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    Top-Box Scoring

    Top-box scoring reports the percentage of respondents who selected the highest rating (top box) or top two ratings (top-2-box, T2B) on a scale.

    Top-box and top-2-box scoring are the dominant reporting conventions for CSAT and concept-test ratings. T2B emphasizes the share of strongly positive respondents, which correlates better with behavior than mean ratings do — a 4 on a 5-point scale is materially different from a 5 in repurchase intent. Bottom-box (or B2B) is the mirror metric for problem detection. The trade-off: top-box discards granularity, so pair it with mean and distribution when reporting. Most published CSAT benchmarks (including ACSI-adjacent ones) use top-2-box.

    Formula

    T2B (%) = (Top + 2nd-Top responses / Total responses) × 100

    Example

    On a 5-point CSAT scale, 100 responses: 45 fives, 30 fours, 15 threes, 7 twos, 3 ones. Top box = 45%. Top-2-box = 75%. Mean = 4.07.

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    Related terms

    Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

    Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) measures how satisfied customers are with a product, service, or interaction on a 1-5 or 1-10 scale.

    Likert Scale

    A Likert scale is a survey rating scale with ordered response options (typically 5 or 7 points) used to measure attitudes, agreement, or frequency.

    Five-Star Rating

    A five-star rating is a 1-5 ordinal scale, typically displayed as star icons, used for product reviews, app stores, and lightweight CSAT.

    Net Promoter Score (NPS)

    Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend a product or service on a 0-10 scale.

    Response Bias

    Response bias is any systematic tendency of respondents to answer questions inaccurately, either intentionally or unconsciously.

    Customer Effort Score (CES)

    Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer expended to complete a specific interaction, typically on a 7-point agree/disagree scale.