1-10 ratings; 8 is bad?!

66Mustang

I have been reminded a couple of times recently - once in Tesco and again when having a car serviced - that if I decide to write a review, only a score of 9 or 10 is considered “good”. 8 and under is considered “negative” and will damage their average score.

Now I am aware this is obviously due to the algorithm used by management to determine if they are doing a good job but it seems a bit off to me?

I rarely write reviews, but when I do, have always given people 6 or 7 when they were reasonably good, 8 for me means great, 9 is exceptional. No-one gets a 10 (likewise no-one gets a 0). Even if they served me champagne and filled my car up with petrol they’d get 9.9.

All this time I was unaware that giving an 8 could be damaging their overall score and potentially affecting their job. Not to mention they must have thought I was an unhappy customer when in reality I was very happy!

What’s the point of having all the numbers if they only want a 10? Surely just a “Good” and “Bad” button would suffice?

Any views?

66Mustang

@Teddybear12 that is a good point.

I suppose it is to help future customers decide whether they want to use the same service.

I am like you, I rarely write reviews and also rarely read them either as people often have their own agenda for writing them.

Sandy_123

I do read several reviews before I buy something, no matter what I'm buying. Sometimes I've left the item and look at another, if there is more then 3 bad reviews. I find them helpful. I give a good review if the item is as it should be.

OverlyAnxious

I've seen this mentioned a few times online recently.  I didn't know about it either.

Personally I'd have said 5 or 6 was average, anything above is better than average, anything below is worse than average. 

Must admit I don't really see the point of marks out of 10, too much range.  Marks out of 5 feels a bit easier to work out.


The only thing I will suggest, playing devils advocate, is that if you didn't give 10 out of 10 for something, could you write a statement of improvement for it?  If you can't think of any way they could have improved, then that must have been the best possible service, and therefore worth 10 out of 10.  

66Mustang

Good question @OverlyAnxious

I think there is always room for improvement. My car service was great; friendly, they washed the car to a great standard, finished in half a day when they told me it might take all day, etc. They still could have been even faster, even cleaner, even friendlier. I am not for a minute saying I expect perfection - I was incredibly happy - but reaching perfection is how they could have improved.

Same with a minimum score...I have experienced awful service in the past, as everyone has, but would give them one or two marks out of ten for at least something as otherwise it's saying it's impossible to make the service any worse, which unless they killed me or something, it is possible to get worse