Your TrustScore is a measure of your customer satisfaction based on service reviews you collect on TrustRatings. It’s not just a simple average of your reviews.
The formula used to calculate the TrustScore takes several things into account, such as the number of reviews,
the age of the reviews, and the star rating of each review.
This article will give you a more in-depth look into how your TrustScore is calculated, and how you can improve or maintain it.
# Calculating the TrustScore
Each time a consumer gives a company a review between 1 and 5 stars we recalculate the overall TrustScore. This calculation is based on all reviews that the company has collected so far and uses the following three key factors: time span, frequency, and Bayesian average.
# Time span
The most recent review counts and weighs the most, as new reviews give you more insight into your current customer satisfaction than old reviews. The TrustScore takes this into account by giving less weight to old reviews and more weight to new reviews. For example, a review received 6 months ago has half the weight of a review received today.
# Frequency
We recalculate the TrustScore every time a new review is posted. The more frequently you collect reviews the more stable your TrustScore will be. For example, a company received twenty 5-star reviews two years ago and therefore has a TrustScore of 4.5. If they were to receive one 1-star review today, their TrustScore would drop to 3.4.
# Bayesian average
We use a Bayesian average in the calculation of the TrustScore to ensure that a company with few reviews starts off with a more balanced average TrustScore, instead of an extremely high or low score based on only a low volume of reviews. This means that in all TrustScore calculations we automatically include the value of 7 reviews worth 3.5 stars each. As the company collects more reviews this becomes a smaller factor in the calculation of the overall TrustScore.
For example, if a company receives a single 1-star review, its TrustScore would be 3.2 stars rather than 1-star. This also explains why a company that only has 5-star reviews can have a TrustScore of 4.5 instead of 5.
# From TrustScore to star rating
After the calculation, the TrustScore is then visualized into the overall star rating. Using standard mathematical rounding rules, the star rating will be rounded up or down to half or full stars, depending on the calculation of the TrustScore.
For example, if your TrustScore is between 4.3 and 4.7, it appears as 4.5 stars.
# Improving and maintaining your TrustScore
# 1. Deliver great customer service
Everything starts with customer service. Companies who devote specific attention and resources to their customer service put themselves in the best position to improve it, thereby getting more positive reviews, and a better overall TrustScore.
# 2. Ask all your customers to leave reviews
Satisfied customers often just need a little reminder to leave their positive review. By asking all your customers for feedback, you’re also interacting with them and showing that their opinions matter to you. Remember to reply to their reviews as well to show an even higher level of care and engagement.
# 3. Learn from all your reviews
TrustRatings makes it easy to collect, manage, and analyze reviews, so companies can learn from them and improve where necessary. This goes for both positive and negative reviews.