You’ve probably seen competitors touting various industry awards and wondered whether it’s worth pursuing one of your own. While some awards are just pay-for-play, others you truly have to earn—and those mean the most. ClearyRated’s ‘Best of’ award falls into that second category.
But who’s eligible, how do you earn the award, and what are the perks of being a winner? We’re here to answer these burning questions.
What are the ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ awards?
Each year for the past 15 years, ClearlyRated has recognized B2B service firms in North America whose service has been recognized as excellent by their clients and/or employees.
The ‘Best of’ Awards for Client and Employee Satisfaction are awarded in the following industries: Accounting, HR services, Insurance, IT services, Legal, RPO, and Staffing & Recruiting. Firms can earn additional designations – the Best of Diamond Awards – for consistent excellence over 5, 10, and, now, 15 years.
‘Best of’ award process and eligibility
Eligibility for this annual award is based on each firm’s Net Promoter® Score (NPS®), which is determined by verified ratings provided by their clients and employees. ClearlyRated validates every firm’s score, measures them against industry benchmarks, and announces the winners in every industry during our Winner Announcement Day each February – more on that below!
Only companies that receive at least a 20% survey response rate with at least 15 responses, or that receive at least 250 total responses, are eligible to earn a ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ award. For this year’s competition, they must also earn an NPS score of at least 50%.
Less than 2% B2B service firms in any industry in North American earn the award, making them a credible and sought-after differentiator of service quality.
How ClearlyRated celebrates the ‘Best of’ winners
The first Tuesday in February is one of the biggest days of the year for us here at ClearlyRated – Winner Announcement Day! What do we do to help winner celebrate? Let’s try to count the ways.
We: publish press releases announcing the ‘Best of’ winners for every industry; post on all of our social media channels about the winners in each industry; re-post and boost our clients’ winner announcement social posts; send congratulations emails to each winning firm; get our association partners in each industry in on the public celebrations with visibility to their audiences; shoot fireworks from the roof of our Portland, OR headquarters… okay that last one was a joke, but you get the idea. We love celebrating our winners and the excitement is palpable throughout ClearlyRated and beyond.
All the ways we help our winners celebrate
But that’s how we celebrate. The winners themselves get so much more:
- Winning firms names and award badges prominently displayed on the ClearlyRated B2B business directory
- Customized press release templates with actual NPS data from each winning firm alongside industry benchmarks
- ‘Best of’ winner badges, with a Best Practices guide to maximizing their impact brand reputation and marketing and sales efforts
- A social media toolkit that includes ‘Best of’ Winner social sharing images, hashtags, and tips
- Access to the winners-only award merchandise shop
- Resources for leveraging the deluge of testimonials and shout outs that winning firms receive from adoring clients in their surveys
- Exclusive ‘Best of’ winner data and benchmarking
- A winners-only webinar about how to maximize the value of your best of win
- The full support of our world-class Customer Success team
Pretty amazing, right? Don’t just take our word for it…
What ClearlyRated clients say
Here’s what ClearlyRated clients have said about their experience with the ‘Best of’ program—including what it has done for their service and reputation:
‘Best of’ award timing
The annual ‘Best of’ awards calendar is cyclical, starting with the Winner Announcement Day in February. Firms must survey by December to compete to earn a ‘Best of’ award in time for the Winner Announcements in February.
Firms who don’t survey in time for Winner Announcements can still earn the award for that year if they survey by July, but they’ll miss the Winner Announcement celebrations. The competition to earn the following year’s award begins in August. Below is the awards cycle for the 2025 award season.
Register for the ‘Best of’ Awards today!
Ready to get started and prove that your firm is one of the best? Simply fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch!
