Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
Part of the problem with these reviews is that now whenever you go somewhere, your damn phone sends you a notification asking you if you want to ''help others out, review where you're at". No matter where I'm at now, even out of country, literally every single shopping/restaurant/entertainment location sends me that notification. Social media nerds hop all over that. All it takes is one single bad incident, and in the palm of you hand you have the ability to literally ruin a business.
In some way its kind of good your phone puts you on the spot to leave a review, because now employers know you have the power to influence their businesss by leaving a review, so they have to make sure you receive good service. On the other hand, you get a bunch of ####ty teenagers and immature pricks leaving bad reviews for the slightest inconvenience. Drinks took too long to arrive? 1 star. Waitress wouldn't give you her phone # as your creepily hit on her? 1 star. Etc.
Personally I don't like to see people get sued for a bad review. But in some cases it's deserved. Some people like to be complete asses online, and good on others for putting them in their place. The best is when managers actually comment back and explain the entire situation.
These days, we the consumer have more power then ever before to influence a business and potential cash flow heading towards it.
|
I think the problem is mainly that the whole system is anonymous and you don't need to prove that your were even a client or customer. At least with the BBB, you need to provide a receipt or something.
Even if you ignore that a large (probably most) negative reviews are fake/exaggerated, negativity is still a much stronger motivator than positivity. If someone has even the slightly negative experience, their gears will grind until they find an outlet (typically the internet) to vent on. When someone had a positive experience, they do not feel the burning need to tell the world, because it is expected when you pay for a service. So right off the bat, negative reviews are going skew things.
Then in industries like the food industry where you have young employees and young patrons, they often have petty vindictive attitudes and don't understand that they can literally ruin the livelihoods of people that don't deserve it. If the system wasn't anonymous, you would keep people honest at least.
One guy I know who runs a restaurant hired an online rep manager and they have a 4.7 rating on Google now... and the place isn't that great. The place across the street has a 3.3 and is a much better establishment.