your profile and reviews in the last 30 days
• Special Offers Emailed - the number of member emails your Special Offer has been included in within the last 30 days. (If it is zero, you don't have a current Special Offer)
• Cross-Advertisements Shown - as part of the program, we promote your business on the pages of other similar businesses (your competitors) and this is the number of times your business has been cross-advertised on Word of Mouth during the last 30 days. (No businesses are cross-advertised on your page.)

YOUR ENQUIRIES

• Phone Calls - on your listing, you'll notice that your phone number is only partly shown. We track each time someone clicks to get your phone number. This closely translates to the number of phone calls your business would received from Word of Mouth within the last 30 days.
• Email Requests - the number of times people have accessed your business email address within the last 30 days.
• Website Click-Throughs - the number of times people have clicked through to your website within the last 30 days.

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. If we cannot contact the member within a reasonable time, we will retract the review. If we can contact the reviewer, we will mediate and determine whether the review is fair, given the member's experience. In these cases, the review may be modified (sometimes toned down), or retracted. We will also remove or edit any reviews that contain inappropriate or offensive content.

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 the Happy Customers Program . This also provides some protection as the Problem Resolution Process helps you resolve any problems you might have had with customers before they post their review.

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 Happy Customers Program 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 joining the Happy Customers Program and you can also comment on reviews to clarify something a customer has said and demonstrate your commitment to customer service.

Businesses in the Happy Customers Program 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 in the Happy Customers Program 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 join the Happy Customers Program you can add a business tagline, description, your logo or images, special offers and more. The Happy Customers Program ensures that you maximise your business exposure and allows you to put your best foot forward when potential customers are viewing your profile. It’s important that your Word of Mouth page includes a description of your business and the services you offer so that people get the complete view of your business. This combination of information from you (the business owner) and information from your customers, presents the most convincing proposition for potential customers.

You can avoid having businesses appear as a suggestion on your listing by joining the Happy Customers Program . Not only will you avoid other businesses from appearing on your listing, once you're part of this program your business will also appear as a suggestion throughout the Word of Mouth website. You can choose which review you want to feature and expose your business to users that are searching for businesses like yours. Once you're part of this program, your listing will be free of promotions and other distractions. You can include a description of your business and use images and colours to create an amazing "brag page" for your business.

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 that are part of the Happy Customers Program benefit because they can use our Problem Resolution Process.

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. Your customers will also describe your business using different words - which can make your listing come up in Google for key words you might not have thought of yourself. Also, by adding a business description to your Word of Mouth listing (by joining the Happy Customers Program ), you can increase your Google ranking by including specific key words that relate to your business.

Businesses in the Happy Customers Program also get tools to help them get lots more reviews - which helps enormously.

Yes, you can submit a review on behalf of a customer, as long as you have their valid email address for verification.