Have you ever wanted to go to a restaurant in a city you’re not familiar with? What’s the first thing that you usually do? If you’re like me, you pick up your phone, open up the Yelp app, and look at what’s good.
Have you ever wondered how these things work? Basically, anyone can go onto Yelp (or any other service that is similar), and rate the business they were at, leave a brief–or maybe not so brief!–review of the service that they observed, and post it for the world to see. When there are enough ratings applied to a store or wherever else you are looking, you can gain some valuable information, especially if there are a lot of similar businesses in the area competing for your money.
In today’s world of digitalization, almost every business out there has an online face, whether they want it or not. Through sites like Yelp, Facebook, Google+, and many others, companies are more transparent than ever. This goes for restaurants, stores of all sizes, doctors, and–you guessed it– senior care services.
But exactly how accurate can ratings like this be for a business that specializes in senior or in-home care? It’s hard to say, but one thing that we can learn from basic statistics is that the more ratings a business has, the more reliable the data that is reflected becomes. In this regard, a 4-star senior care business with 5 ratings is probably not as reliable in its quality as a 4-star senior care business with 50 ratings.
So, if you’re thinking about using the web to help a loved one find senior care, there are some things you should know. First of all, the internet is a great resource when it’s used right. Second, quality is always more reliable when more people can attest to it. And third, the best care businesses know these things, and take great strides to ensure that they supply a high quality level of service to the individuals and families that they assist. If they don’t, it will eventually come back to hurt their business. Nobody wants to gain a reputation for a subpar product. When it comes to senior care, this is even worse.
Is there potential for senior care and in-home care providers to exploit the ratings systems? Of course there is. However, the longer that a service is around and the more people it serves, the less the impact of fake reviews will be. A high quality care service will eventually stand out above the others, through online reviews, word of mouth, and reputation. Online reviews might not be 100 percent reliable when making a decision about what’s best for your mom or dad, but it should almost play some role in the decision making process. It allows you to see what other people think about the service that you will be using without leaving the house. They are convenient, easy to find, and more reliable than not.
A few final words of wisdom:
Don’t use online reviews as your only or primary decision making tool.
Don’t believe everything that you read, especially if it’s only found once or twice on the entire web.
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