We rate hotels and restaurants in Tripadvisor, we now can rate doctors and teachers, and we rate lots of services either publically or at the demand of their management. In many UK airports you can give stars to Security once you have gone through. We rate conferences and speakers. Everything has a digital or analogue scale of some sort to provide feed back.
This feed back culture is now pervasive to the point of featuring in autopilot in anything around us; from leaving a hotel room to paying you three-course meal. Of course our humanity is been digitalised and you can click and like in cyberspace, another permanent feed back.
I am not sure what people do with the feed back data, although I know that Tripadvisor hotel and restaurateurs owners have now an extra job to reply or comment, unless they are fool enough to close they eyes: sorry to hear sir, we cook food to the highest standards, sorry to hear that you did not feel well after the meal; sorry madam, you found that corner of the room untidy; this is unacceptable and we have had a serious discussion with housekeeping already.
The public or private feedback/vengeance/contribution to mankind has been so far unidirectional. I was intrigued to learn from trendwatching.com that there is a trend in reverse the direction of the feedback. Some hotels rate customers, some restaurants rate commensals, and Uber taxi drivers rate customers and input that into a database. In the later, your bad accumulated reputation as an annoying or difficult customer will leave you with no Uber serviced next time you ask. Don’t bother.
In a simple behavioural game that any first year student of behavioural sciences would understand, and that has a 10/10 for simplicity, the sandwich company Pret a Manger gives the staff the ability to give away a coffee to nice, very nice customers. That’s it. Another form of 5-start rating. What happens when you reinforce very nice customers? You get more very nice customers in the shop.
Can we have employees rating managers and companies? You may argue that there are some mechanisms already via Employee Engagement surveys for example. No, seriously, could be have Managementadvisor? Give starts to CEOs?
So we may be soon in a Mutual Rating Society in which feedback shoots in all directions in a game of Defensive Admiration. I rate you, you rate me.
For the record, you are an incredibly nice reader. By simply reading this you have 5 starts as reader and, if I meet you personally one day, I’ll buy you a coffee for sure.