They say that “A happy customer tells a friend; an unhappy customer tells the world”. The problem is that they tell the world and also post it on Google Maps, ruining our Real Rating and Rating trends.
Today we are going to find out what’s the real damage, and see a couple of scenarios of what’s the impact of a negative review and what it takes to recover from it.
It goes without saying that you don’t need this if you use Localboss that tracks it for you, so you can focus on what really matters instead of being reading this blog right now.
What’s the damage of a negative review
Putting aside the negative impact for your image, brand, etc, the quick answer is this:
It depends on how many reviews you have. Basically the more reviews you have the less impact it will have:
| Total Reviews | Public Score | Real Rating after 1 Star review | Public Rating after 1 star review |
| 10 | 4.5 | 4.18182 | 4.2 |
| 50 | 4.5 | 4.43137 | 4.4 |
| 100 | 4.5 | 4.46535 | 4.5 |
| 500 | 4.5 | 4.49301 | 4.5 |
| 1,000 | 4.5 | 4.49650 | 4.5 |
| 1,500 | 4.5 | 4.49767 | 4.5 |
| 2,000 | 4.5 | 4.49825 | 4.5 |
| 3,000 | 4.5 | 4.49883 | 4.5 |
In this case a 1 star negative review would only change the public score for businesses with 50 reviews or less. From there the impact is logically mitigated the bigger the review base is.
In this very same scenario, how many 5 stars reviews would be required to get back to the public rating of 4.5?
The answer is 7.
You need 7 five-star reviews to overcome a one-star review
Actually 6 five-star reviews will get you back to the public rounded 4.5, but with 7 you get the same 4.5 average real rating you had before the bad review.
| Total Reviews | Public score | Real Rating after 1 Star review | Public Rating after 1 star review | 5 star reviews | Real Rating after 5 Star review | Public Rating after 5 star review |
| 10 | 4.5 | 4.18182 | 4.2 | 6 | 4.4706 | 4.5 |
| 50 | 4.5 | 4.43137 | 4.4 | 6 | 4.4912 | 4.5 |
| 100 | 4.5 | 4.46535 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.4953 | 4.5 |
| 500 | 4.5 | 4.49301 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.4990 | 4.5 |
| 1,000 | 4.5 | 4.49650 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.4995 | 4.5 |
| 1,500 | 4.5 | 4.49767 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.4997 | 4.5 |
| 2,000 | 4.5 | 4.49825 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.4998 | 4.5 |
| 3,000 | 4.5 | 4.49883 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.4998 | 4.5 |
Again, you don’t have to waste time on this. Just download Localboss and we do this, and much more, for your business so you can keep doing what matters more.
