[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Sliver

It's the aggregate of the stars that have a compounding affect that can harm businesses. I just looked at one of my competitors. He's got a 4.9 with eight reviews (all a little suspect, if you know what I mean) and I have a 4.5 with about 30 reviews.

On no planet is his company better than ours, but you wouldn't know that if you just looked at the stars.

If you read the reviews and our responses to negative ones, I think it would really put anybody's mind at ease about working with us. Fortunately, the negative reviews we have are primarily from wingnuts and I think it shows, but my concern is you have to actually click and then put in the effort of reading the reviews to come to that conclusion. The star rating is what's visible and can lead somebody to going one way versus another.

Spending my personal money - yes, I can't help but notice the star review because it is so front and centre when you Google a business. You can't miss it. If a company has a below four-star rating, it absolutely catches my attention and - in spite of my best efforts - colours my first impression of the company.

If a company had a one-star rating, I would be very suspect of working with them. If I had time to dig, I could maybe put my mind at ease. If I'm in a rush, I could see just moving on to the next company without that red flag. That flag - btw - could be falsely and/or maliciously planted, but here I am making decisions based on it.

So every time I get a one-, two-, three- or four-star rating, it drags me down a little more. I think that negatively affects my business and I'm defenseless against it. I would like to opt out of being rated, but I can't. And I can't prevent people from one-star bombing me unfairly. And while I can reply to their comments, I can't mitigate the downward pressure on that star rating.

No idea what you do - but just offer people a coupon or a free shoe shine or a Tim Hortons gift card for a good review like all the companies selling through Amazon do these days.

Lets get those review numbers up.