Star Filter
The component inside a review funnel that decides which customers are routed to Google versus which are routed to private feedback, based on a star rating they give first.
Definition
The star filter is the decision point in a review funnel. After a customer clicks a review link and selects a star rating (typically on a 1–5 scale), the filter routes them: 4–5 stars are sent to the business's public Google review page; 1–3 stars are sent to a private feedback form that only the business owner sees. The filter itself is just a conditional redirect — the product value is that it dramatically increases the ratio of public reviews that are positive, because unhappy customers get a better path to resolve their issue (direct contact with the owner) than posting publicly.
Example
A restaurant's review page shows five stars. A customer taps 2 stars because their steak was cold. Instead of Google, the star filter shows a form: 'Sorry we missed the mark. Tell us what happened and we'll make it right.' The owner gets the complaint, comps the meal, and the customer never posts on Google.
Related terms
- Review Funnel →A customer flow that routes 4–5 star experiences to public review sites (like Google) and 1–3 star experiences to a private feedback channel the business owner sees directly.
- Review Gating →The practice of selectively soliciting reviews only from customers expected to leave positive ones, or discouraging unhappy customers from leaving public reviews. Google's content policy prohibits gating.
- Negative Feedback Interception →The practice of capturing unhappy customer feedback through a private channel before it becomes a public negative review — while still allowing the customer to review publicly if they want to.
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