Type the rating Google shows, how many reviews you have and the rating you want. Google rounds the average to one decimal, so the answer is a range, and the page shows both ends of it.
Type your rating, your number of reviews and the rating you want.
This works from the rounded rating Google shows. It cannot see your exact average, which is why it gives a range rather than one number.
Both are on your Google listing, beside the stars. Use the rating exactly as Google shows it, such as 4.2.
Pick the next step up rather than the top. Moving a tenth at a time is how ratings really change, and it is a goal you can see coming.
The smaller number is the best case, if your true average is near the top of what Google rounds to your rating. The larger number is the worst case.
Google shows 4.3 for any average from 4.25 up to just under 4.35. Two shops that both show 4.3 can be a long way apart underneath, and the one at 4.26 needs noticeably more good reviews to show 4.5 than the one at 4.34. So the calculator works from both ends and tells you the span.
The fewer reviews you have, the more each new one moves the average, in both directions. A shop with twenty reviews can lose a tenth to a single bad one. A shop with five hundred barely notices it. That is why steady asking, every day, matters more than a burst in one week.
It is also why hearing about a bad experience at the counter is worth so much. A problem you fix while the customer is still there is often a review that never gets written.
Ask every customer, at the moment they are happiest, and make it a ten second job with a code on the counter. Reply to every review. Do not offer anything in return for a review, do not buy reviews, and do not ask only the customers you expect to be happy: Google removes reviews collected that way and can penalise the listing.
Google shows your average to one decimal place, so a range of true averages all show as the same rating. That is why the answer here is a range.
Only if it breaks Google's rules, such as a fake review or one about a different business. You can report it to Google from your business listing. A review you simply disagree with stays, and a calm reply is the best answer to it.
No. Replies do not change the average, but customers read them, and a thoughtful reply to a complaint can matter more than the complaint itself.
It depends on how many customers you ask. Divide the number of reviews you need by how many you get in a typical week, and you have a fair guess.
No. The sums are done in your browser, on your own device. We count how often the tool is used, and that is all.
Cardless Reviews gives you a review link with a stand to print on A4, so asking becomes a ten second habit at the counter, and shows how many customers opened it. The Review Link is free while we are in pre-release.