My solution is that I ignore requests for a review. I just don't do them.
The only star rating I give is the feedback requested after I get a grocery delivery from a major chain. But the rating is not for publication, it's just between me and them. Also, they ask for verbatim feedback, and I give it. What's more, they keep on making improvements to the online ordering process, so that it's better in many ways than it was when I started using their service. And I always say I appreciate that. Coincidence? No, I think it's that they are paying attention to their customers' opinions.
I have many thoughts on this subject. I spent decades working in the services industry, in which every project I did (first as a consultant, then as a consulting manager) was followed by a customer survey. Surveying customers with the goal of making improvements to services (and to ensure that the people who are delivering those services are incented to perform well) is a worthwhile endeavour. Surveying customers and then using those results to grade (and pay) employees inevitably leads to abuses.
The company I worked for used a nine-point scale, which was then subdivided into three categories : "Very Satisfied"; "Satisfied", and "Dissatisfied". Despite the fact that nine divides equally into three, only 8's and 9's were deemed to mean "Very Satisfied". That was also the only category that mattered. A "7" may as well have been a "1". I spent years dealing with customers who assured me that they were quite happy with the results they received, but as a matter of principle, they "don't give 8's and 9's". 🫨
I see this same system in play at many of the businesses I use today. If I take my car in for maintenance, I can't leave the premises without someone saying somethign along the lines of, "the company will be sending you a customer satisfaction survey. If, for any reason, you don't feel you can give us a 10/10, let us know now and we'll try to do something about that". The obvious implication is that only 10's matter and bad things happen if they aren't achieved.
Based on this, the attitude with surveys seems to be *some* data is better than *no* data. That is, they are perfectly happy with feedback information that the customer provides has a different meaning than what the service company reads into it. It doesn’t sound like there’s any method, in theory or practice, for eliminating junk data. Assuming garbage in, garbage out: How do they know they are getting anything other than a completely distorted picture?
And I’m another one of those cranky old pharts who uses the opportunity to protest the general grade inflation trend by refusing to give 10s for anything short of divine miracles.
Back in my university days, I came across a useful survey process called "Servqual". The idea was to try to determine a customer's actual level of satisfaction by measuring their perception against their expectations.
Depending on the type of service being delivered, each of us uses different criteria to measure our experience. Thus, we care whether an expert we hired is knowledgeable and well-informed. However, we don't care whether our cab driver happens to be, as long as we get from A to B safely. Our response to a survey that just asks whether the delivery person was knowledgeable and well-informed will vary depending on the relevance to us of that factor.
I once responded to a survey being conducted by my local municipality that asked if the city council was "meeting my expectations". My response was that my expectations were so low that they couldn't possibly fail to meet them.
To accommodate these differences, a survey of this type first measures the respondents expectations by asking questions like, "Cab drivers should be well-informed on contemporary political issues" (measured by a numerical scale) followed by a question that asks for a rating on whether "My cab driver was well-informed on contemporary political issues" (measured on the same numerical scale) The actual measurement used is then the delta between the perception and the expectation.
If it's not important to the customer that the driver be well-informed (giving that question a "3") and the respondent also rates the driver's political knowledge as a "3", there probably isn't a service quality issue that needs to be addressed. However, if the question is related to a driver's directional sense and customers expect a "9" and get a "3", the alarm bells should go off.
I don't mind the request for reviews, most of them go into my spam folder anyway. I do appreciate reviews, especially video reviews of products that you find on Amazon. I've reviewed products many times because I appreciate them myself. There are many things that make me cranky, this isn't one of them (yet.)
It's worth making a distinction between a "review" (someone put the time and effort into writing down what they thought of a product or service and why) and a "rating" (someone clicked on "five stars" and then went on with their day).
A review has a qualitative aspect to it that helps one to judge whether or not they are likely to feel the same way that the reviewer does. A rating is just a number.
Plus, Amazon at least makes the effort to verify whether or not a reviewer has actually purchased the product, helping us to weed out potentially bogus reviews.
In the local news today - a hiker came across a seemingly sick or wounded bat on the trail, and decided it would be a good idea to move it to protect other hikers and their dogs. And... in the process of moving it the bat bit her and she's tested positive for rabies. I've made some bad decisions lately (scrambling fishing) but man oh man.
A similar annoyance to the reviews, is that now almost all product websites pop-up the "give us your email for 15% off your first order!". Even after you've logged in as an existing customer. Even after you've clicked to close that pop-up already, but have moved to a different page.
And they time them to pop up about 15 seconds into your attempt to read or interact with the page in front of you… It’s like Clippy’s reincarnation or something.
I took Katie on a date last night to see the latest "Naked Gun" movie. Before you get angry with me, she suggested the movie, thought it could be fun.
It was fun. She laughed out loud. She probably was thankful that not even I do that many eye roll comments in 90 minutes. 🙄 That or wonder why people pay to hear eyeroll comments when she gets to hear them for free. She was actually impressed I blurted out 3-4 of the puns before the actors delivered them.
The plot is pretty much the same as in the original movies. There are running gags everywhere, the obligatory "voyeur using infrared binoculars thinks some people are having kinky sex when it is simply the wrong viewing angle. There's a love interest, which the internet says is actually happening in real life too, between Liam Neeson and his voice. So if you liked the original movies you'll enjoy this one. If you hated the original movies and a doctor determined you still had a pulse, you'll probably dislike this one.
The big difference is instead of Leslie Nielsen, they have Liam Neeson. So the big question is "Can Liam Neeson pull off comedy"? 🤔𝑺𝑷𝑶𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑹 𝑨𝑳𝑬𝑹𝑻! 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑫𝑶, 𝑫𝑶 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑭𝑼𝑹𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑰𝑭 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑫𝑶𝑵'𝑻 𝑾𝑨𝑵𝑻 𝑻𝑶 𝑭𝑰𝑵𝑫 𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑳𝑰𝑨𝑴 𝑵𝑬𝑬𝑺𝑶𝑴 𝑪𝑨𝑵 𝑫𝑶 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑫𝒀! Y𝑶𝑼 𝑯𝑨𝑽𝑬 𝑩𝑬𝑬𝑵 𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑫! The answer is yes, he can do comedy. The movie pokes fun of his ability to rival Cecile B. DeMille in killing bad guys, but it is gentle humor. Even the credits are amusing, although they brought up the lights in the theatre while the credits ran.
Speaking of which. 30 minutes of commercials (including several trailers) prior to the actual movie starting. And AMC wonders why people stopped coming to movies? Well, that and we aged out; movies are not written for older adults....
Our gas range is fine, except that the electric igniter for the biggest burner no longer works. I am tired of dealing with matches so looked into replacing the part. Not a big deal, just remove 20 or so screws.
Except the heads of the screws on the two most used burners have rusted to nubs, to the point one can lift the burners up without touching the screws. Attempting to remove a screw that was not rusted away still resulted in the head shearing away from the shaft.
The stove is 9 years old. If I had known screws were a wear part, I could have replaced them before they rotted. The idea that an $800 stove (9 years ago) is rendered unrepairable because of frickin' low quality screws galls my soul.
Low and behold, appliances are on sale until August 6! And we found one half off, clearing out the old model to make way for the new one.
Which brings me to reviews. There are very few reviews for the older model and they are all from May. And of course they are all 5 stars.
Recommendations on manufacturers with higher quality parts are welcome. (The replacement screws are - are you sitting down? - $22 a piece.)
Crazy. They could easily foresee that burning a gas that produces CO2 and water as its byproducts would be a potential source of corrosion… Wouldn’t stainless sheetmetal screws be the right choice?
Appliance reliability is a real sore spot, so grump away. The manufacturers are getting increasingly shameless with the quality of their input materials.
Consumer Reports does reader rankings for appliance reliability. I’ve quit my subscription/membership, so I don’t have access. I believe they may have ranked brands of electric and gas ranges separately, but I don’t know how recently.
I like to make my own breakfast sandwiches at home, because the bought ones are overpriced and a package would take up too much valuable freezer space. It's a little easier to do with English muffins than with biscuits, but I found some refrigerated biscuits that are oversized, though still not as big as an English muffin.
The McDonald's egg and bacon biscuit is just compensation for challenging travel days. Though I need a wet wipe to clean the hands and face of the grease when finished.
I'm going to the Interfaith Luncheon today - which was approved after much blather and hand-wringing - and taking a Legendary Apple Crumble. Thor has thrown his back out again - his physical therapist overdid it - and didn't come over this weekend, or I would have had to go buy more apples.
There was one serving left, so obviously it wasn't a 10 out of 10. I brought it home along with half a pineapple upside-down cake, to the great satisfaction of the youth.
The purposely trailing threads? I used to see a lot of that at the big-box store. One learns there are reasons for all these things, even if one doesn't remember all the reasons or what they are called.
Yeah, know, same with the "sideburns" aka shylocks. I did a run of jobs up in West Ridge; I'm used to it. It was just a little eye catching at a building science symposium. It's white guy building nerds here, a few women outliers, etc., so Orthodox Jew kinda stood out.
Walmart sent my hus and home with a cheesy little slip of cardstock sorta the size of a business card asking "How did we do?". It looked like someone had created them on a home computer, printed them and cut them out by hand on an old paper cutter. Odd.
Yeah, there was a humorous discussion amongst all of the building nerds about the relative merits and problems of the cheap hotels in which ones ranked and which ones to avoid. It was, more or less, universally agreed upon that Hamptons Inn was like your best bet at the cheap end, slightly more expensive but the solid choice
My solution is that I ignore requests for a review. I just don't do them.
The only star rating I give is the feedback requested after I get a grocery delivery from a major chain. But the rating is not for publication, it's just between me and them. Also, they ask for verbatim feedback, and I give it. What's more, they keep on making improvements to the online ordering process, so that it's better in many ways than it was when I started using their service. And I always say I appreciate that. Coincidence? No, I think it's that they are paying attention to their customers' opinions.
I have many thoughts on this subject. I spent decades working in the services industry, in which every project I did (first as a consultant, then as a consulting manager) was followed by a customer survey. Surveying customers with the goal of making improvements to services (and to ensure that the people who are delivering those services are incented to perform well) is a worthwhile endeavour. Surveying customers and then using those results to grade (and pay) employees inevitably leads to abuses.
The company I worked for used a nine-point scale, which was then subdivided into three categories : "Very Satisfied"; "Satisfied", and "Dissatisfied". Despite the fact that nine divides equally into three, only 8's and 9's were deemed to mean "Very Satisfied". That was also the only category that mattered. A "7" may as well have been a "1". I spent years dealing with customers who assured me that they were quite happy with the results they received, but as a matter of principle, they "don't give 8's and 9's". 🫨
I see this same system in play at many of the businesses I use today. If I take my car in for maintenance, I can't leave the premises without someone saying somethign along the lines of, "the company will be sending you a customer satisfaction survey. If, for any reason, you don't feel you can give us a 10/10, let us know now and we'll try to do something about that". The obvious implication is that only 10's matter and bad things happen if they aren't achieved.
Based on this, the attitude with surveys seems to be *some* data is better than *no* data. That is, they are perfectly happy with feedback information that the customer provides has a different meaning than what the service company reads into it. It doesn’t sound like there’s any method, in theory or practice, for eliminating junk data. Assuming garbage in, garbage out: How do they know they are getting anything other than a completely distorted picture?
And I’m another one of those cranky old pharts who uses the opportunity to protest the general grade inflation trend by refusing to give 10s for anything short of divine miracles.
Back in my university days, I came across a useful survey process called "Servqual". The idea was to try to determine a customer's actual level of satisfaction by measuring their perception against their expectations.
Depending on the type of service being delivered, each of us uses different criteria to measure our experience. Thus, we care whether an expert we hired is knowledgeable and well-informed. However, we don't care whether our cab driver happens to be, as long as we get from A to B safely. Our response to a survey that just asks whether the delivery person was knowledgeable and well-informed will vary depending on the relevance to us of that factor.
I once responded to a survey being conducted by my local municipality that asked if the city council was "meeting my expectations". My response was that my expectations were so low that they couldn't possibly fail to meet them.
To accommodate these differences, a survey of this type first measures the respondents expectations by asking questions like, "Cab drivers should be well-informed on contemporary political issues" (measured by a numerical scale) followed by a question that asks for a rating on whether "My cab driver was well-informed on contemporary political issues" (measured on the same numerical scale) The actual measurement used is then the delta between the perception and the expectation.
If it's not important to the customer that the driver be well-informed (giving that question a "3") and the respondent also rates the driver's political knowledge as a "3", there probably isn't a service quality issue that needs to be addressed. However, if the question is related to a driver's directional sense and customers expect a "9" and get a "3", the alarm bells should go off.
That sounds like a very good idea. 💡
That's why there are 137,468 "old movies" available to us oldies.
The Falcon series - twins George Sanders and Tom Conway
Anything Basil Rathbone, Error Flynn
Any black and white film noir
Any one of the 153 Superman movies. Did you know about the late 1930s amd early 40s Batman and Superman serializations?
2nd observation….amazingly large stomachs.
(Actual science observations coming in a later post.)
I don't mind the request for reviews, most of them go into my spam folder anyway. I do appreciate reviews, especially video reviews of products that you find on Amazon. I've reviewed products many times because I appreciate them myself. There are many things that make me cranky, this isn't one of them (yet.)
It's worth making a distinction between a "review" (someone put the time and effort into writing down what they thought of a product or service and why) and a "rating" (someone clicked on "five stars" and then went on with their day).
A review has a qualitative aspect to it that helps one to judge whether or not they are likely to feel the same way that the reviewer does. A rating is just a number.
Plus, Amazon at least makes the effort to verify whether or not a reviewer has actually purchased the product, helping us to weed out potentially bogus reviews.
In the local news today - a hiker came across a seemingly sick or wounded bat on the trail, and decided it would be a good idea to move it to protect other hikers and their dogs. And... in the process of moving it the bat bit her and she's tested positive for rabies. I've made some bad decisions lately (scrambling fishing) but man oh man.
I hope my son doesn't read that story. His rabies OCD is off the charts. I swear that kid comes across more dead bats than anyone I know (he really doesn't but he thinks he does or he could have.) Am I to assume the girl did NOT seek medical attention after the bite? Only one person has survived rabies without received the treatment, a WI girl. https://fox11online.com/news/local/20-years-later-fond-du-lac-woman-reflects-on-being-1st-to-survive-rabies-without-vaccine-jeanna-giese-bat-centers-disease-control-willoughby-coma-medical-marvel
Fascinating story! I think the local woman did seek medical treatment.
A similar annoyance to the reviews, is that now almost all product websites pop-up the "give us your email for 15% off your first order!". Even after you've logged in as an existing customer. Even after you've clicked to close that pop-up already, but have moved to a different page.
I have been known to create new email accounts to get multiple discounts from a retailer, Bombas comes to mind.
They deserve that for annoying us.
And they time them to pop up about 15 seconds into your attempt to read or interact with the page in front of you… It’s like Clippy’s reincarnation or something.
I took Katie on a date last night to see the latest "Naked Gun" movie. Before you get angry with me, she suggested the movie, thought it could be fun.
It was fun. She laughed out loud. She probably was thankful that not even I do that many eye roll comments in 90 minutes. 🙄 That or wonder why people pay to hear eyeroll comments when she gets to hear them for free. She was actually impressed I blurted out 3-4 of the puns before the actors delivered them.
The plot is pretty much the same as in the original movies. There are running gags everywhere, the obligatory "voyeur using infrared binoculars thinks some people are having kinky sex when it is simply the wrong viewing angle. There's a love interest, which the internet says is actually happening in real life too, between Liam Neeson and his voice. So if you liked the original movies you'll enjoy this one. If you hated the original movies and a doctor determined you still had a pulse, you'll probably dislike this one.
The big difference is instead of Leslie Nielsen, they have Liam Neeson. So the big question is "Can Liam Neeson pull off comedy"? 🤔𝑺𝑷𝑶𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑹 𝑨𝑳𝑬𝑹𝑻! 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑫𝑶, 𝑫𝑶 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑭𝑼𝑹𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑰𝑭 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑫𝑶𝑵'𝑻 𝑾𝑨𝑵𝑻 𝑻𝑶 𝑭𝑰𝑵𝑫 𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑳𝑰𝑨𝑴 𝑵𝑬𝑬𝑺𝑶𝑴 𝑪𝑨𝑵 𝑫𝑶 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑫𝒀! Y𝑶𝑼 𝑯𝑨𝑽𝑬 𝑩𝑬𝑬𝑵 𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑫! The answer is yes, he can do comedy. The movie pokes fun of his ability to rival Cecile B. DeMille in killing bad guys, but it is gentle humor. Even the credits are amusing, although they brought up the lights in the theatre while the credits ran.
Speaking of which. 30 minutes of commercials (including several trailers) prior to the actual movie starting. And AMC wonders why people stopped coming to movies? Well, that and we aged out; movies are not written for older adults....
The Saga of the Stove
Our gas range is fine, except that the electric igniter for the biggest burner no longer works. I am tired of dealing with matches so looked into replacing the part. Not a big deal, just remove 20 or so screws.
Except the heads of the screws on the two most used burners have rusted to nubs, to the point one can lift the burners up without touching the screws. Attempting to remove a screw that was not rusted away still resulted in the head shearing away from the shaft.
The stove is 9 years old. If I had known screws were a wear part, I could have replaced them before they rotted. The idea that an $800 stove (9 years ago) is rendered unrepairable because of frickin' low quality screws galls my soul.
Low and behold, appliances are on sale until August 6! And we found one half off, clearing out the old model to make way for the new one.
Which brings me to reviews. There are very few reviews for the older model and they are all from May. And of course they are all 5 stars.
Recommendations on manufacturers with higher quality parts are welcome. (The replacement screws are - are you sitting down? - $22 a piece.)
Crazy. They could easily foresee that burning a gas that produces CO2 and water as its byproducts would be a potential source of corrosion… Wouldn’t stainless sheetmetal screws be the right choice?
You'd think.
But, these days, who buys an appliance and then stays in that location long enough for it to die?
(Fighting the grumpy old person part of me this morning.)
Appliance reliability is a real sore spot, so grump away. The manufacturers are getting increasingly shameless with the quality of their input materials.
Consumer Reports does reader rankings for appliance reliability. I’ve quit my subscription/membership, so I don’t have access. I believe they may have ranked brands of electric and gas ranges separately, but I don’t know how recently.
While in Italy I left a review for McDonalds breakfast sandwich. I said it tasted like American cuisine.
Was that too savage? 🤔
BTW, I like to eat breakfast sandwiches 1-2x a week, including when I travel. It's comfort food.
I like to make my own breakfast sandwiches at home, because the bought ones are overpriced and a package would take up too much valuable freezer space. It's a little easier to do with English muffins than with biscuits, but I found some refrigerated biscuits that are oversized, though still not as big as an English muffin.
The McDonald's egg and bacon biscuit is just compensation for challenging travel days. Though I need a wet wipe to clean the hands and face of the grease when finished.
Egg and bacon BISCUIT….arglrlrlglalrglrl…
The high fat, high carb combination is absolutely irresistible. Like corn on the cob or baked potatoes swimming in butter… mmm…
Maybe, as its McDonald's, they'll take it as a compliment?
I'm going to the Interfaith Luncheon today - which was approved after much blather and hand-wringing - and taking a Legendary Apple Crumble. Thor has thrown his back out again - his physical therapist overdid it - and didn't come over this weekend, or I would have had to go buy more apples.
Will your Legendary Apple Crumble be reviewed?
There was one serving left, so obviously it wasn't a 10 out of 10. I brought it home along with half a pineapple upside-down cake, to the great satisfaction of the youth.
I hope it is as interesting as it sounds.
The topic is "Acceptance: the 5th stage of grief."
So under the "useful" subset of interesting.
I'm with you. I'm sick and tired of being asked "how was your experience" when all I did was pick up a gallon of milk. They can pound salt.
First yarmulke sighting, complete with other orthodox paraphernalia….
The purposely trailing threads? I used to see a lot of that at the big-box store. One learns there are reasons for all these things, even if one doesn't remember all the reasons or what they are called.
Yeah, know, same with the "sideburns" aka shylocks. I did a run of jobs up in West Ridge; I'm used to it. It was just a little eye catching at a building science symposium. It's white guy building nerds here, a few women outliers, etc., so Orthodox Jew kinda stood out.
Building science takes all kinds!
Walmart sent my hus and home with a cheesy little slip of cardstock sorta the size of a business card asking "How did we do?". It looked like someone had created them on a home computer, printed them and cut them out by hand on an old paper cutter. Odd.
😂 Maybe it’s their workaround for customers who pay cash and say they don’t have an email address. 🤔🤔🤔
Could be. Or low tech reverse psychology. Nah.
Fifty-five degrees here this morning. Glorious!
Cheap hotels on I84...
Super eight, Travelodge, Red Roof Inn, Wayfair Inn, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hamptons Inn, Best Western, Best Western Plus, Relax Inn, Motel 6, Econo Lodge, Comfort Inn, Marriott Courtyard, Fairfield Marriott, Springhill Suites Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, Residences by Marriott, Residence Inn by Marriott, Rodeway Inn, Scottish Inns, Sleep Inn, Slopes Inn, Hilton Garden, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Days Inn, Microtel....
Yeah, there was a humorous discussion amongst all of the building nerds about the relative merits and problems of the cheap hotels in which ones ranked and which ones to avoid. It was, more or less, universally agreed upon that Hamptons Inn was like your best bet at the cheap end, slightly more expensive but the solid choice
Some of those are cheaper than others. We stay in a hotel each year when we go to the State Envirothon in Burlington.
..and I have stayed in exactly every single one of those...
I haven’t, I was merely amazed at how many there are.
No Dewdrop Inns? 🤔