vendor review?

[midgetwaiter]

The point I am trying to make is that all you LFS owner/operators could use this as a very effective tool to better run your store and not as a personal attack on character.

Midget pointed out a situation that occured in his/her store, about a customer walking in and seeing a fish in "rough shape" and reporting unfairly because they did not find out the reason for the fish to be in that state. That was unfortunate that the situation occured. However, you can take it as a personal attack and wallow in it, or use the information to better your store's operations. After that incident, I personally would have made it a point to quarrantine and or hold fish that are not in show condition in a place that is not visible to the public eye. There, you have now dealt with future problems of that nature from ocurring.

I never found the baseless comments to be especially galling, it was obvious what they were and I always welcomed the chance to address them. I like the idea of the vendor review and was upset to see it go until I put some more thought into the issues. The thing that I am trying to figure out is why people often make the jump from one sick fish or bad shipment to "that store is horrible". I've seen it countless times and it just doesn't make any sense.

[edmguy]

I. The thing that I am trying to figure out is why people often make the jump from one sick fish or bad shipment to "that store is horrible". I've seen it countless times and it just doesn't make any sense.

im sure there are other reasons for people having that attitude. bad service....bad information given by employees......unfair trade in practices......all goes back to the golden rule.....if you get something you felt was good and fair from a lfs youll go back there and say good things about it. if you got ripped off or u felt like you got screwed by a lfs look at the result.............

[Ichthyosporidium]

I never found the baseless comments to be especially galling, it was obvious what they were and I always welcomed the chance to address them. I like the idea of the vendor review and was upset to see it go until I put some more thought into the issues. The thing that I am trying to figure out is why people often make the jump from one sick fish or bad shipment to "that store is horrible". I've seen it countless times and it just doesn't make any sense.

In school, when we were being taught social tolerance, this is where I first heard of "Stereotype".

Humans are stereotypical in nature, we can't help it. You see, when we were still Discovering fire, tools, and flinging poo at each other, we were very animalistic (not much has changed except our self-centered attitudes have grown) and in instinctive terms, like all animals, we based a situation or object from our first encounter. Good "first interactions" to a situation or object means we will look forward to re interacting with that situation or object, ie: the first time you come across a raspberry bush with ripe fruit, you pick, eat, enjoy and you will be back for more. as opposed to: the first time you come acrross that bush and fall in, get prickled to death, eat no fruit and get chased by bugs cause your covered in raspberries, you probably avoid raspberry bushes from there on and tell your friends to avoid that particular bush.

I hope that makes sense to you. We still have instincts that we misunderstand as idiocyncracy and it is up to the individual to realize this and stop it themselves... ...like that will ever happen!

Cheers to the weekend

Edited August 6, 2006 by Ichthyosporidium

[Goldfish Girl]

i have an idea that will let people give their opinions, without being able to badmouth stores. i'm reading what very good points alot of you are making on both sides of this argument and thought of a compromise. what if there were some type of a guideline, like a checklist, on what you could rate stores on. there could be categories for example, quality of fish, variaty of fish, health of fish, knowledge of staff, cleanliness of store. just to suggest a few. have a rating system, example, 1 being worst 5 being outstanding. people could copy and paste the list of categories from somewhere, maybe a "pinned" post, and then fill them in as they see fit. this does not enable people to badmouth stores, but still lets opinions be heard. any posts that have anything besides this checklist, should be taken off. let people know this very clearly a head of time so it will be expected. for those in favour of the vendor review, while this solution may not enable you to express yourself as much as you would like (you can't tell the huge story about how bad the fish lookeed, how roughly they were caught, blah blah), you still get your opinions voiced. for those not in favour of the vendor review, the stores are not being slandered and no huge stories are being told/exaggerated/made up about stores. this is a more tasteful way of letting opinions be heard--without all politics involved.

a good compromise leaves everyone angry. lol, forget who said that.

if this has been suggested before and didn't work, disregard this. i just thought maybe this could be considered.

[edmguy]

very good idea

[Tanker]

I have been working on a stsyem just as you've said... a ratings system that will reduce the bias and point more towards an honest assesment than anything tried in this space, previously.

With the sheer number of stores in our areas, there has been a LOT of hours poured into it, already; but I am coming close to completetion on the project. It will only be enabled for Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton in it's first application but that is certainly better than the 'sweet tweet' we have now.

[maniac]

That's awesome man, thanks for working on that.

[a1foxes]

I have been working on a stsyem just as you've said... a ratings system that will reduce the bias and point more towards an honest assesment than anything tried in this space, previously.

With the sheer number of stores in our areas, there has been a LOT of hours poured into it, already; but I am coming close to completetion on the project. It will only be enabled for Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton in it's first application but that is certainly better than the 'sweet tweet' we have now.

This I'm curious to see. While I do have my store preferences for various

reasons, and my fair share of bad experiences as well, I understand the

business, I understand fish, and I understand the different concepts some

of the stores use. If some of the stores could take a little constructive

critisism now and then, really it should work. Even though I've had my

share of problems with a couple stores lately, I"m not beyond changing

my current opinion. I'm used to working with very large organizations,

1 was an agricultural association and the big job was putting on 1 large

event every year. AT least 100 different departments, and chairpersons

for those and various volunteers. Imagine playing referee for them

butting head about who's project is more important, oh , yes, critisism

too....I got very good at mediating, thats why I wound up high in the

ranks, and no one killed each other. There is more than one side to

every story, and there is more than one way to keep/sell fish, good

and bad in every method. I must admit it would take alot of investment

for me to set up a store and do things the way I think should be done.

I'm one to take the best of every technique, and employ them all.

The real issue- is how the store and their supporters can deal with a

little CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM, rather than taking offense and

then taking it personally....

Should be interesting

[Tanker]

Number one reason people do not respond to critiques is when they have it directly AT them, or FROM someone specific. My system will keep everything completely anonymous, and 'safe'. Stores will know how the general public sees their business, and the general public will see how the rest of the public sees the stores.

If a certain location has a vote of 4.8 for customer service, then that is "overall usually great". Maybe one person voted a "one" but their bias is removed in the overall scores, averaging out to nearly no effect. Obviously this is also going to be reflected if more people have an issue with a particular store... a rating of 1.3 for quality of livestock will tell you something.

All scores will also be reported with the number of respondents. ie 4.2/21 tells you that 21 people voted, and the score was 4.2 as an average. If another store ranks 4.5/3 then does that mean it's a better store? Not always, as it may be that only three people have shopped there recently (may be a new store) or that it's in a poor location or that most people avoid it generally based on other (and non-qualitative) criteria.

My system in NO way is going to try to capture everything; that is an unrealistic goal. But it will help people to make a better choice about where they do, and do not, want to spend their money.

I should have the first launch ready to go by the end of the week. Some serious hours yesterday were poured into it with positive results. It will cover 30 stores in the Edmonton and Calgary areas to start with. This is where most of our members shop, and this will help the largest portion of our membership and the internet as a whole. Smaller centers will be added in the second edition, due out right after Christmas.

[seajays]

Looking forward to it.

[Tanker]

It's done. I'll have the Admin and Mod team go throught it looking for bugs and by the end of the week it will be live.

I fully expect EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU that has asked for this feature to sit at home and fill out the survey!

The ONLY thing that will fail this is a LACK OF INVOLVEMENT BY YOU. I have just spent 11 hours of MY long weekend building this, and by golly I'm gunna be some kinda peaved if it's just as ignored as some of the other stuff that has been requested around here.

[skinless]

thank you for your effort tanker.

i promise to participate. am stoked to anonymously hate on AqG lol

[2manytanks]

It sounds great Tanker - I'm looking forward to it.

[Vapor]

Thanks Chris, not just for this but for all the behind the scenes stuff that you take care of for all of us. :bow:

[maniac]

:thumbs: :bow: thanks man, you can be sure i'll vote and appreciate everyone who votes. Also thanks man for everything you do on the site. :beer:

What discussion forum will it show up in?

Edited September 7, 2006 by maniac