Honestly, this is one of the review sites I don’t know how they manage to survive. There are much better specialised site sout there like Tripadvisor, Qype or Amazon. Why would anyone review a product on here? And why would anyone come here and read a review? This is a miracle, but they must get their traffic somehow.
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…what kind of people take the time to comment on a £3.99 toaster. Yes, it is a toaster. And yes, it is cheap. Is it really people passing judgement on discount appliances or is there an army of Argos interns populating the site so that it looks used? Anyway, seems strange and does not look not very credible to me.
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I noticed that there are a number of websites these days that let us rate the NHS: NHS Choices is one of them, but there are also Patient Opinion (www.patientopinion.org) and, as I recently found out, a website called Iwantgreatcare (ww.iwantgreatcare.co.uk). So which one is best for getting your voice heard? Anyone any opinions? or do you post on all three?
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Ebay’s feedback system was one of the first of its kind and still puts the bar very high. As a seller myself, I have been frustrated more than once with it. But overall, I think it’s done it’s job very well over the years (if you ignore the early problems). In the long run, the good ones seem to bubble up. And if you know how to handle it well, you should get no more than the odd irate customer.
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I wholeheartedly agree that patients must be listened to. But that’s our job as medical professionals anyway. This website does not help with that at all. On the contrary, it makes a potentially dysfunctional doctor-patient relationship worse. What’s the point of posting anonymous comments on a website that hardly anyone takes seriously? What does this add to mutual understanding and the quality of care?
Given that this (commercial!) enterprise has been around for a couple of years now and that it seems to have failed to gain any traction with those it claims to serve (the patients), my hunch is that it’s better viewed as another attempt to get a piece of the still big performance measurement budgets in the NHS.
Just read some of the statements of the founder of the website, Dr Neil Bacon. You quickly get a sense that this is a “system” that fits perfectly into the world of NHS accountants and performance managers, but completely fails to understand what it’s really about: the personal relationship between doctors and patients.
My advice: just ignore.
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This is a very nice idea: rating the raters. And the best thing is that, in doing so, you rather elegantly demonstrate the many challenges and pitfalls of rating sites. I am sure you have run into many of them yourself!
Good luck, and I hope you get the attention you deserve.
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If you have five seconds, you could do us a big favour and vote for us in the EngageU awards. This is a new “European Competition for Best Innovations in University Outreach and Public Engagement”.
Just go to our submission and click on the red box in the top right corner.
And while you’re there, have a look at the other projects, too. There is some really good stuff going on.
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I submitted a comment to the Patient Opinion website after a rather mixed experience at my hospital. Basically I think the orthopedic doctors have not done a good enough job on my hip. Even 5 months after surgery, I am still in pain, but that’s a different story.
I had heard about the service from my local Link so I thought it’s worth a try and left a comment. To my surprise a member of staff actually responded to my comment (they do this on the site so everyone can see it). While I appreciate the effort, I am not sure though how much of a difference this makes. The response was brief but polite. But I also thought that it was so general that they could have posted it for every other comment on the website. So they may just be using the platform to do PR. Who knows if they really care?
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Lots of chatter this morning about yesterday’s Channel 4 programme “Attack of the Trip Advisors”. This is an entertaining and informative documentary about TripAdvisor reviews and ratings. As the programme snippet claims:
The British hospitality industry is under attack. Businesses are being assaulted by ever-more nit-picking and abusive reviews. It’s bad for their livelihoods and their sanity.
But it’s not the professional critics who are reviewing their hosts; a nation of virtual AA Gills and Michael Winners are using the Trip Advisor website to get their own back on hotels and restaurants.
With more than 40 million users a month, Trip Advisor is the largest and most powerful travel guide in the world.
But is it a force for good that gives the customer a voice, or an abuse of power that undermines businesses and ruins lives?
How long can Britain’s small businesses cope with relentless criticism before they pack it all in?
This Cutting Edge film reveals Britain’s most meticulous Trip Advisors and meets some of the hoteliers and restaurateurs at war with the site.
The documentary features some interesting cases and highlights many of the issues we have been dealing with in the How’s My Feedback? project. Not surprisingly, the debate has already started in the TripAdvisor section. Opinions and experiences differ wildly, so please join in and share your story. The issues clearly go beyond TripAdvisor, but it is a good case in point to discuss some timely and important problems around online reviews, ratings and rankings.
If you missed the show, you can still watch it here at Channel 4OD.
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Watched the documentary last night and I generally felt that most of the “Nazi’s” who channel 4 selected to be “advisors” clearly have something missing in their lives.
I (I means my family and I) have contributed to TA for only 4 years but in that time I have tried to provide accurate information about certain establishments in order to reassure potential visitors that the location they are planning to visit is up to it; not once have I gone to a place on some jumped-up power trip.
I felt that the lunatic who goes on holiday with his grandmother needs to get out more; marking bedding and getting on his soap box about tonic/lemonade mistakes? Have a bloody word with yourself son; you clearly need a girlfriend/something else in your life!
The couple who were shocked to find that the toilet brush was dirty!!! It’s a bloody toilet brush. And water in the kettle…have a word.
The couple who complained about the food but said nothing until posting it for millions to see? If it had been that bad, surely you would have said something when there, “not wishing to create a scene” is a cowards excuse; you don’t have to kick of when complaining, just be constructive.
The only person I can agree with is the mature student staying in the very nice looking place in the Lake District; some of those pictures were highly inappropriate and not really suitable for families.
Patrons of establishments need to make full use of the right to reply box at the end of each reviews because some people are just nasty and non-constructive and on a power trip.
A note to these people: you are just writing a review, nothing more. You are not special because of your review, you’re just a customer. I suggest to potential reviewers that if there is something wrong with an establishment, tell the managers; maybe they have over looked something or perhaps can’t see the wood for the trees. If when you have told them and they decide nothing is required, then that is different.
And no, I am not in the business, I’m a pilot (before anybody says that I am a disgruntled hotelier etc).
Keep it realistic please. How does it feel to have somebody write about you in a less than positive manner?
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