Your Trustpilot TrustScore jumps or drops suddenly because it is not a simple all-time average. Trustpilot uses a time-weighted formula where newer reviews have a significantly higher impact on your score, meaning a sudden influx of fresh 1-star or 5-star reviews will rapidly shift your overall rating.
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Why isn't the Trustpilot TrustScore a straight average?
Trustpilot’s TrustScore isn’t calculated by averaging every review you’ve ever received. According to Trustpilot's official documentation, it focuses instead on two key factors:
• The number of reviews submitted in the last 12 months
• The average star rating of those same reviews
As older feedback ages out of that 12-month window, it gradually stops influencing your score. That’s why a fresh batch of positive reviews can lift your rating quickly - and why a lull or surge in lower-star feedback shows up fast.
How do Trustpilot star-rating labels break down?
Trustpilot also groups weighted averages into labeled brackets. Here are the ranges where each label changes:
Crossing one of these thresholds switches your star color and wording. As noted in consumer trust studies by BrightLocal, these visual trust signals can have an outsized impact on how potential customers perceive your brand and whether they choose to convert.
How can a brand improve its TrustScore in 30 days?
Here’s a simplified case study from one e-commerce brand:
Starting point:
• Reviews last 12 months: 300 @ 3.9 stars TrustScore ≈ 3.9 (Average)
In 30 days they:
• Collected 300 new reviews @ 4.3 stars
Research from the Spiegel Research Center confirms that rapidly increasing your review volume (velocity) has a profound effect on online reputation. By matching their prior 12-month volume in a single month - and improving the average score of those reviews - this brand climbed from 3.9 to 4.1 in under 30 days.
We can estimate review impact by using the following formulas:
Essentially, you can think of the average over the last 12 months, with slightly more weight towards the last 3 months of the review score.
How can you project your TrustScore changes over 90 days?
To forecast how your TrustScore could change, try our calculator tool that:
• Retrieves your current 12-month review count and average
• Let's you model adding X reviews per month at Y stars
• Shows your projected TrustScore after 90 days
As highlighted by experts at Qualtrics, actively tracking and forecasting these review metrics is key to managing online reputation. That single 90-day output makes it easy to set realistic collection targets and track your progress at a glance.
Conclusion
If you’d like to see similar 90-day projections for your Trustpilot profile - and plan exactly how many reviews at what star level you’ll need - try out StackTome for free, you can signup here - https://app.stacktome.com/plans. It’s the fastest way to get your TrustScore up.
If you would like to get on a personalized demo to see how it can work specifically for your brand, then you can book it here: https://www.stacktome.com/book-a-demo
