Rating Systems and Our Obsession with Five Stars
Rating products, services, and businesses today — rating each other tomorrow.
Before the world of ridesharing was a mainstay for commuters and before Yelp reviews were a higher priority than prices, there was a time when a friend would simply ask, “On a one to ten scale, what did you think?”
There was no official rating system in place. No star system or reviews to log in an app, forever placing your stamp of approval or dislike. Simply put, we would crowdsource our friends and family about the quality of food, entertainment, and overall experiences.
After recently returning from a weekend getaway, my girlfriend and I are sitting in our Lyft back home from SFO. I’m barely awake, contacts as dry as thousand-year-old parchment found in an Egyptian tomb… but I still find myself writing reviews for our Turo car rental and Airbnb host during the ride.
It has become an item on my post-trip checklist. Write reviews. Hope for good reviews. Also, yes I have such a list; I love making checklists.
In the last week, I have reviewed the aforementioned Turo and Airbnb rentals, Lyft rides, a Wag dog walker, a few restaurants on Yelp, a Postmates delivery, a bottle of Syrah on the Vivino app, an Amazon order, and somehow even…