---
title: "How Handshake Reviews Companies"
description: "How the Handshake Score is calculated: the five weighted factors, the full scoring rubric and calibration rules, what is and isn’t scored, known limitations, sources, corrections and independence."
url: "https://handshakereviews.com/how-we-review"
markdown_url: "https://handshakereviews.com/how-we-review.md"
updated: "2026-10-11"
site: "Handshake News & Reviews"
---

# How Handshake Reviews Companies

By the Handshake Research Desk · Handshake Score v1.2.1 (rules v1.0.5, confidence v1.2.1) · scores computed October 11, 2026

These are the rules behind every Handshake Score and ranking. We publish them so readers, and the companies we cover, can check our work.

Handshake reviews companies in industries that sell door to door. Our current coverage is pest control companies operating in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, ranked in [The Best Pest Control Companies in the Pacific Northwest](https://handshakereviews.com/rankings/pest-control-pacific-northwest.md).

Every score is computed only from verified, sourced facts. Each point added or taken away is listed on the company’s page with a link to the source it came from.

## How we research a company

Each company starts with a research record: facts gathered from public sources, each saved with the link it came from, the date it was retrieved and, where possible, the exact text on the page. The sources include customer review platforms (Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Yelp), Better Business Bureau profiles, state pesticide license lookups and business registries in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, court and regulatory records, the company’s own website, terms and contracts, and employee review sites (used only for the separate Workplace score).

A verifier then reopens the sources and checks each fact against them. In the current records, 2,299 facts were checked: 1,753 confirmed, 531 corrected and 7 removed.

Facts that need a judgment call are recorded as scoring inputs, each citing the fact it came from. The score is then computed mechanically from those inputs, so the same record always produces the same score.

## The Handshake Score

The Handshake Score runs from 0 to 10 with one decimal place. It’s a weighted average of five factors, each scored from 0 to 10:

Handshake Score = 30% Customer satisfaction + 20% Complaint record + 20% Sales and contract fairness + 15% Licensing and compliance + 15% Legal and regulatory record

- The score covers the company’s Pacific Northwest operation in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Company-wide facts count when they concern the same brand or legal entity, and the company page labels them “company-wide.”
- Ties in the ranking are broken by Pacific Northwest review volume.
- Missing data is never treated as good or bad. If a factor has no usable inputs, it’s left out and the other weights are scaled up so they still add to 100%.
- For example, without the complaint record factor the weights become customer satisfaction 37.5%, sales and contract fairness 25%, licensing and compliance 18.75% and legal and regulatory record 18.75%.

## The five factors

Here is exactly how each factor is scored. Every factor is kept between 0 and 10.

### Customer satisfaction (30%)

This factor turns customer star ratings into a score.

- Google: the Google rating across the company’s Pacific Northwest listings, averaged with each listing weighted by its number of reviews.
- Other platforms: BBB customer reviews, Trustpilot, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack and Yelp, each converted to a 5-point scale. Each platform counts in proportion to its number of reviews, up to 500. A Facebook “% recommend” figure becomes a rating of 1 + 4 × the share who recommend (90% becomes 4.6). A platform needs at least 5 reviews to count; Pacific Northwest or local figures beat national ones; survey feeds the company runs itself and sites that mirror Google reviews are never counted.
- Blend: if the other platforms add up to at least 20 weighted reviews, the blended rating is 60% Google and 40% other platforms. Otherwise it’s the Google rating alone.
- Score: (blended rating − 2.5) ÷ 2.5 × 10. A blended rating of 2.5 stars or lower scores 0, 3.75 stars scores 5, 4.5 stars scores 8, and 5 stars scores 10.

### Complaint record (20%)

BBB complaints from the last three years per 1,000 customers. Companies don’t publish customer counts, so the base is the company’s Pacific Northwest Google review total when the BBB profile covers Pacific Northwest branches, or its national total (labeled company-wide) when the profile mixes regions. When BBB complaints can’t be tied to a comparable customer base, this factor isn’t scored.

| Complaints per 1,000 customers | Points |
| --- | --- |
| 1 or fewer | 10 |
| More than 1, up to 3 | 8.5 |
| More than 3, up to 6 | 7 |
| More than 6, up to 12 | 5 |
| More than 12, up to 25 | 3 |
| More than 25, up to 50 | 1.5 |
| More than 50 | 0 |

Then these adjustments apply, down to a floor of 0. Several Pacific Northwest BBB profiles are added together into one rate, and the worst alert and grade among them apply.

| Adjustment | Points |
| --- | --- |
| More than 25% of complaints unanswered | −1.5 |
| BBB pattern-of-complaints alert in the last 3 years | −2 |
| BBB letter grade F | −1 |
| BBB letter grade in the D range | −0.5 |

### Sales and contract fairness (20%)

Starts at 10 and loses points for the terms and sales practices below, down to a floor of 0. Only sourced terms count, and a term we couldn’t confirm costs nothing. With no contract terms and no sales-conduct findings at all, the factor isn’t scored.

| Item | Deduction |
| --- | --- |
| Minimum term of 12 months | −1 |
| Minimum term of 18 months | −2 |
| Minimum term of 24 months or more | −3 |
| Early-cancellation fee: flat, $150 or less | −1 |
| Early-cancellation fee: flat, more than $150 | −2 |
| Early-cancellation fee: under 50% of the remaining balance | −2 |
| Early-cancellation fee: 50% or more of the remaining balance | −3 |
| Automatic renewal | −0.5 |
| Cancellation by phone only | −0.5 |
| Mandatory arbitration and/or a class-action waiver | −0.5 |
| Term, price or cancellation misstated at the sale: 3 or more independent documented accounts | −2 |
| The same, 1 or 2 documented accounts | −1 |
| Ignoring no-soliciting signs or knocking after 8 p.m.: 3 or more documented accounts | −1 |
| The company’s public claims contradict its terms (for example, “no contract” vs. a 12-month agreement) | −1 |

### Licensing and compliance (15%)

Starts at 10 and loses points only for confirmed problems, down to a floor of 0. A license we couldn’t look up is not a deduction.

| Item | Deduction |
| --- | --- |
| Pacific Northwest pesticide license suspended | −3 each (up to −6) |
| Pacific Northwest pesticide license expired where the branch still operates | −1.5 each (up to −3) |
| Advertised license number that doesn’t match or is invalid | −1 each (up to −2) |
| Business registration revoked or dissolved in the last 5 years, even if reinstated | −0.5 each (up to −1.5) |
| Contractor or safety violation classified “Serious,” or an unregistered-contractor infraction, in the last 5 years | −1 per inspection or infraction (up to −2) |
| Insurance certificate shown as expired on a state license record | −0.5 |

### Legal and regulatory record (15%)

Starts at 10 and loses points only for resolved matters, down to a floor of 0. Recent matters cost more. Pending lawsuits, other private suits and allegations are shown on the company page but not scored. Wage-and-hour cases count in the separate Workplace score.

| Matter | Last 5 years | 5–10 years ago |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Government settlement, consent order or judgment about consumer sales or contract practices | −3 each | −1.5 each |
| Government action about environmental, pesticide or records handling | −2 each | −1 each |
| Criminal plea or conviction (company) | −3 | −2 |
| Settled consumer class action | −1 | −0.5 |
| Parent-company matter not specific to this brand (for example, a parent’s SEC penalty) | −0.5 | None |

Close calls (complaint base, which platforms count, automatic renewal, misstated terms, cancellation fees, minimum terms, license status, dating legal matters) are settled by the calibration rules, v1.0.5: [Calibration rules](https://handshakereviews.com/how-we-review#calibration).

## What’s scored and what isn’t

### Shown on the page but not scored

- Pending lawsuits, private suits other than settled class actions, and allegations.
- Contract terms we couldn’t confirm. An unknown term doesn’t cost points.
- Licenses we couldn’t confirm or look up. Only confirmed license problems are deducted.
- Accounts that don’t meet the counting rules, such as omissions and second-hand reports.
- BBB complaint totals that can’t be tied to a comparable customer base.

### Shown beside the score, never in it

- Workplace score (0 to 10): employee ratings from Indeed, Glassdoor and RepVue, shown only when there are at least 20 reviews in all.
- Door-to-door badge: Yes, Partial or Not found, from the evidence of how the company sells. Today 9 companies are marked Yes and 3 Partial.
- Ownership badge: independent, private-equity-backed, franchise or subsidiary.
- Confidence: High, Medium or Low, from how much evidence sits behind the score and how well it held up when checked. It never changes the score.

### How confidence is set

Each input below earns points, and the points are added up (at most 11). 7 points or more is High, 4 or fewer is Low, and anything between is Medium. A score is also Low if the verifier rated its customer reviews, licensing or legal record low. Low-confidence scores are marked “Provisional score.” (Confidence rule v1.2.1.)

| Input | Points |
| --- | --- |
| Factors scored | All 5: +2 · 4 of 5: +1 · 3 or fewer: 0 |
| Pacific Northwest Google reviews behind customer satisfaction | 10,000 or more: +2 · 3,000 to 9,999: +1 · fewer: 0 |
| Independent review platforms | Blended in with Google: +1 · Google only: 0 |
| Region of the figures | Any company-wide or national figure counted: −1 |
| Verifier’s ratings for customer reviews, licensing and the legal record | Each rated high: +1 · medium: 0 · low: −2 |
| Verifier’s corrections | 10% or fewer of the facts checked: +1 · up to 25%: 0 · more: −1 |
| Company pesticide license looked up | In every state where it has a location that licenses companies (Idaho licenses only individual applicators, so it isn’t counted): +1 · one state not confirmable: 0 · two or more: −1 |
| Independent websites cited | 25 or more: +1 · 15 to 24: 0 · fewer than 15: −1 |

## Sources

The current records cite 1,312 distinct sources. Each company page ends with a numbered list of its sources and the date each was retrieved.

| Section | Sources |
| --- | --- |
| Customer reviews | 288 |
| Mentions, awards and claims | 220 |
| Contracts and sales | 195 |
| Licensing and registrations | 156 |
| Company facts | 144 |
| Legal and regulatory | 90 |
| Workplace | 52 |
| Locations | 51 |
| BBB | 43 |
| Other | 73 |

| Public record cited | Companies |
| --- | --- |
| Better Business Bureau profiles | 20 |
| Washington State Department of Agriculture pesticide license search | 19 |
| Oregon Department of Agriculture license lookup | 18 |
| Oregon Secretary of State business registry | 15 |
| Idaho Secretary of State business search | 12 |
| CourtListener (federal court records) | 11 |
| Idaho State Department of Agriculture applicator licensing | 9 |
| Oregon Construction Contractors Board | 5 |
| Washington Department of Labor & Industries | 4 |

## Corrections and right of reply

If you think a fact on Handshake is wrong, tell us through our [contact page](https://handshakereviews.com/contact.md). Name the company and the page, the fact you think is wrong, and, if you can, a source that shows the correct information. A fact that turns out to be wrong is corrected in the record, and the score is recomputed under the same rules. Companies we cover can respond too; sourced responses are added to the company’s record. A response can correct a fact; it can’t change the rules.

## Independence

Companies can’t pay to change their ratings, to appear in or be left out of our rankings, or to change where they rank. We don’t accept payment for coverage. Scores come only from the sourced facts and the published rules.

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