WALTHAM, Mass. — DealerRater, a car dealer review website, this week announced planned changes for its 2015 Dealer of the Year Award program. This annual award program recognizes a select group of car dealerships in the United States and Canada for outstanding customer satisfaction as expressed through consumer reviews posted on DealerRater’s website for the previous calendar year.

The criteria for the 2015 DealerRater Dealer of the Year Award Program will include the following:

• Average minimum star rating of 4.0 on DealerRater (calculated quarterly); with 5.0 as the highest possible rating

• Minimum of 25 reviews on DealerRater for the 2014 calendar year

• At least one review on DealerRater per quarter during the 2014 calendar year

The Dealer of the Year program recognizes dealerships that have the highest PowerScore in their brand category, both at national and state/provincial levels. For the 2015 awards, each dealership’s PowerScore will be calculated using a Bayesian algorithm that considers the dealership’s average DealerRater star rating (now calculated quarterly as opposed to a monthly calculation) as well as the total number of reviews written about the dealership during the calendar year.

“With the planned changes to the 2015 program, we expect more dealers to become eligible for the Dealer of the Year Awards,” said Chip Grueter, president at DealerRater.  “Having zero reviews in one particular month will no longer put a dealership out of the running, as they will be able to make up for that zero score during the quarter. We look forward to an intensified competition next year.”

In addition to the criteria changes, DealerRater will introduce quarterly reporting tools in 2014 on the company’s Dealer Panel account management hub. The new feature is designed to allow DealerRater Certified Dealers to track Dealer of the Year Award eligibility and performance throughout the year.