Commercial Participation Trophies

[marshwiggle]

We're staying at an AirBnB, and their rating system is posted on the wall.

• 5 stars; We enjoyed our stay
• 4 stars; Several issues, none addressed
• 3 stars; Major issues, none addressed
• 2 stars; Shut it down
• 2 stars; Burn it

I find this troubling. (Anyone old enough may remember when Howard Johnson's had an advertising slogan of "No Suprises". There were no "starts" involved; just an expectation that you should be able to expect what you were promised.)

This occurs every time I order something online. I get "invited" to rate the experience. If I got the thing they said they'd deliver by the time they said they'd deliver it, why does that get "stars"??? For many (maybe most) things, there should a single choice; "as expected"  or not. A quantitative ranking (like number of stars) only makes sense when some degree of creativity and or judgment is required by the vendor.

The worst part of this is that commercial interactions have become kind of McCarthy-ist, where everyone feels the need to plead for a 5 star rating or else they'll be destroyed. You have to give a review, and it has to be 5 stars.

I guess this really is the participation trophy culture all grown up.

[Ruralguy]

This has actually been the case for decades with customer experiences in general, though for car dealers, it was filling out a sheet of Likert scale questions and a reminder that "If we don't get straight 5's, we've failed."  Granted, buying a standard book, and especially an electronic one, doesn't really speak to being reviewed. I almost never fill these things out. I feel like its just used an excuse to fire someone(s).

[Anselm]

It is the same situation with selling online at eBay or Amazon.  Sellers beg for good ratings.  The MBA bean counters think all can be reduced to performance numbers and then magically everyone performs better.  Actually, I am now reminded of my annual performance reviews and how silly they seem. 

[marshwiggle]

It is the same situation with selling online at eBay or Amazon.  Sellers beg for good ratings.  The MBA bean counters think all can be reduced to performance numbers and then magically everyone performs better.  Actually, I am now reminded of my annual performance reviews and how silly they seem.

The big problem is the idea that improvement in performance is always going to appear in some client-facing way. (And, that any potential improvement will be obvious to the client as an existing deficiency.) My students from 5 years ago wouldn't have the slightest clue about how I have improved things since then, except in the small number of cases where I changed things because of clear problems. In many (most?) cases, improvements are driven by ideas of things that might allow something that hasn't been considered in the past.

(Sadly, this fits with the cultural trend to interpreting all of history through the values of the current moment, as though foresight is completely interchangeable with hindsight.)

[secundem_artem]

This has actually been the case for decades with customer experiences in general, though for car dealers, it was filling out a sheet of Likert scale questions and a reminder that "If we don't get straight 5's, we've failed."  Granted, buying a standard book, and especially an electronic one, doesn't really speak to being reviewed. I almost never fill these things out. I feel like its just used an excuse to fire someone(s).

Car dealers take this stuff as seriously as grim death.  Last time I brought my car in, the service advisor told me one customer had slammed him on his review.  It cost him a $1200 bonus.  A few years ago, I gave a different dealer a 1 because it took them 3 visits to fix the problem.  That resulted in numerous phone calls and emails with a vaguely threatening tone.

I agree that these "satisfaction surveys" function mostly to dunk on someone low enough down the food chain that they can't do anything about it.  As far as survey research is concerned, they are about as scientific as Ouija Boards.

[Caracal]

This has actually been the case for decades with customer experiences in general, though for car dealers, it was filling out a sheet of Likert scale questions and a reminder that "If we don't get straight 5's, we've failed."  Granted, buying a standard book, and especially an electronic one, doesn't really speak to being reviewed. I almost never fill these things out. I feel like its just used an excuse to fire someone(s).

Car dealers take this stuff as seriously as grim death.  Last time I brought my car in, the service advisor told me one customer had slammed him on his review.  It cost him a $1200 bonus.  A few years ago, I gave a different dealer a 1 because it took them 3 visits to fix the problem.  That resulted in numerous phone calls and emails with a vaguely threatening tone.

I agree that these "satisfaction surveys" function mostly to dunk on someone low enough down the food chain that they can't do anything about it.  As far as survey research is concerned, they are about as scientific as Ouija Boards.

It's really a way of outsourcing supervision and evaluation. Airbnb's model is that they aren't actually in the hospitality business and they don't want to have anything to do with the actual properties. I'm sure they'll delist a place if there's something truly egregious, but what they don't want to be in charge of, is enforcing a particular standard beyond the bare minimum. However, they want the places to be nice so people think they are a reliable. So, they try to get their customers to enforce a standard by creating a system in which the "hosts" won't be able to rent their place regularly unless they lots of really good reviews. It obviously isn't a very fair system because it puts people at the mercy of unverified reviews, but why should Airbnb care about that?

It's particularly bizarre that a company that doesn't have this model would do that. The car repair place should actually care about how good the people are at their jobs, not the results of surveys.

[dismalist]

It's really a way of outsourcing supervision and evaluation.

That's a good way of putting it.

That's not a bad thing if the customer knows all about what the product is supposed to do. Gets very iffy when s/he doesn't, like with cars, and ... higher education!

It still works for the supplier as long as the customer thinks all is well. The system crashes when too many cars cost the customer too much to maintain and when the market recognizes that the higher ed graduate, on average, hasn't learned enough to warrant high pay!

[Caracal]

It's really a way of outsourcing supervision and evaluation.

That's a good way of putting it.

That's not a bad thing if the customer knows all about what the product is supposed to do. Gets very iffy when s/he doesn't, like with cars, and ... higher education!

It still works for the supplier as long as the customer thinks all is well. The system crashes when too many cars cost the customer too much to maintain and when the market recognizes that the higher ed graduate, on average, hasn't learned enough to warrant high pay!

There can also be an oppressive element to it. I'm not that concerned with Airbnb landlords. They have decided to be in the hospitality industry where there really is an expectation that you cater to client needs. I think there is something screwed up about it when you evaluate people who really should just be expected to provide adequate service. I'm not looking for a great experience on my rideshare from the airport. I just want to get there. Can't we just have a complaint button and if I don't use it let's all just assume the person did their job and move on?

[marshwiggle]

It's really a way of outsourcing supervision and evaluation.

That's a good way of putting it.

That's not a bad thing if the customer knows all about what the product is supposed to do. Gets very iffy when s/he doesn't, like with cars, and ... higher education!

It still works for the supplier as long as the customer thinks all is well. The system crashes when too many cars cost the customer too much to maintain and when the market recognizes that the higher ed graduate, on average, hasn't learned enough to warrant high pay!

There can also be an oppressive element to it. I'm not that concerned with Airbnb landlords. They have decided to be in the hospitality industry where there really is an expectation that you cater to client needs. I think there is something screwed up about it when you evaluate people who really should just be expected to provide adequate service. I'm not looking for a great experience on my rideshare from the airport. I just want to get there. Can't we just have a complaint button and if I don't use it let's all just assume the person did their job and move on?

This is my point exactly. If businesses want to keep having "ratings", then customers should always have two options: Option 1 allows the whole "5 star" system, and Option 2 just has "As expected" or not. Option 2 ratings avoid the whole arms race in ridiculous frills that add to the cost. (Anyone remember the early days of Uber when drivers would have candies, water bottles, etc. to promote high ratings? The more of those things that become expected the more it will raise the baseline cost.)