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It could be replaced with concrete questions. In case of Uber: Was your driver late? Was your driver polite? Did you feel the way they drove was safe? Did y

by V-2 9y ago

It could be replaced with concrete questions. In case of Uber: Was your driver late? Was your driver polite? Did you feel the way they drove was safe? Did you have troubles communicating with the driver? (Yes, no, kind of). ASK FOR FACTS, NOT OPINIONS. I understand customers can't be bothered to complete a full-blown questionnaire, but the system could pick one or two questions at random after every ride. It could even incentivize answering two instead of one, or three instead of two (as in Google's "Local Guide"). Over time, data will accumulate.

tempestn 9y ago
Same fundamental problem though. A 'kind of' on any of the questions will have a significant impact on the driver, since anything less than a near perfect rating will cause them to lose out to other drivers. Because of this riders will feel pressure to give positive answers to everything unless the driver is really terrible.
- V-2 9y ago
  True, but at least it narrows down the area. In some cases it might prompt the company to rephrase a specific question that proves to be too vague (if it gathers a large percentage of "kind of" responses). No such chance with a star system.
collyw 9y ago
This reminds me of my last exit interview. I was pretty pissed off with a number of things, hence leaving the company. But the exit interview asked very specific questions, none of which addressed the reasons for me leaving.
- V-2 9y ago
  I understand, but having worked at a company for some time is a much more complex interaction than a single ride, and even this oversimplified exit interview was probably still more to the point than if they only asked you to rate them in 1 to 5 scale before you go ;)
  - logicallee 9y ago
    You: "If you really want feedback: this was the worst job I've ever had! I've never been so misled about what I would be doing, the management is completely incompetent, and I could go on for an hour but I think it's easiest for all involved if I just leave. Come back when you've hired ten more people and figured out what you're actually building." Them: "We understand. On a rating of 1 to 5 stars, how many stars would you give this job? This will be part of your file here." You: "Well obviously 5. Thanks for the job and good luck with your other candidates."
Liquid_Fire 9y ago
Ola Cabs in India does this. There is still a star rating, but if you give a rating of 5 stars it asks you what you loved most (out of a selection of choices), and if you give less than 5 stars it asks you what you were not happy about (slightly different selection of choices). You can pick multiple reasons in both cases. There is even a box for writing free text.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  Lyft does that, too. I don't think I've ever filled that out, though. I just do the rating and go on with my day.
bpicolo 9y ago
> Was your driver late This would be a poor question. Any perceived lateness is because Uber underestimates the time-to-pickup. In Manhattan they pretty consistently underestimate by 50% it feels like.
- pimlottc 9y ago
  On the contrary, it's definitely not a poor question, it's very valuable feedback -- for Uber. I agree it's not something that should be levied on the driver, though.
  - bpicolo 9y ago
    Maybe? They definitely have exact data on how long it takes drivers to arrive. But yeah, I'm referring to using it as a judgment of the driver. I wouldn't even the least bit surprised if they already figured out that people are more likely to take trips if they intentionally underestimate.
- DelightOne 9y ago
  This question makes it possible to distinguish between this fact and other variables the passenger perceives. Without distinguishing only broad actions are possible. Like broad judgements where you don't know what it is supposed to say. > Uber said in July that it would make riders add an explanation when they awarded a driver less than five stars. This acknowledges the inability to distinguish what is ment with the judgement and one of their tries to fix this.
- sharemywin 9y ago
  Wouldn't the system know what time someone got picked up and dropped off by gps?
  - V-2 9y ago
    It does already, but it misses the social aspect. Eg. if somebody apologizes for keeping me waiting, it's a different experience already. Also some drivers "arrive at the destination", but not the exact destination where you said you were waiting at, and the way we manage to handle this together is part of what I consider as being late or not, too.
sharemywin 9y ago
How would you rate your experience? Three buttons. Acceptable Exceptional. Why? Below average. Why?
- no_identd 9y ago
  Good start. Maybe label them differently though: * Great * Typical * Horrible (I intentionally avoided the word 'normal' here due to it implying an average instead of a median.) And a proposal for what to do with these three inputs: Have three internal counters: * Good * Neutral * Bad 'Great' increments 'good' by 1/2, decrements 'neutral' by 1/3, and decrements 'bad' by 1/6. 'Typical' increments 'neutral' by 2/3 and decrements 'good' and 'bad' by 1/3 each. 'Horrible' increments 'bad' by 1/2, decrements 'good' by 1/3, and decrements 'neutral' by 1/6. Show the end users and the drivers the rating graphically by just stacking the three counters next to each other horizontally. Edit: Note that I indeed mean INCREMENTS, I do NOT mean "multiplies the current value by".
ceejayoz 9y ago
> ASK FOR FACTS, NOT OPINIONS. Three of the four examples you give - polite, safe, good communication - are mostly opinions, though.
raz32dust 9y ago
Love this idea. I would definitely be much more likely to give true feedback with this approach. To me, this highlights an interesting insight: I think people don't give 5 stars because they fear social judgement. They give 5 stars because most people don't know what a 5 star means, and they don't want to think about it. Asking concrete questions makes it so much more transparent. I am going to apply this suggestion to some other places as well. Thanks!

by V-2 9y ago

tempestn 9y ago

Same fundamental problem though. A 'kind of' on any of the questions will have a significant impact on the driver, since anything less than a near perfect rating will cause them to lose out to other drivers. Because of this riders will feel pressure to give positive answers to everything unless the driver is really terrible.

V-2 9y ago
True, but at least it narrows down the area. In some cases it might prompt the company to rephrase a specific question that proves to be too vague (if it gathers a large percentage of "kind of" responses). No such chance with a star system.

collyw 9y ago

This reminds me of my last exit interview. I was pretty pissed off with a number of things, hence leaving the company. But the exit interview asked very specific questions, none of which addressed the reasons for me leaving.

V-2 9y ago
I understand, but having worked at a company for some time is a much more complex interaction than a single ride, and even this oversimplified exit interview was probably still more to the point than if they only asked you to rate them in 1 to 5 scale before you go ;)
- logicallee 9y ago
  You: "If you really want feedback: this was the worst job I've ever had! I've never been so misled about what I would be doing, the management is completely incompetent, and I could go on for an hour but I think it's easiest for all involved if I just leave. Come back when you've hired ten more people and figured out what you're actually building." Them: "We understand. On a rating of 1 to 5 stars, how many stars would you give this job? This will be part of your file here." You: "Well obviously 5. Thanks for the job and good luck with your other candidates."

Liquid_Fire 9y ago

Ola Cabs in India does this. There is still a star rating, but if you give a rating of 5 stars it asks you what you loved most (out of a selection of choices), and if you give less than 5 stars it asks you what you were not happy about (slightly different selection of choices). You can pick multiple reasons in both cases. There is even a box for writing free text.

s73v3r_ 9y ago
Lyft does that, too. I don't think I've ever filled that out, though. I just do the rating and go on with my day.

bpicolo 9y ago

> Was your driver late This would be a poor question. Any perceived lateness is because Uber underestimates the time-to-pickup. In Manhattan they pretty consistently underestimate by 50% it feels like.

pimlottc 9y ago
On the contrary, it's definitely not a poor question, it's very valuable feedback -- for Uber. I agree it's not something that should be levied on the driver, though.
- bpicolo 9y ago
  Maybe? They definitely have exact data on how long it takes drivers to arrive. But yeah, I'm referring to using it as a judgment of the driver. I wouldn't even the least bit surprised if they already figured out that people are more likely to take trips if they intentionally underestimate.
DelightOne 9y ago
This question makes it possible to distinguish between this fact and other variables the passenger perceives. Without distinguishing only broad actions are possible. Like broad judgements where you don't know what it is supposed to say. > Uber said in July that it would make riders add an explanation when they awarded a driver less than five stars. This acknowledges the inability to distinguish what is ment with the judgement and one of their tries to fix this.
sharemywin 9y ago
Wouldn't the system know what time someone got picked up and dropped off by gps?
- V-2 9y ago
  It does already, but it misses the social aspect. Eg. if somebody apologizes for keeping me waiting, it's a different experience already. Also some drivers "arrive at the destination", but not the exact destination where you said you were waiting at, and the way we manage to handle this together is part of what I consider as being late or not, too.

sharemywin 9y ago

How would you rate your experience? Three buttons. Acceptable Exceptional. Why? Below average. Why?

no_identd 9y ago
Good start. Maybe label them differently though: * Great * Typical * Horrible (I intentionally avoided the word 'normal' here due to it implying an average instead of a median.) And a proposal for what to do with these three inputs: Have three internal counters: * Good * Neutral * Bad 'Great' increments 'good' by 1/2, decrements 'neutral' by 1/3, and decrements 'bad' by 1/6. 'Typical' increments 'neutral' by 2/3 and decrements 'good' and 'bad' by 1/3 each. 'Horrible' increments 'bad' by 1/2, decrements 'good' by 1/3, and decrements 'neutral' by 1/6. Show the end users and the drivers the rating graphically by just stacking the three counters next to each other horizontally. Edit: Note that I indeed mean INCREMENTS, I do NOT mean "multiplies the current value by".

ceejayoz 9y ago

> ASK FOR FACTS, NOT OPINIONS. Three of the four examples you give - polite, safe, good communication - are mostly opinions, though.

raz32dust 9y ago

Love this idea. I would definitely be much more likely to give true feedback with this approach. To me, this highlights an interesting insight: I think people don't give 5 stars because they fear social judgement. They give 5 stars because most people don't know what a 5 star means, and they don't want to think about it. Asking concrete questions makes it so much more transparent. I am going to apply this suggestion to some other places as well. Thanks!