How do you rate people and businesses?
 

Do you rate them on how well they have done with an honest rating, do you rate mostly by effort and their need of more business or can you be begged into giving a better rating than they should?

I just did a Fiver were communication was lacking on 1 item with me asking the same thing 3 times before it was done (very simple question) and rated them 4 stars on communication (effort and intent was there) and 5 one everything else. The guy who did the gig is begging me to change it to a 5.

Isn't the idea to rate honestly for other business to weigh options with the best info?

Rate them honestly - always - no matter what. If they need to beg you for a good rating, then this is something they need to contend with, and adjust to get a better rating - but don't change your rating simply because you've been begged into it - if it isn't perfect, let them know it and it's on them to change or not to change, but at least they know there is a room for improvement and where to improve. Maybe they will think next time that they had a bit of a communication breakdown before and should adjust that.... just my opinion! :2 cents:

I rarely worry about the time it takes. Stuff happens. I pretty much give the best review possible unless what they said they would do doesn't get done or doesn't last.

And even than I will give them a chance to fix it.

What's the purpose of publicly posting a less than honest review? Some may post bad reviews about their competition I suppose and of course there are those who will post fake reviews about themselves to boost their ratings. But if it's a legit review, there's no reason to not be 100% honest. Let them know what they did wrong. If they hold enough value in the review system, they will correct the issue. If not, they won't and they will lose business over time. :2 cents:

Aaron and Tam that is exactly how I feel.

Chaze, the extra time this communication issue took was the loss of a whole business day, actually about a day and a half.

Funny how many people not in the biz said to cut them slack. To me a recommendation carries weight and is important.

Be sincere, legit feedback gives ability to the merchant/service provider to improve over time

I actually run a couple of review sites. One of them just went live a few days ago. I contacted every business listed on the site, informed them what I was doing and asked them to share their review pages with their mail lists, FB etc...

Only 2 of the businesses did this. 1 of the businesses got 10 reviews right away and every one of them was a perfect 5 stars for each category. I know this business and there is no way in hell they deserve that rating. To me, the people who left the inflated ratings are not doing the business any favors. Over time, realistic reviews will be posted and that blown up score will fall anyway.

Effort and intent do not pay my bills.

I will usually do a completely honest review but when it comes to communication issues I always have to review the whole communication chain because proper communication is a 2 way street and has a lot of variables involved in it.

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