Every online seller aims for 5-star ratings, but what happens when the buyer leaves a 4-star yet claims they had a “Perfect” experience?

Unfortunately, the reality is that the review system is only somewhat effective. From fake positive reviews, to paid negative reviews on competitor accounts, to absolutely strange people who leave a review before you even shipped it to people like the ones we are discussing, who love their order but refuse to post a star-rating that matches what they typed… heck, I have even seen reviews that are 1-star yet say “Best company I have ever ordered through! Will order again!”… like I said, the review system is only semi effective.

So why do people with an incredible experience leave 4 stars? Well, this may sound utterly insane to you, but there really is a thing called “I don’t leave 5 stars”... like literally, the highest review they EVER give is 4-stars. Being that I am utterly fascinated by human psychology I wanted to dive into this more to figure out WHY… just WHY? WHY can’t you bring yourself to give “the best product of all time” a perfect score? And this is what I learned:

THE 5 REASONS PEOPLE LEAVE STRANGE 4-STARS

1. People who refuse to ever leave a 5 star want to always keep that slot open because they feel that, at some point, they may have an even-better perfect experience. (It seems they don’t realize it is ok to give multiple things a perfect score, yet they give multiple things 4-star).

2. Some people feel that 5-star should not only be perfect but should also be MIND-BLOWINGLY PERFECT. For example, even though the tank top you shipped them is exactly what they wanted and the price was incredible, shipping was fast, packaged perfectly… you didn’t include a $20 gift card to Applebees, so it’s not a beyond perfect experience, therefore, 4 star.

3. Some people on Quora say that they “I reserve 5 stars for my absolute favorites” - so these people feel that 5-star isn’t for a perfect experience, instead it is for a FAVORITE experience.

4. Then theres people who prefer to leave a 4-star because they assume they will order again and even if the first experience was 5-star, they can’t guarantee their next experience will also be, so they rate a 4-star. (Yeah… so…. Basically… there’s no way to ever EARN a 5 star because as long as they are happy they will keep ordering yet never increase the star rating…. Gee, thanks.)

5. Something completely beyond the sellers control resulted in the seller being hit with the 4 star. Here’s a prime example of this nonsense: Seller ships fast, ships perfect, even pays for a quick shipping method. Parcel arrives to buyers local post office in 48 hours. However the post office doesn’t have power due to a storm so it delayed delivery of the package by 1 day. ….. 4 stars, slow delivery…

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

As absolutely frustrating as this situation is, don't let this get you down!  I know, I know, I know... it's easy to SAY "just ignore it", but it's hard to actually do.  However, the TRUTH is that having some less-than-5-star-review is actually GOOD... seriously, read our blog post called Is Having Only 5 Star Reviews Now BAD? ... seriously, read it.  I am a fact / statistic / data person.  Even though I have my own opinions (which are often usually pretty strong!) I prefer to base what I do on cold, hard evidence, and you should too.  And the evidence shows that it's really good to have a small quantity of people who less-than-perfect opinion on your company.  Trust me, I agree it sounds weird, but it does make sense!