About on-line reviews?

[Ithinktomyself]

I am self-employed and receive the bulk of my work through a particular agency. I am, if I say so myself, very good at what I do. I am also very experienced and qualified although I have only been working independently for about eighteen months.

Since I started I have received 9 reviews on the agency website, all of which have been five stars. I have not received any negative feedback (which is not to say that I'm perfect, but does mean that I have not been made aware of any areas that I should work to improve).

Yesterday I received a new review from a client. It was entirely positive (and pleasingly specific about what I do well) but gave me 4 out of 5 stars. This means that they have brought my ranking down from 5 to 4.9. I am.... a bit cross actually. I was first of all concerned that I had done something wrong but I have read and reread the review and there really doesn't seem to be anything that they have been unhappy with. Which means that their positive feedback has resulted in a negative for me IYSWIM.

Would it be unreasonable to contact the client and ask why they gave 4 stars or would this be opening a can of worms? It makes a difference because it impacts on where I appear on searches - at present I am at the top (or very close). Or should I just take it on the chin?

I think that if you contact the client personally you will look oddly intense. If it's an option on the website, perhaps a bland response to their review saying "We enjoyed meeting your requirements and are delighted that you are pleased with our work; we welcome further feedback to help us achieve a five-star rating"

But personally I wouldn't even do this; I'd just try to get more 5-star reviews to balance out the 4-star.

Yes you're probably right - I probably AM oddly intense! Unfortunately it's not like Trip Advisor where you can come back with a comment.

The thing is, that my work with this client is ongoing, so I'm feeling a bit awkward that there's something they're not happy with that I don't know about...

Gosh - you sound like hard work, OP.

What is the difference between 4.9 and 5.0 in real terms?

Or are you just determined to be top?

@Jemima232 cheers for that. In real terms it means that I slip down the rankings which means that potential clients may not even see me. And yes, it's nice to be top.

I think some people (myself included) are stingy and don't give 5 stars unless something is unbelievably good. If it meets all expectations I'd give a 4. Otherwise where do you go when it is exceptional? on the other hand, if I'm reading reviews I don't care about the difference between 4s and 5s - I'm looking for the 1s and 2s to see what the problems were.

I used to work for a phone company and we did the surveys. One question was from 1-10 how would you score their ability to perform your request. Someone called to pay their bill and gave them 8. I asked what more they could have done and they said "nothing, I just never give 10s".

I didn't put the survey through as it was completely unfair on the advisor to have less than 10 on that one. If they hadn't taken the payment it's 1, if they had it's 10, there's no subjectivity on that one.

People are arseholes.

I know ruining a perfect score is annoying, but it makes your reviews seem more genuine if you have a mixture of scores. You can't please all the people all the time, and people generally only tend to leave reviews when they are angry.

The problem with online reviews is that one person's 3 stars might be another's 5 stars. I look first at the 1s and 2s to see what sort of problems people had and how convincing they sound (I tend to disregard illiterate, ranty reviews). Unless there's guidance to say otherwise I do:

- Terrible to the point of being a rip off - poor attitude/service, one to avoid.
- Poor but more likely due to incompetence than bad attitude or intent to mislead
- Acceptable but nothing special - possibly minor issues that were resolved quickly.
- Good - no issues, straightforward, prompt, everything you could want.
- Really went the extra mile, went out of their way, delivered more than expected, exceptional quality.

Yes I suppose it's true that a complete run of 5s suggests that it's just my mum writing the reviews. Sad though, I was enjoying my perfect score. But it has also made me think about that particular client and if I'm doing enough for him. @ScreamingValenta yes I probably use a similar system. I suppose I can't be perfect for everyone all the time. I would love to know if he's just one of those people who never gives it though or if he thinks I wasn't as good as I could have been.