People have long turned to friends and family for recommendations when looking for services, but as our lives change, we may have fewer people to turn to. Many people live in relative isolation, in busy urban areas, without the benefits of extended families or social groups.
An organization called the National Conference on Citizenship has actually documented the decline of our communities. Their annual report, America’s Civic Health Index, can be downloaded from their website at http://www.ncoc.net/
Yet just as our community connections are diminishing, we are finding more information – and connections – on the Internet. A recent study shows that more than 2/3 of survey respondents used Internet searches to find information on local services.
People also turn to rating and review sites to find referrals that they would - in the past - have gotten from friends, or to help in choosing service providers.
RateMDs.com is a good example of these increasingly popular sites. At RateMDs, users can post comments and ratings for their doctors and dentists. Others can read these comments when looking for a doctor.
On company, Ratingz Inc, operates a number of websites that families can use to evaluate local businesses. Examples include:
ChildCareRatingz.com
CampRatingz.com
VetRatingz.com
RestaurantRatingz.com
There is a good list of “rating and review” sites from many companies on the Internet directory site WikiDWeb.
The sites are sometimes criticized because they often make no attempt to verify the validity of statements that are posted. Bob Nicholson, VP of Marketing for Ratingz Inc, responds by saying, “It’s true that there are some suspicious reviews on our sites. Good ratings may be posted by the businesses themselves, or bad ratings posted by competitors. But we think our users are pretty good at filtering this type of information. Read the reviews and use them as one source of data when making decisions.”
Perhaps the best way to help others is to post thoughtful reviews – good or bad – of services and businesses you have used. It’s a new kind of community, but it still relies on people to help one another.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
This is a great place, with such a great person involved. The care given is second to none, a great learning program, healthy nurturing environment and you can rest assured your child will be given the best care possible.
I would recommend to anyone and everyone without hesitation!
Please add pet charities to your evaluations ... some are no good, some are excellent and some harmless but ineffective. Donors are often clueless. Adding them would be a great service. Many thanks.
What a great idea. Yes! Let the public know the inside scoop about humane societies!
Post a Comment