To rank higher on Hellopeter, get more of your customers to review you and answer every review quickly. Hellopeter ranks the businesses on each industry page by their TrustIndex, a score out of 10 that reflects the star ratings your customers give you and how fast you reply, counted over the last 12 months. The businesses at the top of their category tend to share five habits: they ask every customer for a review, reply to every review fast, close the loop on complaints, fix what customers keep raising, and keep their profile current.
The position is worth chasing. More than 800,000 South Africans visit Hellopeter every month, and industry pages are where they compare businesses in a category before they choose one. A higher place puts you in front of customers who weren't searching for your name.
How Hellopeter Ranks Businesses in Your Category
Every industry page lists its businesses in order of TrustIndex. Two things you control feed that score:
- What your customers say. The star rating on each review from the last 12 months. Older reviews stay on your profile but drop out of the score, so it reflects how you're doing now.
- How fast you answer. A review you answer quickly counts in full. One you leave unanswered counts for less.
Next to your rank, customers see your star rating, your TrustIndex and, where you have negative reviews, how many of them you've answered and how long you usually take to reply.
Each industry page also has a Best in Class table. For every service theme in that industry, it shows the strongest score from Hellopeter's AI analysis of customer feedback, and Best in Class goes to verified businesses. Customers can also sort the page by any service theme, so being strong on what a buyer cares about most gets you seen.
How to Rank Higher on Hellopeter: Five Habits of the Businesses at the Top
1. Ask Every Customer for a Review
A good business often ranks lower than it should because its happy customers never leave a review. Unhappy customers find Hellopeter on their own. However, happy ones usually need to be asked, and when you ask, most of what comes back is good.
Reviews left through WhatsApp or a business's own invite averaged 4.7 to 4.8 stars. Reviews people wrote on the website on their own averaged 1.9.
So ask everyone, not only the customers you think are happy. Make it routine: after the delivery, after the claim is paid, when the car leaves the workshop. Send invites by WhatsApp, SMS or email, put a QR code at the counter or on the invoice, or add your review link to the emails you already send. On average, 50% of all Hellopeter reviews already come through WhatsApp, and for your customer there's no app and no login, just a conversation. See how Hellopeter's review collection works.
Keep it steady. Because only the last 12 months count, a burst of reviews followed by silence fades out of your score. A steady flow keeps your TrustIndex current, and the more reviews you have, the less any single bad one moves it.
2. Reply to Every Review, Fast
Replying is the habit that's fully in your control from today. Every review you answer quickly counts in full in your TrustIndex. Start with the negative reviews, because they show the next customer how you handle problems. Then thank the people who took the time to praise you.
A good reply is short, specific and calm. Our guides on how to respond to negative reviews and review response best practices have templates and a routine your team can keep. You can answer Hellopeter and Google reviews from one inbox.
3. Close the Loop on Complaints
A reply starts the fix, and the next customer wants to see how it ended. Acknowledge the complaint in public, sort it out in private, then add a short public line once it's resolved. That ending shows every future reader what happens when something goes wrong with you. Our piece on why silence on public complaints costs you walks through the three steps.
4. Fix What Customers Keep Raising
Replies protect your score. Better service raises it, because your customers' ratings do most of the work in your TrustIndex. The lasting way up is giving customers fewer reasons to complain.
That's where Hellopeter's AI analysis of customer feedback helps. Once you have enough reviews, it scores your business on five service themes specific to your industry, against the industry average, so you can see which part of the experience is pulling you down.
Fixing that theme pays twice. Better service lifts your ratings, which lifts your TrustIndex. And because Best in Class for each theme goes to a verified business, a stronger theme score is also a shot at the top of that table.
5. Keep Your Profile Claimed, Complete and Current
Claiming your profile is what lets you reply, invite customers and keep your details right. Then check two things:
- Your industry and sub-categories. They decide which industry page you're ranked on, which businesses you're compared with and which service themes you're scored on. Choose the ones that match what you actually do.
- Your description, logo and contact details. Customers read them before they decide whether to trust you.
What It Looks Like When It Works
Gys Pitzer Motoring climbed from 12th to 2nd in the Automotive industry category by doing this in the calm months as well as the busy ones: fast replies to every reviewer and a profile kept current. Read how Gys Pitzer did it.
HOSTAFRICA, a small hosting company with no advertising budget, reached number one in Internet & Telecoms by asking its customers to share their experience and replying to essentially every review, fast. Read how HOSTAFRICA earned the top spot.
Neither got there in a month. Both kept the same simple habits, week after week.
Where to Start This Week
- Reply to every unanswered review on your profile, negative ones first.
- Set up review invites so every customer is asked, by WhatsApp, SMS or email.
- Check your industry and sub-categories.
- Find your weakest service theme and choose one thing to fix.
Want to See Where You Stand First?
The free Reputation Report shows how many people read your reviews, how your rating compares with your industry and how many of your reviews have no reply. Verification, and the tools to invite customers and reply from one place, come with Hellopeter Business packages.
A Note on This Data
The figures in this article were accurate at the time of publication. Rankings move as new customer reviews come in, and Hellopeter's scores are generated from real customer reviews, not set by Hellopeter or by the businesses themselves.
See where you rank, and what would move you up
Book a demo and we'll walk you through your profile, your category and the habits that would move you up the page.
