I’ve written many reviews over the years and typically I never rate 5 or 10 or whatever the highest rating is. Let’s look at a rating scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest rating. When I rate a product, service or person I look at this, did the person product or service meet my expectations, if so, the starting point of my review would be a 5. Met expectations. As a starting place, the number 5 leaves room for improvement without giving negative comments.
Here’s an example, I’ve been shaving my head for many years now. As I age, I find there are times when I get a little shaky in my hand movement. Common with age. As the shaky hands became more pronounced, I began to look for an electric head shaver. I read reviews, saw pictures of various shavers and decided to try one. This shaver is a four head type and does a decent job. the cost was a few dollars above average. I don’t care what the ads say, there is not an electric razor made that can or will give you a razor close shave. At best I’ve learned that the electric shaver I purchased gets me to less than a 5 o’clock shadow and I felt that it was reasonable given that it’s an electric shaver. After a while though, I began to wonder if a similar but slightly more expensive brand would give better results, so I bought one. I had only one expectation and that was that I would receive a comparable shave which is just what happened. A feature of most modern electric shavers is their waterproof rating allowing for use in the shower. Most of these shavers have an IPX7 rating which allows for shower use. Given that these are electric shavers, they need a charge from time to time. I’ve found that I only need to charge the devices once every 2 or 3 months. Not too shabby considering I shave 3 to 4 times a week.
So, what was my rating? First off, I never rate a product straight out of the box. I’ll take my time, use it for a while and take note of performance and check frequency of recharge and so on. Then, after a period of time, I’ll write my review. In the instance of the shaver, I wrote my review after about a month and a half and gave it an overall rating of 8. While I’m happy with the shaver and have consistently received a good close shave, this goes for both shavers, there are just a couple of things that could be improved upon. The first is the fitment of the shave head assembly to the body of the shaver, I’ve noticed that seating the head, it doesn’t always result in a proper fit and a little fidgeting with it is required. The second thing is that I’ve noticed a small spot where the chrome type coating on the plastic bits of the shave head has come off. Hence the 8 rating in that review.
Another common rating that most of us come across in our lives is the job performance rating. Sure, various companies may have different terminology, but in the end they are all performance ratings. How well does this person perform his or her job. How well does this person work with the team. The list of review items is almost as endless as it gets. While most reviews use some form of grading system, one through five perhaps, A through E perhaps, but there is a system. In addition, there will be one or more sections for the reviewer, typically your frontline manager, to add commentary listing reasons for the rating. Performs all assigned duties with little to no supervision, perfect attendance, excellent team member, and the list goes on.
When I was in the military, we had a review form and process. It consisted of a 1 through 10 rating, a commentary section, a section for recommended areas of improvement, and a place for input from other supervisors. A good review was a 10 followed by various comments or other narrative. It was also expected that almost all reviews would be a 10 as that was one component of promotion and career, there were other components which are not relevant to this topic.
I clearly remember the first review I wrote. This was for an individual who was average or slightly above with regards to job performance, had perfect attendance, completed required training in a timely fashion and received above average scores in testing. That said though, there was room for improvement in a few areas and this was discussed both in the comments and in person during his review. I gave him an overall review score of 8, above average score with room for improvement. Before submitting the review for record, it had to be approved by my higher ups. I was questioned on the score of 8 and was encouraged to give this individual a 10. After a losing battle I changed his rating to a 10. In this instance, and many others, it was understood that an 8 rating was the starting place for a bad review and the rating could go down from there. That said, the intent was to give people a better than average chance for promotion. I didn’t like it, but it was the system at the time.
All of this brings me to the conclusion of a short tale of reviews. Before making a purchase, I research the item or service before making a decision. Not only do I look at the “star rating” but also look at the comments. I’ve noticed that in a lot of cases, the star rating doesn’t really match up with what the reviewer is saying. Maybe I do things backwards, but when I write a review, I start with comments on the item, read and re-read what I said, and base my star rating on my narrative.
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