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Seems like this is culturally different for some things. And corporations can influence too. I have a friend who has four restaurants in Tokyo, and I've been s

Seems like this is culturally different for some things. And corporations can influence too. I have a friend who has four restaurants in Tokyo, and I've been several times there. If you keep attention to the restaurant reviews in Google Maps, Japanese people is very hard. They'd go like "The food is great, incredible service, surprising flavors, very good experience, best Spanish food I've had in a long time..." and then they go "...but I know they can do better and have space to improve. 2/5". In Spain we would be like "Nice beer, they gave us some tapas. 5/5" Gig economy corporations also have made this worse. You're scared to score your driver, your server or your hotel by less than a 5/5 or somebody might get punished or fired (and maybe they didn't even had a contract in the first place). And this becomes a snake biting its own tail. Now I rarely go to a place with a score of less than a 4/5, and I'll score relatively high because I know I could influence votes out of what people consider "worthy to visit".

JohnFen 3y ago
> I rarely go to a place with a score of less than a 4/5 I have a simpler heuristic. I ignore all customer ratings entirely, and refuse to leave any.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
yurishimo 3y ago
100% it's cultural. In the Netherlands, companies brag about a 7 or 8 out of ten as proof of their amazing customer service. When I lived in America, it seemed the consensus of anything under a 9 is killing puppies. Coincidentally, NPS is entirely based on this fact. 8+ is required for a "happy customer". 7 is given a little wiggle room to win them back and under 6 is a lost cause.
- user_7832 3y ago
  > In the Netherlands, companies brag about a 7 or 8 out of ten as proof of their amazing customer service. Huh, could you give an example of it? I am new to the Netherlands and hadn’t realized this yet.
  - yurishimo 3y ago
    Sure. I was looking up energy price comparisons last night and came across this. https://www.overstappen.nl/energie/vergelijken/ https://www.overstappen.nl/energie/vergelijken/ Under "Beste energievergelijker" > Onze klanten beoordelen ons daarom met gemiddeld een 8,6. If you scroll further, you can see their ratings for other services; none reach even an 8. Compare that to Nerd Wallet's "Best Life Insurance Companies" (a segment that is nearly identical from all providers if you purchase term life). https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/best-life-insurance-companies https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/best-life-insur... 5/5 across the board for all parties. I get that it's a "best of" list, but you seriously mean to tell me all of these companies are exactly the same? The rest of Nerd Wallet's top pick lists are the same.
  - dahwolf 3y ago
    How we rate things in the Netherlands is a reflection of the rating system used in schools. 1-5. Ranging from pathetic to inadequate, in any case you didn't pass. 6. Adequate, the minimum needed to pass. A culturally important number as it expresses the "zesjescultuur", a phenomenon where somebody is intentionally doing the absolute bare minimum to not get into trouble. 7. More than adequate. 8. Good. Even if near-perfect, few Dutch people would rate above this number because we don't want you to get all cocky. 9. Excellent. In service, only awarded when you did something completely unexpected or memorable. 10. Perfect, flawless.
- autarch 3y ago
  At my last employer they ran regular eNPS surveys using this 1-10 response scale where only 9 or 10 were considered positive. After much complaining from me that this was batshit crazy (I phrased this more appropriately at work), they finally switched to using just three possible responses. The question was something like "Would you recommend an acquaintance or friend with the appropriate skills to apply for a job at $Company?". The three responses were "No", "Maybe", and "Yes".
- MandieD 3y ago
  Fun related fact about 1-5 survey responses in Germany: make sure you specify that 5 is the top mark and 1 is the bottom, otherwise you’re liable to get some really odd results. This is because 1 is the highest grade (mark) in school, and 5 is failing, as is the even-worse 6. And even so informed, or accustomed to 1-5 scale used by everyone else, Germans are more likely than Americans to give a 4 instead of a 5 to something that they were happy with, but was not the best they’d ever experienced.
- ahartmetz 3y ago
  I've noticed that many decent German TV productions (I'm talking about somewhat positive outliers here, like the best few Tatort episodes in a year) get scores of 6 to 7 on IMDB - especially the ones that are only shown in Germany. So, the Netherlands and Germany are pretty similar about that.
- avgcorrection 3y ago
  > When I lived in America, it seemed the consensus of anything under a 9 is killing puppies. I also get the impression that American grades are like this: - A is good. You made an effort. - A [however modified with +/++]: great job! - C is terrible. You skipped all classes or fell into a coma.
cratermoon 3y ago
The insiders say never to rent from AirBnB if the property isn't at least 4.8 stars. These days those ranking systems don't truly start from 0 or 1. The statistically significant range is much smaller. I don't personally know have the stats chops to do it, but I'm sure determining that range can be done.
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  The important thing is to actually read the reviews. A five-star place that's located 2 blocks away from a railroad crossing that's active all night won't yield a five-star experience, but the host can hardly be expected to mention that. The last AirBnB I rented was a five-star house where the host had installed one of those Nest smoke detectors with the motion-sensing night light directly above the bed. He still got a five-star rating, but I went well out of my way to mention the night light in my review.
  - grujicd 3y ago
    Why 5 if your sleep was miserable (I assume)? Host has full control over that and should be held responsible if made a poor choice which affects guests. You're polite to host, but not polite to future guests.
    - CamperBob2 3y ago
      It was easy enough to fix by taping a washcloth loosely over the sensor, and obviously my opinion regarding it being a terrible idea isn't universally shared, or he wouldn't have installed it there in the first place. So I didn't feel good about dropping a score near 100% to one near 80% just for that one thing. There was also a massive foam rubber pad on the mattress that made the first night a rough one... but again, some people who are wrong prefer those, and again, it was easy enough to remove. Or at least, it would've been if my partner hadn't already been asleep on it when I came to bed. The resulting tossing and turning was what made the motion-sensing night light a problem. Basically I didn't want to go full Karen on the landlord because everything else about the house was comfortable and thoughtful. I felt that a four-star rating would have been projecting a combination of my personal preferences and comically-bad luck on his other potential renters.
sundvor 3y ago
Yeah in Australia anything under a 5 out 5 may seem like grounds for a defamation lawsuit. It's a complete farce.
throwaway290 3y ago
I very often go to places that are 3/5. I was burned too often bad 4 or 5 places. The more important favtor is number of reviews and what exactly recent reviews say. About skewed ratings: 0) there is no objective point of reference, every rating is about the reviewer more than the place. 1) google knows about it. they have weighed rating of some sort so 2/5 rating is not going to kill. 2) people in some cultures can give low rating without explaining what they didn't like. either it is complicated to explain what it is or it may be misinterpreted or not publicly acceptable.

JohnFen 3y ago

> I rarely go to a place with a score of less than a 4/5 I have a simpler heuristic. I ignore all customer ratings entirely, and refuse to leave any.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

yurishimo 3y ago

100% it's cultural. In the Netherlands, companies brag about a 7 or 8 out of ten as proof of their amazing customer service. When I lived in America, it seemed the consensus of anything under a 9 is killing puppies. Coincidentally, NPS is entirely based on this fact. 8+ is required for a "happy customer". 7 is given a little wiggle room to win them back and under 6 is a lost cause.

user_7832 3y ago
> In the Netherlands, companies brag about a 7 or 8 out of ten as proof of their amazing customer service. Huh, could you give an example of it? I am new to the Netherlands and hadn’t realized this yet.
- yurishimo 3y ago
  Sure. I was looking up energy price comparisons last night and came across this. https://www.overstappen.nl/energie/vergelijken/ https://www.overstappen.nl/energie/vergelijken/ Under "Beste energievergelijker" > Onze klanten beoordelen ons daarom met gemiddeld een 8,6. If you scroll further, you can see their ratings for other services; none reach even an 8. Compare that to Nerd Wallet's "Best Life Insurance Companies" (a segment that is nearly identical from all providers if you purchase term life). https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/best-life-insurance-companies https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/best-life-insur... 5/5 across the board for all parties. I get that it's a "best of" list, but you seriously mean to tell me all of these companies are exactly the same? The rest of Nerd Wallet's top pick lists are the same.
- dahwolf 3y ago
  How we rate things in the Netherlands is a reflection of the rating system used in schools. 1-5. Ranging from pathetic to inadequate, in any case you didn't pass. 6. Adequate, the minimum needed to pass. A culturally important number as it expresses the "zesjescultuur", a phenomenon where somebody is intentionally doing the absolute bare minimum to not get into trouble. 7. More than adequate. 8. Good. Even if near-perfect, few Dutch people would rate above this number because we don't want you to get all cocky. 9. Excellent. In service, only awarded when you did something completely unexpected or memorable. 10. Perfect, flawless.
autarch 3y ago
At my last employer they ran regular eNPS surveys using this 1-10 response scale where only 9 or 10 were considered positive. After much complaining from me that this was batshit crazy (I phrased this more appropriately at work), they finally switched to using just three possible responses. The question was something like "Would you recommend an acquaintance or friend with the appropriate skills to apply for a job at $Company?". The three responses were "No", "Maybe", and "Yes".
MandieD 3y ago
Fun related fact about 1-5 survey responses in Germany: make sure you specify that 5 is the top mark and 1 is the bottom, otherwise you’re liable to get some really odd results. This is because 1 is the highest grade (mark) in school, and 5 is failing, as is the even-worse 6. And even so informed, or accustomed to 1-5 scale used by everyone else, Germans are more likely than Americans to give a 4 instead of a 5 to something that they were happy with, but was not the best they’d ever experienced.
ahartmetz 3y ago
I've noticed that many decent German TV productions (I'm talking about somewhat positive outliers here, like the best few Tatort episodes in a year) get scores of 6 to 7 on IMDB - especially the ones that are only shown in Germany. So, the Netherlands and Germany are pretty similar about that.
avgcorrection 3y ago
> When I lived in America, it seemed the consensus of anything under a 9 is killing puppies. I also get the impression that American grades are like this: - A is good. You made an effort. - A [however modified with +/++]: great job! - C is terrible. You skipped all classes or fell into a coma.

cratermoon 3y ago

The insiders say never to rent from AirBnB if the property isn't at least 4.8 stars. These days those ranking systems don't truly start from 0 or 1. The statistically significant range is much smaller. I don't personally know have the stats chops to do it, but I'm sure determining that range can be done.

CamperBob2 3y ago
The important thing is to actually read the reviews. A five-star place that's located 2 blocks away from a railroad crossing that's active all night won't yield a five-star experience, but the host can hardly be expected to mention that. The last AirBnB I rented was a five-star house where the host had installed one of those Nest smoke detectors with the motion-sensing night light directly above the bed. He still got a five-star rating, but I went well out of my way to mention the night light in my review.
- grujicd 3y ago
  Why 5 if your sleep was miserable (I assume)? Host has full control over that and should be held responsible if made a poor choice which affects guests. You're polite to host, but not polite to future guests.
  - CamperBob2 3y ago
    It was easy enough to fix by taping a washcloth loosely over the sensor, and obviously my opinion regarding it being a terrible idea isn't universally shared, or he wouldn't have installed it there in the first place. So I didn't feel good about dropping a score near 100% to one near 80% just for that one thing. There was also a massive foam rubber pad on the mattress that made the first night a rough one... but again, some people who are wrong prefer those, and again, it was easy enough to remove. Or at least, it would've been if my partner hadn't already been asleep on it when I came to bed. The resulting tossing and turning was what made the motion-sensing night light a problem. Basically I didn't want to go full Karen on the landlord because everything else about the house was comfortable and thoughtful. I felt that a four-star rating would have been projecting a combination of my personal preferences and comically-bad luck on his other potential renters.

sundvor 3y ago

Yeah in Australia anything under a 5 out 5 may seem like grounds for a defamation lawsuit. It's a complete farce.

throwaway290 3y ago

I very often go to places that are 3/5. I was burned too often bad 4 or 5 places. The more important favtor is number of reviews and what exactly recent reviews say. About skewed ratings: 0) there is no objective point of reference, every rating is about the reviewer more than the place. 1) google knows about it. they have weighed rating of some sort so 2/5 rating is not going to kill. 2) people in some cultures can give low rating without explaining what they didn't like. either it is complicated to explain what it is or it may be misinterpreted or not publicly acceptable.