How ratings work

Profiles show figures worked out from residents' reviews. Here is what they mean.

The headline figures

• Would use again: the percentage of reviewers who said they would use the provider again.
• On time: the percentage of reviewers who said the job was on time.
• Stuck to price: the percentage of reviewers who said the final price matched what was agreed.
• Tidy: the percentage who said the provider left things tidy. This is only shown for trades where it is relevant.

The quality score

Reviewers also give a quality score out of 5. A provider with only a few reviews could look brilliant or terrible by luck, so we pull each score part of the way towards the average for all providers on the register. With more reviews the pull gets weaker, and the provider's own reviews decide the score. This is called shrinking towards the average, and it keeps one lucky or unlucky review from deciding where someone ranks.

Minimum number of reviews

No score is shown for a provider with fewer than 3 reviews. Until then they are listed as new.

How lists are ordered

In each trade, providers with 3 or more reviews come first, highest quality score first. If two have the same score, the one with more reviews comes first, then the one with the most recent review. Providers with fewer than 3 reviews are listed after them under “New on Bolton Vouched”, newest listing first.

Would use again, On time, Stuck to price and Tidy are shown on each listing to help you choose, but they don't decide the order.

“Taking on work” and “Booked up until” are set by the trader, run out by themselves (after 14 days, or on the date given) and don't change the order.

Recommendations in answer to questions on Ask Bolton aren't reviews: they never change anyone's scores, badges or place in a list.

Newer reviews count more

Recent work is the best guide, so a review's influence halves every two years.

Which reviews count

Every review comes from someone who signed in with Google or an email code. Reviews from email-code sign-ins count only after we've checked them. Published reviews count, and so do reviews marked “Under check” while we look at them. A review the admin removes stops counting. The review policy and fake reviews policy explain the rules.

Badges

A provider with 5 or more reviews that count can earn one badge, shown on their profile and in lists:

• Top rated: a quality score of 4.5 or more and 90% or more would use them again.
• Highly rated: a quality score of 4.0 or more and 80% or more would use them again.

We use the quality score and the would use again figure exactly as the profile shows them. A provider who meets both gets Top rated only. Badges are earned from residents' reviews alone, and they update by themselves as reviews come in, so a provider can lose one as well as gain one. Nobody can buy a badge or pay for one, and badges don't change the order of a list.

Payment

Payment never affects ranking or badges.

Traders can pay for an optional extra: we check their photo ID, they can show up to 6 photos of their work, and they get a monthly report of their enquiries. It doesn't change the order of any list, the scores or the badges, and there's no way to filter lists by it. A profile shows “ID checked” when we've seen the trader's photo ID; it says nothing about the quality of their work, which only reviews show.