Trustpilot for Free users: How your TrustScore works and how to boost it

So you’ve signed up for a Free plan with Trustpilot. Once onboarding is complete and review invitations are underway using our Review Collector widget and automated invitations, it's time to consider your TrustScore. 

The TrustScore formula

Three key factors influence your TrustScore:

Recent reviews: Newer reviews hold more weight, reflecting the evolving customer experience.

Review frequency: Consistent review collection helps maintain a stable TrustScore.

Bayesian average (for new businesses): To ensure a fair starting point, Trustpilot offers seven average (3.5-star) reviews in the calculation for businesses just starting with Trustpilot. As a business collects more reviews, this becomes a lesser factor in the calculation.

TrustScore updates act differently depending on your stage of development with Trustpilot:

Real-time updates (under 10,000 reviews): Businesses with fewer reviews see their TrustScore update immediately after each new review. This ensures their score reflects the latest customer sentiment.

Daily updates (over 10,000 Reviews): Businesses with a more extensive review base experience daily TrustScore updates. The score becomes less volatile with substantial data and reflects a more long-term view of customer satisfaction.

Why is a TrustScore important?

When deciding whether to engage with a business, 3.3 stars out of 5 is the lowest rating customers are likely to consider.

A high TrustScore acts as a digital seal of approval from past customers. It tells potential customers that you're a reliable and trustworthy business. 

It’s important to know that a TrustScore is an ever-changing representation of customers' experiences with your brand. Keeping your service consistently excellent will ensure an “Excellent” TrustScore. 

We’ve also found that including a TrustScore in advertising reaps significant rewards. A Kantar and Trustpilot study found that including Trustpilot ratings like TrustScores in advertising increased the perceived worth of surveyed brands by up to 7 percentage points from the original number. It also boosted brand confidence by 8 percentage points from the original. There are a lot of great benefits you’ll see from a high TrustScore.

What are some ways to increase your TrustScore as a Free plan user?

On a Free plan, you can access 50 monthly review invitations. This means increasing your TrustScore requires a focus on continuous collection and maintaining a stellar reputation for excellent customer service. We’ve collected a few creative ways to do that. 

Prioritize improving gaps in customer service

We know that happy customers leave good reviews, which helps improve your TrustScore. Unhappy customers will also vocalize what isn’t working in your customer service process. Though it might not seem like it, this is great advice for your business to act on, to improve your customer experience for future customers.

For example, a Trustpilot customer, Thriftbooks, saw a review from a customer stating that a product ordered was shipped in terrible condition. However, rather than removing or ignoring the review, Thriftbooks immediately replied, assuring the customer that the customer service team was on the case, much like a support ticket.

As a result, the reviewer changed it to a positive 5-star review and publicly showcased Thriftbooks' commitment to its customers. Today, the company’s TrustScore is at an Excellent 4.7.

Keep review collection frequent 

On a Free plan, we offer several ways to collect reviews. The most effective are Review Collector widgets and automated invitations. Our Review Collector widget effortlessly prompts your valued customers to share their experiences on Trustpilot directly from your website. 

We also offer access to our optimized invitation templates. You can use our e-commerce integrations and Automatic Feedback Service or manually create invitations to ask customers to review you on Trustpilot. Keep a consistent cadence of review collection from both these sources per month. We’ve found that businesses that regularly invite their customers to write reviews tend to have a higher TrustScore than businesses that don’t. 

Reply to reviews, especially the negative ones

Authentic reviews from real customers help future business growth. 87% of consumers said real-life customer reviews/ratings have a greater impact on purchasing decisions than influencer/celebrity reviews (50%). 

But to receive authenticity, you must also show it. That's why we encourage you to reply to reviews, good or bad. Replying to reviews is easy on your Trustpilot business profile. We recommend not waiting more than 72 hours before replying to a negative review. Almost 26% of consumers consider responding to reviews an important part of business activity. 

With your Free plan, you can easily turn on review notifications, which indicate when a review comes in, so you don’t miss any opportunities to respond promptly. 

Flag reviews that go against our guidelines

We have strict guidelines for reviewers that keep both sides safe and secure when sharing thoughts and experiences. Businesses can flag service reviews for a few specific reasons. 

They include harmful or illegal speech, personal information, promotional material, a disingenuous review, or misleading information (like a review about a different business. By flagging these reviews, you can ensure that your review page stays honest and no outliers will harm your TrustScore. 

Analyze your reviews for areas of improvement

Review analysis becomes more granular and valuable as you ascend through Trustpilot paid plans. Review Insights is a great tool for that. 

On a Free plan, you can also access your Trustpilot Business dashboard, which displays all reviews as they come in and gives you access to Performance Overview. 

This gives you easy access to all the analytics information needed to monitor your review performance, allowing you to grow your business and improve your services. It includes key data points, some of which may be viewable by the public, so it’s important to keep track.

Key takeaways:

• Understand your TrustScore: Know what makes a TrustScore, 

• Keep collecting reviews and always respond: Regularly ask for reviews and reply to all (positive or negative) to show you care.

• Prioritize good customer service: Focus on excellent customer service to get more positive reviews and improve your TrustScore.

• The Free plan is a great place to start: If you're looking for more reviews so you can put more effort into increasing your TrustScore, consider upgrading to one of our paid plans.

• Analyze reviews with our Performance Overview: Use the free Trustpilot dashboard to see your reviews and identify areas for improvement.

Get a free demo with our experts on how to use trust to boost your business.