Introducing Updates to Our Ratings System

It’s incredibly important to us that our shopper ratings system is as fair and straightforward as possible. Not only do ratings allow you to receive real-time feedback from your customers, but maintaining an average rating of 4.7 or higher increases your chances of seeing more available batches. We know each five-star rating you receive is a well-earned reflection of the extra care and attention you’ve put into shopping and delivering a customer order. That’s why today, we’re announcing new updates to the ratings system that will continue to ensure that your ratings better represent all of your efforts.

“Instacart shoppers go above and beyond for their customers every day, choosing the best produce, making great replacements, and delivering customer orders with care,” said John Adams, Vice President of Product at Instacart. “Our ratings system is a way for shoppers to be recognized by their customers for that amazing service and we want to ensure that the system allows shoppers’ effort to shine.”

Changing how ratings are calculated

When you consistently deliver high-quality service to your customers, it can be frustrating when one customer’s low rating causes your overall rating to decrease. Now, your overall rating will be determined by your last 100 customer ratings, rather than your last 100 orders, as we know occasionally customers may forget or choose not to rate their shoppers after receiving their order. With more ratings contributing to your average, a few low ratings won’t have as significant of an impact. As always, you just need to maintain a 4.7 or above for batch prioritization.

Increased ratings forgiveness

We are also introducing new updates to our ratings forgiveness policy.

• Removing shoppers’ two lowest ratings: While we always encourage you to strive for great customer service, we also assume the best in the shopper community and know that sometimes things happen. Moving forward, once you have 100 ratings, we’ll remove your two lowest ratings, an increase from our previous policy, which removed just the lowest rating. This update will help you maintain a higher average if you receive an occasional low rating. 
• Removing low ratings due to issues with Instacart replacement suggestions: If a customer hasn’t chosen a replacement or isn’t being responsive in the customer chat while a shopper is shopping, Instacart will offer a replacement suggestion. We take great care in making sure the suggestions shoppers are shown are suitable replacements that we’ve found most customers prefer if their selected item is out of stock. That’s why we don’t feel shoppers should be rated negatively if a customer reports an issue with a replacement that was suggested to them by Instacart, and we will remove low ratings associated with those orders.

We’re excited to introduce these updates that help you continue to stand out to your customers and deliver great service. We look forward to continuing to make meaningful updates to your experience in the future.

Instacart

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.