Understand how Hellopeter's AI scores your business, what customers see on your public profile, and how to use your portal's AI Insights to improve.
Hellopeter's AI reads the actual content of every customer review your business receives - not just the star rating - and scores you across 5 service themes that matter in your industry. Think of it this way: a star rating tells you "this customer was happy" or "this customer was unhappy." AI scoring tells you why - which specific parts of the customer experience are strong and which need work.
How the scoring works
Every industry has 5 unique themes that define what matters to customers in that sector. These are not generic categories - they reflect what customers actually talk about in their reviews.
Examples by industry:
• Insurance - Claims Handling, Communication & Responsiveness, Agent Quality, Pricing & Premiums, Repair & Service Provider Quality
• Wellness & Beauty - Customer Service & Staff Experience, Memberships & Cancellations, Product Quality & Treatment Results, Pricing & Billing, Communication & Complaint Resolution
• Transportation & Logistics - Customer Service, Delivery Speed & Reliability, Tracking & Transparency, Parcel Safety, Pricing & Refunds
Each theme gets a score out of 5 with a colour label. The 5 theme scores combine into an Overall AI Score (an average of your scored themes).
Score bands:
Score | Colour | Label | What it means |
4.5 - 5.0 | Green | Excellent | Customers consistently describe outstanding experiences on this theme |
3.5 - 4.4 | Lime | Great | Most customers are satisfied; minor issues exist but do not dominate |
2.5 - 3.4 | Yellow | Average | Mixed experiences; significant room for improvement |
1.5 - 2.4 | Orange | Poor | Customers frequently describe negative experiences on this theme |
0.5 - 1.4 | Red | Terrible | This theme is a consistent source of customer frustration |
The Overall AI Score is shown when at least 3 of your 5 themes have enough data to score. If only 3 or 4 are scored, it is the average of the scored themes and is marked 'partial coverage'. With fewer than 3 scored themes, no Overall AI Score is shown.
What appears on your public profile
Every scored business on Hellopeter gets these elements on their consumer profile page:
• Overall AI Score out of 5 with a colour badge
• 5 Theme Scores out of 5, each with a colour label (themes are specific to your industry)
• AI Summary - a paragraph describing what customers are saying about your business
• Top Strengths and Key Concerns - your best and worst scoring themes, with a one-sentence explanation of each
• Popular Mentions - clickable keyword tags showing the most common topics customers discuss
• vs Industry Average - whether you score above, below, or at the industry average on each theme
Potential customers see all of this when they visit your profile. It shapes their decision before they contact you.
Data tiers
Not every business gets the same level of scoring. The amount of AI analysis depends on your review volume over the last 12 months:
Reviews (last 12 months) | What you get |
100+ (Tier 1) | Full scoring - all 5 themes, portal insights, action plans |
50-99 (Tier 2) | Full scoring with a "Limited Data" flag. Scores are directionally accurate but may shift as more reviews come in |
10-49 (Tier 3) | AI Summary and Popular Mentions only. Not enough data for new theme scores. If you were scored in an earlier quarter, those scores stay on your profile. |
Under 10 | Nothing. Insufficient data for any meaningful analysis |
The more reviews you collect, the more accurate and detailed your AI analysis becomes. Collecting reviews through invitations is the fastest way to reach Tier 1.
Why a theme can show no score
Being in a tier gets your business scored. Each theme still has to earn its own score, and that needs enough reviews actually discussing it. For Tier 1 that is 30 reviews touching the theme, for Tier 2 it is 15. A theme below that shows no score rather than an unreliable one, and the themes around it are unaffected.
This changes to 15 for every tier from the December 2026 refresh, so some businesses will see blank themes fill in.
If your review volume drops below 50
We do not delete your scores. You keep the scores from the last quarter you qualified, and your AI summary still refreshes each quarter above them. A real dated analysis is more useful to a shopper than a blank space.
Two things follow from this. Your held scores no longer count toward the industry average or Best in Class, because those compare only businesses scored in the current quarter. And if you go two quarters in a row without reaching 50, the held scores come down.
To be scored on current feedback again, pass 50 reviews in the 12 months before a refresh.
How industries are structured
Most industries are scored at one level: every business in the category is scored on the same 5 themes and compared against each other.
Four industries also have sub-scoring-groups with their own themes: Retail, Automotive, Financial Services and Insurance. Online Shopping within Retail, or Short-Term Insurance within Insurance, are examples. If your business sits in one of these sub-groups, you are scored twice: once on the sub-group's 5 themes against similar businesses, which is where your detailed insights come from, and once on the parent category's 5 broader themes against every business in the category. You appear on both pages, with a separate ranking on each.
If your business belongs to more than one sub-group, for example a bank offering personal loans and investments, each sub-group is scored on its own: its own themes, AI summary, industry comparisons and action plans. Customers switch between them with the category selector on your profile. You switch with the context toggle in your portal.
Some sub-groups have no themes of their own. They use the themes and industry average of their parent category; all the Health & Medical sub-groups work this way. Car Insurance and Home Insurance are the one exception: they use the Short-Term Insurance themes and average. A business in one of these sub-groups is scored once, on those borrowed themes. The sub-group still has its own page: only businesses listed in it appear there, are ranked there, and can be Best in Class there.
What you see in your portal
Click AI Insights in the sidebar to access your AI scoring dashboard.
Growth tier
Growth businesses have access to the Overview tab only:
• Overall AI Score with colour label and trend indicator
• 5 Theme Scores with industry averages and quarter-on-quarter movement
• Industry ranking - your position within your scoring group
• 12-month trend chart showing score movement over time
• Next refresh date
All other tabs (Theme Deep Dive, Competitors, Action Plans, Alerts) are visible but locked, with an upgrade prompt.
Premium tier
Premium businesses have full access to all 5 tabs:
Tab 1: Overview - Everything in Growth, plus the ability to write and pin a Business Response per theme. Responses (max 300 characters) appear on your public consumer profile below the relevant theme in the AI summary. This is the only portal feature that directly affects your consumer-facing profile. A business that responds to criticism publicly looks accountable; one that does not looks unresponsive.
Tab 2: Theme Deep Dive - For each of the 5 themes:
• What's Working: 3-5 specific positive patterns identified from your reviews
• What's Hurting: 2-5 specific negative patterns identified from your reviews
• Reviews touching theme: the percentage of analysed reviews that mention this theme
• 12-month sparkline and quarter-on-quarter score movement
Tab 3: Competitors - Side-by-side comparison against up to 5 competitors within the same scoring group, across all 5 themes, with rankings per theme and the industry average as a reference row.
Tab 4: Action Plans - For every theme scoring below the industry average, at or below 4.0/5, or that is your lowest-scoring theme, a prioritised set of recommendations tied directly to the specific complaint patterns driving the score down. Each action includes a priority level (High or Medium) and the impact it addresses.
Tab 5: Alerts - Notifications when scores shift quarter on quarter, including if a competitor has overtaken you on a specific theme.
Tip: Growth shows you where you stand. Premium shows you exactly what to do about it, what your competitors are doing, and tells you when things change.
Context toggle (Retail, Automotive, Financial Services or Insurance)
If your business is in Retail, Automotive, Financial Services, or Insurance, a context toggle appears on the Overview, Theme Deep Dive and Competitors tabs. This lets you switch between your sub-scoring-group view (e.g., Online Shopping) and your parent category view (e.g., Retail overall).
For businesses scored in multiple sub-scoring-groups, the toggle shows all your contexts. Each context is completely independent: different themes, different competitor pools, different industry benchmarks.
How to improve your scores
Scores are based on what your customers actually say. If you address the specific issues identified in the What's Hurting section and the Action Plans, and your customers start reflecting those improvements in their reviews, your scores will improve at the next refresh.
Scores refresh quarterly for businesses with 50 or more reviews in the previous 12 months. Below that your scores are held and your AI summary still refreshes. The more reviews you collect, the more current and accurate your profile becomes.
Key principles:
• Act on patterns, not outliers - One complaint does not require immediate change. Focus on recurring themes.
• Focus on high-frequency negatives - Themes mentioned most often with declining sentiment are your biggest improvement opportunities.
• Defend your strengths - If a theme scores well, maintain what is working.
• Use Business Responses (Premium) - Respond to criticism publicly on your profile. This shows accountability and can influence how potential customers perceive your scores.
• Collect more reviews - Higher volume improves scoring accuracy and moves you to a higher data tier.
Note: The AI does not use review volume as a scoring factor. A business with 100 reviews is scored the same way as one with 2,000. Volume affects data reliability (the tiers), not the score itself.
Industry averages and competitive positioning
Every theme score is compared against the industry average for that theme. If the average Claims Handling score across all Insurance businesses is 3.2, a business scoring 3.8 is flagged as "above industry average."
Best in Class is identified per theme - the highest-scoring verified business on that theme that also scores at or above the industry average and has enough reviews to rank. If no business qualifies, no Best in Class is shown for that theme. On your profile, each theme shows your score, the industry average and the Best in Class score. The business that holds Best in Class is named only on the industry page.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from my star rating? Your star rating is a simple average of what number customers clicked. AI scoring reads the actual words in every review and evaluates you on 5 specific dimensions that matter in your industry. A business could have a 3.5 star rating but score Excellent on Agent Quality and Poor on Claims Handling. The AI tells you where you are strong and where you need to improve.
How often are scores updated? Scores refresh quarterly for every business with 50 or more reviews in the previous 12 months. Below that, your existing scores are held and only your AI summary refreshes. Every review you collect counts toward the next cycle.
Can I improve my score? Yes. The scores reflect what customers actually say. Address the issues in What's Hurting and Action Plans, and as customers start reflecting improvements in their reviews, your scores will improve at the next refresh.
Why are my sub-scoring-group scores different from my parent category scores? They measure different things. Your sub-scoring-group scores evaluate you on themes specific to your type of business. Your parent category scores evaluate you on broader themes that apply across the whole category. You might excel on sub-scoring-group themes but have room to improve on broader themes, or vice versa.
I disagree with my score. Can I appeal? Scores are generated by AI analysis of your customer reviews from the last 12 months. We do not manually adjust scores. The best path is to encourage your customers to leave updated reviews. Scores refresh quarterly and will reflect new review patterns.
Do you use all my reviews or just recent ones? We use reviews from the last 12 months only, at their natural distribution. We do not adjust the ratio of positive to negative reviews before scoring. This ensures your score reflects your current customer experience.
Why do my scores not match my current review count? Your review count is today's. Your scores may be from an earlier quarter. Scores refresh each quarter for businesses with 50 or more reviews in the previous 12 months. If your volume has fallen below that, we hold the scores from the last quarter you qualified rather than removing them. Your AI summary still refreshes, so the words on your profile can be newer than the numbers beside them. This also works the other way. A business showing 22 reviews today may have had 70 when it was last scored. If you want your scores to reflect what customers are saying now, collect enough reviews to pass 50 before the next refresh.
Still need help? Use the live chat inside your portal to get in touch with our customer success team.