The rating is 4.7. The last twenty reviews average 4.1.

A cumulative review average is among the slowest-moving numbers a business owns: which makes it the last place a service problem shows up.

By Steve 4 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The rating is 4.7. The last twenty reviews average 4.1.

A business with four hundred reviews and a 4.7 average has something worth having. It also has a measurement problem, because that number is arithmetically incapable of telling anyone what is happening now. Split the same data by time and a different picture can appear: the last twenty reviews averaging 4.1, three of them mentioning the same thing, all of them posted since a shift pattern changed in the spring. Both numbers are true. Only one of them is information. The arithmetic of a stuck average Take the case above…

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