@manton I had this experience today; ordered something from Amazon, and once delivered an email immediately arrived to confirm delivery and demand a rating. The worst part is that you know those ratings are then likely used to assess the workforce, in an entirely inhumane system.
So not only is the internet now used to constantly interfere with our lives but also to use us as a tool to further diminish the lives of other people. Bloody awful.
@manton I think a lot of this trend can be attributed to the relentless, mindless pushing of Net Promoter Score in the business world, and the general over-metrification of everything.
@SimonWoods This is why if I’m rating something (deliveries, ride sharing, whatever) I’m almost always going to give it a max score, too, unless something is really wrong.
@manton Very true about the proliferation of demands for ratings.
A few days ago I bought a phone at the local Verizon store. At the end of the transaction, the very competent salesman told me that I might get an email asking me to rate my "experience," and said he'd a appreciate a 5 rating because Verizon treats every rating below 5 as a "complaint". What if I didn't reply at all? Would that be a "complaint" and work against this good employee?
A few weeks ago I visited my audiology place, and afterward got a series of emails, probably 5 over a week, first asking me for a rating, then reminding me repeatedly that I hadn't provided a rating yet. I ignored them all.
@manton these are increasing, along with the human interaction (car service rep, phone sales person, ac repair) continuing to say if they don't get a 5
they will be penalized. For the most part I just refuse to participate. Got a call from car service manager about why I didn't to the survey and I asked if it was purely used punatively or if it was used in a way to measurably inprove service and to help in the development of the reps skills and future. He said it was genrally punative, I said never to call me again.
@sdevore @JMaxB Oh yeah, I get that "anything less than a 5 is bad for us" from our car dealership service department too. It's so pointless because they are slanting the responses, rendering them meaningless. Wonder if the execs know.
@manton I used to rate things when asked then realised I could just ignore that request so seldom rate anything any more. I also discovered that requests that arrive by email sometimes have their own mailing list it's possible to opt out of. Agreed: so much noise.
@Miraz I'm going to start ignoring more of these requests too, inspired by Jason's post and these replies. The only exception I can think of is something like an Airbnb review which has a legitimate value to many people.
@manton adding to the pile on
If the requester uses ‘Experience’ in their request .. ignore.
I think I might even build a mail rule … any message containing the word ‘experience’, automatically move the mail to trash …
I might miss one or two real emails … but they won’t be important.
Plus add an override of safe domains … like (as you say) AirBNB.
@manton Even with things like Airbnb, I think star ratings are irredeemable. How about asking for verbal reviews of limited length? I'd find those more useful, and they'd be less susceptible to silly "analytics".
@manton I share the concerns about the inhumane use of such data and, like others here, refuse to participate for that reason. ML algorithms require data to function and it’s trendy to try running your business on AI. That’s why we’re getting so much noise.
@manton This smells like stack ranking, a nasty workforce management tool from the 1980s.
@JMaxB I suspect it’s being actively used to fire people, when the more likely reason one are not totally satisfied is the company policy.
@manton Late to the game (traveling) but I agree. Podcasts do it, too, asking for a 5 rating or no rating at all.