What is a good rating?


We are often asked the question - what is good rating? As a consumer, you want to take the rating into account when you decide which businesses to approach.


Response Rates

First of all, look at the number of reviews. Are they recent? Can you see as many reviews as you might from a business which is supposed to offer a form or an email link to every customer? Please bear in mind that many customers will not reply when asked to leave a review. In our work with the Property Ombudsman, where limited surveys were "imposed" on member agents, we found that:

  • Grey: 7% of agents received no response
  • Purple: 50% of agents achieve a response rate between 5% and 20%
  • Gold: 33% of agents achieved a response rate 25% and 40%
  • Green: 10% of agents achieved a response rate of 45% to 65%


Satisfaction Rating

The satisfaction ratings for these agents fall into three distinct groups, showing that there is a close relationship between the number of reviews received and the ratings given. Most business get good ratings of 9 or more from some customers. The top 10% (green) hardly ever get anything else, scoring 9+ overall. A third (gold) get occasional reviews with low ratings which hold them back. About half (purple) achieve both lower response rates and lower ratings.

  • Purple: agents achieve ratings of around 8/10
  • Gold: agents achieve rating between 8 and 9
  • Green: agents achieve ratings of around 9/10


Compliance with the Code of Practice

Our survey also measures agents' compliance with the Code or Practice. This shows a much smaller difference between the highest and lowest performing firms.


When do customers recommend a firm?

We can compare the satisfaction ratings with the answers given by customers as to whether they would recommend a firm.

  • Recommended (Green). Customers that give a rating of 9 or 10 can be relied on to recommend the firm. Once the rating drops below 8, the percent recommended drops quickly.
  • No Answer (Yellow). As ratings fall from 8 to 5, up to 15% of people avoid giving a recommendation one way or another, but below 5 there is little hesitation in giving an outright "No"
  • NOT Recommended (Red). Any rating of 6 or less is likely to lead to not recommended, and this falls steeply as ratings decline.