Revolutionizing an industry

[PuNKeMoN]

I've worked in customer service a long time.
Anyone else who has worked with the general public knows how terrible it can be at times.

This thread can ( and probably will ) turn into horror stories about working pretty quickly.
I'd like to keep the topic fairly stable here though.

Most places I work give out surveys to rate the customer experience. I've had customers give me good and bad surveys. Those surveys are used in-house and are rarely if ever seen by those outside the organization.
However, we live in the age of Yelp now. People use it to not only review the company but also improperly to rate the representative with whom they interacted, and this review is up for the whole world to see.
I've had good and bad Yelp reviews written about me as a person, not necessarily about the work I do. I take constructive criticism well, and adapt when needed. But sometimes people just use the service to bitch, because someplace they heard that awful phrase 'the customer is always right' and decided that was enough cause to justify them treating people like garbage. I don't tolerate that sort of abusive behavioir, which is probably the cause of bad reviews with my name attached

This got me to thinking... Why not turn the tables? What if there were a way to review shitty customers? A Yelp, if you will, to rate an individual as a patron, so that employees will know who not to waste their breath with. Imagine the effect:
Jerkbag assholes would think twice about being rude to their waiter, or to the person behind the counter, or that voice on the phone, because their outlandish behaviour could land them with outlandish service. Entitlement would fly out the window.

Thoughts?

 

[Seriel]

The problem is there's so many customers.
If you see a review, you're not going to look into reviews of that reviewer, and even then what's stopping you looking for reviewers of the reviewers. It's too time consuming and pointless when all you want is to see if this company is reputable.

What would probably be more likely to work is a way for the company or person being reviewed to "report" reviews which are clearly just abuse, and then the company like Yelp or whatever can look at the reports and go "huh this isn't even constructive" and remove or hide the review, as well as applying restrictions to the reviewers account (Or adding a flag next to their name saying not to trust them)

 

[PuNKeMoN]

The problem is there's so many customers.
If you see a review, you're not going to look into reviews of that reviewer, and even then what's stopping you looking for reviewers of the reviewers. It's too time consuming and pointless when all you want is to see if this company is reputable.

What would probably be more likely to work is a way for the company or person being reviewed to "report" reviews which are clearly just abuse, and then the company like Yelp or whatever can look at the reports and go "huh this isn't even constructive" and remove or hide the review, as well as applying restrictions to the reviewers account (Or adding a flag next to their name saying not to trust them)

I'm sure that flagging abusers is a feature of the site.
Not quite what was getting at, but I guess it is too soon for my idea from a technological standpoint.
If anyone has seen that episode of Black Mirror with the society with the crazy points system, you could kind of see what I'm imagining.

 

[Veho]

If anyone has seen that episode of Black Mirror with the society with the crazy points system

You mean China?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System


Client reviews that don't leave the particular service company are fine, and if you want to flag a particular client as "difficult" (i.e. an asshole) to your colleagues within the company that's fine, but a public-accessible rating would be wide open to abuse.

 

[PuNKeMoN]

You mean China?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System

WHOA. I heard about that but didn't think it was legit.

Client reviews that don't leave the particular service company are fine, and if you want to flag a particular client as "difficult" (i.e. an asshole) to your colleagues within the company that's fine, but a public-accessible rating would be wide open to abuse.

I mean, abuse or not, a shared database would assure all workers the same knowledge of a particular "difficult" customer.

 

[Deleted User]

I doubt companies would do something like this, probably due to the costs of evaluating each incident. When it comes to something like this, it's best to take things on a case-by-case basis. Oftentimes, it's the customer who is the one in the wrong (I've seen quite a few rude and condescending customers), but sometimes it can be the workers there who are being bothersome or rude to customers with little to no provocation. Having to handle such complaints would cost too much money, and not all businesses would jump on-board with the idea.

And besides, in the end, it's the customers who have the money. If they can't act like an ass at one joint, they'll just take their baggage to another. Think of the sheer amount of cash these companies have spent that has basically gone into customer foreplay. They're a crucial part to most, if not all, of these businesses. If a customer has 0 or 1 stars on said system for being a jerk, do you really think the company will just let you deny them service?

Plus, while service is often tied to a specific location or area, customers are mobile, and can visit several restaurants or coffee in shops, even in just one day. The implications of that may be a bit too "Big Brother"-y for comfort to a lot of people.

 

[FAST6191]

Sounds like too much effort when a robot will take your job in the next few years.

Also is yelp really that big over there?

 

[PuNKeMoN]

Yelp is a pretty big deal over here. It's been my experience that when a transaction goes as expected there is either an average review or more than likely none at all. A great review only happens if expectations are exceeded, which in the age of entitlement is a rare opportunity.
Generally, people use it if they want to complain about something.