Methodology for retail brand customer ratings

You’ll find customer star ratings on some of our shopping and product reviews. Here’s how we came up with them.

“Customer score” or “user survey” star ratings

You may have noticed that some of our shopping pages, tables and reviews come with “customer score” or “user survey” star ratings. These are customer-generated scores, where we asked consumers to tell us how they rated products they had purchased and used from brands in the following 8 categories:

  • Home Entertainment (TVs, sound bars and stereo/sound systems)
  • Personal Technology (mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, earbuds and headphones)
  • Small Kitchen Appliance (kettles, toasters, coffee machines, air fryers and microwaves)
  • Big Kitchen Appliance (fridges, freezers, fridge-freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers and washer-dryers)
  • Health & Styling Appliance (hair dryers, hair curlers, hair straighteners, shavers, beard trimmers and electric toothbrushes)
  • Home Workout (treadmills, rowing machines, cross trainers, exercise bikes, free weights and home weight benches)
  • Mattress & Bedding (mattresses, pillows and duvets)
  • Vacuum & Floorcare (corded vacuums, cordless vacuums, handheld vacuums, stick vacuums, carpet cleaners and steam cleaners)

Customer survey ratings methodology

In June 2022, Finder ran an independent customer survey about retail brands. We polled the following number of customers in each category:

  • Home Entertainment: 1,427 respondents
  • Personal Technology: 1,963 respondents
  • Small Kitchen Appliance: 1,578 respondents
  • Big Kitchen Appliance: 1,315 respondents
  • Health & Styling Appliance: 1,301 respondents
  • Home Workout: 752 respondents
  • Mattress & Bedding: 1,291 respondents
  • Vacuum & Floorcare: 1,194 respondents

The survey asked customers to rate a category product they had purchased and used in the last two years in the following areas:

Value for money: On a scale of 1 to 5
Reliability: On a scale of 1 to 5
Performance: On a scale of 1 to 5
Overall satisfaction: On a scale of 1 to 5
Would recommend?: We asked respondents whether they would recommend the brand to a friend or not

Final customer score: We averaged the scores from the 5 areas above to give an overall customer score for each brand in each category. The final rating was then rounded to the nearest half star, to give the following 1 to 5 range:

★★★★★ – Excellent

★★★★★ – Good

★★★★★ – Average

★★★★★ – Subpar

★★★★★ – Poor

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