VerifioVerifio Representative Trust Model
A more balanced picture of customer satisfaction.
Traditional review scores are based only on customers who actively leave a review. That group is not necessarily a representative reflection of all customers, so a review system can give an incomplete picture of the overall customer experience.
The Verifio Representative Trust Model was developed to reduce this dependence on active reviewers alone. It combines written customer reviews with verified silent customer interactions that count at a limited weight.
By weighting written reviews more heavily and limiting the combined influence of passive interactions, Verifio aims for a more balanced view of customer satisfaction.
Two forms of feedback. One Trustscore.
Written reviews
A customer actively leaves a verified review of 1 to 5 stars.
- The stars actually given determine the contribution.
- Written reviews count in full.
- Explicit customer feedback has the largest individual influence.
- A written review weighs ten times as much as a silent interaction.
Silent interactions
A verified customer opens the feedback invitation but does not leave a written review.
- The interaction counts at a limited base weight of 10%.
- The internal trust value is 4.5 stars.
- This value is a model assumption, not a rating given by the customer.
- If the customer still leaves a review, it replaces the silent interaction.
- Automatically generated opens are excluded where possible.
- Recipients are informed that their interaction may count at a limited weight.
An individual weight based on balance
To set the individual weight, Verifio took historical market data and benchmarks on automated e-commerce communication and customer reviews as its starting point.
From these we use a reference scenario in which around 55% of customers open an automated email and around 5% leave a written review.
At this ratio, an individual weight of 10% for silent interactions produces an even split of the total weight between written reviews and passive customer interactions.
- 5 · Written reviews
- 50 · Silent interactions
- 45 · Not opened, excluded
- 1100 invitations
100 customers receive a feedback invitation.
- 255 opened invitations
55 customers open the invitation. 5 of them leave a written review, the other 50 open it without writing one.
- 3500 weight units each
Written reviews: 5 × 100% = 500. Silent interactions: 50 × 10% = 500.
A written review individually weighs ten times as much as a silent interaction. With the chosen starting points this produces an even split of the total weight.
Reference values, not guaranteesThe 55% and 5% are reference values for an illustrative scenario, not guaranteed averages for every organisation. The 55% is based on historical benchmarks for automated e-commerce emails. The 5% is a scenario assumption for review response. Neither is the result of Verifio's own empirical research.
Built-in protection at a lower review response
Not every organisation receives the same share of written reviews. When relatively few customers leave a review, silent interactions could gain too much combined influence through their larger number.
That is why the Verifio Representative Trust Model contains an additional limit:
Silent interactions can together represent at most 50% of the total effective weight.
- Written reviews keep at least 50% of the effective weight whenever a combined Trustscore is calculated.
- The individual base weight of silent interactions stays at 10%.
- When the combined passive influence exceeds 50%, it is scaled back automatically.
- At a lower open rate the actual passive contribution can naturally end up below 50%.
- The limit prevents passive interactions from dominating the combined weighting.
Scenario A · 5% review response
At 55% opened invitations
No additional correction needed.
Scenario B · 1% review response
At 55% opened invitations
Without limit
With limit
By combining a limited individual weight with a maximum combined influence, Verifio prevents silent interactions from dominating the Trustscore when review response is low.
The 50% is a chosen model limit, not a scientifically established optimal ratio.
Transparent, controlled and time-bound
Verified customer interactions
Only interactions linked to an actual, verified customer relationship are eligible.
One interaction per shipment
Each shipment can contribute at most one interaction. When a customer leaves a written review, it replaces any silent interaction registered earlier.
Different individual weights
Written reviews count 100%, with the stars actually given. Silent interactions have a base weight of 10% and an internal trust value of 4.5 stars.
At most 50% passive influence
The combined contribution of silent interactions is limited to at most 50% of the total effective weight.
Recent experiences weigh more
The Trustscore looks at the past 12 months. The 50% limit is applied to the effective weights after the recency corrections.
The final Trustscore
A weighted average of written reviews (the score actually given) and the limited contribution of silent interactions (the model value of 4.5 stars), shown on a scale of 1 to 5.
Older than 12 months: excluded
View the calculation
- s = stars of a written review, r = recency weight of that interaction (100%, 75%, 50% or 25%).
- W(written) = sum of r over all written reviews.
- W(silent) = the smaller of: 10% × sum of r over all silent interactions, and W(written).
- Trustscore = (sum of r × s + W(silent) × 4.5) ÷ (W(written) + W(silent)), rounded to one decimal.
Enough customer feedback first. Then a public Trustscore.
To prevent a public Trustscore from being shown on the basis of only a few interactions, Verifio applies minimum publication requirements.
- Both conditions must be met within the past 12 months.
- Customers who went on to leave a written review also count towards the 100 opens. Each shipment counts at most once.
- A public company page can be available before the minimum conditions are reached. The numerical Trustscore is only published once both are met, and then appears automatically.
Until then the page shows:
Not enough verified customer interactions yet to display a Trustscore.
Shown with every public Trustscore
- The number of written reviews.
- The number of verified customer interactions.
- A reference to this methodology.
- A short note that the Trustscore combines written reviews with silent interactions at a limited weight.
These minimum numbers are provisional publication criteria and no guarantee of statistical representativeness.
More insight than active reviews alone
Written reviews offer valuable, explicit feedback. At the same time, not every customer leaves one. A traditional review score can therefore be influenced more strongly by the group of customers who decide to respond actively.
Verifio wants to reduce this dependence by also counting verified silent interactions at a limited weight. A few principles apply:
- An opened email does not prove that a customer is satisfied.
- A silent interaction is not a written review.
- The internal value of 4.5 stars is a model assumption.
- Silent interactions individually weigh considerably less.
- Their combined influence is at most 50%.
- The method is intended to examine and limit possible distortion from non-response, but does not guarantee a fully representative outcome.
Reliable interactions as the starting point
Verified invitations
Feedback invitations are linked to an actual customer relationship or shipment.
Automatic opens
Automatic email opens and security scans can affect open measurements. Verifio applies detection and filtering to exclude such signals where possible. Not every automatic open can be recognised with complete certainty.
Privacy and transparency
Customers are informed about the processing and possible limited weighting of their interactions. Personal data is processed carefully and in line with applicable privacy rules.
Periodic evaluation
The model parameters are evaluated periodically against actual customer interactions: review response, open rate, the ratio of active to passive interactions and their influence on the Trustscore.
Discover how the Trustscore is calculated
- Written reviews
- 50
- Silent interactions
- 500
- Weight of written reviews
- 50.0
- Weight of silent interactions
- 50.0
The 50% limit is not needed here.
Illustrative scenarios. All interactions are assumed to be from the last 3 months (100% recency weight). Customers who write a review are counted once, as a review.
Substantiation and transparency
Research basis and model assumptions
- The reference value of around 55% opened invitations is inspired by historical benchmarks for automated e-commerce emails.
- The 5% written review response is an illustrative scenario assumption.
- The individual 10% weight was chosen to reach a balance in total weight at this reference ratio.
- The 50% limit is an additional design rule.
- The internal trust value of 4.5 stars is a separate model assumption that still needs to be validated empirically.
- The minimum publication requirements of 10 reviews and 100 opens are provisional product criteria.
- The representativeness and performance of the model are evaluated with real-world data.
Source for the open benchmark: Klaviyo email benchmarks, automated flows in e-commerce. Reported open rates differ by year, sector and type of email. The 55% is a rounded reference value, not a measured Verifio average.
Four principles, one model.
- 1Written reviews individually count 100%.
- 2Silent interactions individually count 10%, based on an illustrative balance between historical open benchmarks and assumed review response.
- 3Silent interactions together represent at most 50% of the effective weight, so they cannot dominate.
- 4A public Trustscore only appears after at least 10 written reviews and 100 verified opens within 12 months.