Asking Consumers to Rate Specific Aspects Boosts Overall Ratings

  • Research shows that asking consumers to rate specific aspects of their experience leads to higher overall ratings.
  • Consumers prefer to be positive and disclose bad experiences by rating specific attributes poorly.
  • Businesses can use attribute ratings to boost their overall rating on their websites, but should be aware of potential inaccuracies.
  • Consumer ratings are imperfect due to various contextual factors.

A study reveals that when consumers rate specific aspects of a business experience, they tend to give higher overall ratings. This is because it allows them to be positive while still warning others about negative aspects. Businesses can use this information to improve their ratings by asking for attribute ratings on their websites. However, these results highlight the imperfections in consumer ratings and the need for more reliable feedback methods.

Factuality Level: 8
Factuality Justification: The article presents a well-researched and informative topic on how the way websites ask for ratings can affect the ratings received by businesses. It provides insights from experiments and previous research to support its claims and offers advice for both consumers and service providers. The information is relevant and objective, with no clear signs of sensationalism or personal perspective.
Noise Level: 7
Noise Justification: The article provides a thoughtful analysis of long-term trends or possibilities by discussing the impact of different rating systems on consumer behavior and how businesses can use this information to their advantage. However, it also contains some irrelevant information about unrelated topics such as chatbots, hybrid working, and movie theaters. The overall noise level is moderate due to these diversions from the main topic.
Public Companies: Yelp (YELP), OpenTable (Not available)
Key People: Katie Mehr (Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta)


Financial Relevance: No
Financial Markets Impacted: No
Financial Rating Justification: The article discusses the impact of different rating systems on consumer reviews and preferences, but does not directly mention any financial topics or events that would affect financial markets or companies.
Presence Of Extreme Event: No
Nature Of Extreme Event: Other
Impact Rating Of The Extreme Event: No
Extreme Rating Justification: There is no extreme event mentioned in the text.

Reported publicly: www.wsj.com