Customer Review System

[pitzerwm]

In another thread, a suggestion was chatted about the Forum creating a rating system for equipment and distributors.

I've been thinking about the best way to implement this so that it is realistic and fair.

The first thing is that people that submit a rating are not anonymous but still have privacy so giving a negative rating won't come back to bite you in the butt. Therefore, you will need to give me your real info, but the posted rating will not have any identifying info other than the address of the distri. So far I have been working on the distr. first, then will go to equipment/manufactures.

This is what I have so far:

The name/location of the distr.
Equipment/service bought:
..............Total cw package
..............Self Serve Equip.
..............IBA
..............Supplies/Chemicals
..............Maintenance

Quality of service/products on a scale of 1-7
Price of services/products on a scale of 1-7
Timeliness of service/products on a scale of 1-7
Overall happiness: on a scale of 1-7

A comment area: 500 characters

I'm hoping that distr. that frequent the forum will give me their thoughts on what information will be helpful to be realistic to them as a distr. The info needs to be pertinent.

You may also add what you think would be important to you for evaluation of a distr. before you did business with them.

I'm pretty sure that I can weed out anyone trying to build up or discredit someone. Being banned from the Forum would be an expensive price for them as a few people have found out in the past.

 

[rph9168]

Bill,

I think there should also be something relating to their integrity or honesty and an overall rating of the experience in dealing with the distributor.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

This may be very valuable info for people. I have had not had any problems, But last week at the HCA in Des Moines, One of the washes on the tour canceled at the last minute and didn't want anyone to see his equip. as he was so mad at the distributor.

 

[mac]

Great idea Bill, but then that's why you run this joint. Maybe have some space for general comments such as rph suggested. Something more personal that the informant could provide.

 

[pitzerwm]

Good suggestions, I'll add those.

 

[pitzerwm]

Just a thought here, I spend hours yesterday working on the forms to rate distr.

How many of you will actually rate your distr.? You will give me your real info, but the public will only read your rating and comments.

The form will probably take 3 minutes to fill out. I think the same concept will work for equipment, but I want to test it with distr. first.

I just realized that for those of you that have expressed concern of retaliation from your distr. email me instead of posting here. Bottom line is that if everyone isn't on board with this, I'm not wasting my time, as it will be useless if there are just a few participates.

 

[Jeff_L]

Bill - just a thought if you create a rating system. You might want to reach out to all the distributors letting them know what you are doing, how many unique members visit your site annually, and give them some type of tag line they can put in their books, emails, vmails, etc.. Something that says, "How are we doing? Rate us at autocareforum.com.".

Maybe you could pick up more advertisers that way, and increase membership?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Bill, didn't you have something like this several years ago? I seem to remember some type of rating/comment page, but it didn't seem to get used.

 

[pitzerwm]

Jeff, good thought, and yes, IB, I did and you are right that it didn't get used much, but maybe I was ahead of the curve.

 

[pitzerwm]

Attn: Distributors

I have put together a sample form, would you guys that are distri. and everyone else too, look at the form and let me know if there are other info that would be helpful.

http://autocareforum.com/formmail/distr_survey_php.php

 

[JustClean]

I have put together a sample form, would you guys that are distri. and everyone else too, look at the form and let me know if there are other info that would be helpful.

http://autocareforum.com/formmail/distr_survey_php.php

Maybe the survey should differentiate between the distributors service and the product itself to give everyone a better understanding.
You can have a great dis but a crappy machine or the other way around...

 

[Uncle Sam]

JustClean has a good point. Maybe this form should be expanded to include manufacturers and distributors. Also where does one categorize vacuums, combos, vacuum islands, drop shelf vendors, fragrance machines, dryers, etc, and computer controlled vendors? Self Serve equipment?

Uncle Sam

 

[rph9168]

Not trying to make this more difficult than it already is but it's tough to add manufacturers due to the fact the if the distributor is good they probably install it correctly and keep their machines running while a lousy distributor may make a good machine look bad. If equipment manufacturers are added I think that somehow the rating has to be measured against the distributor rating for that equipment. That said I think that all that may be needed at this point is to list what equipment the distributor carries since there is somewhat of a reflection on the manufacturer if they support a distributor that is rated poorly. Sorry Bill, this seems to becoming more and more difficult as we go along.

 

[pitzerwm]

My idea is to do the distr. first then a separate one for the equipment/manufactures.

So I think this will cover both issues. Keep the ideas coming.

 

[pitzerwm]

Need Help

I have finally got this idea off the ground and hired a programmer to finish it up.

So please go here: http://www.autocareforum.com/formmail/distr_survey_hook.php and help me with the data. Let me know of any problems with the data entry.

As stated before all personal info will be known only to me and will not be disclosed.

I haven't talked with distr./manufactures yet, but you might have your distr. tell their other customers to come here and fill out the link.

If you are a distr/manufacture when we get the final form done, put a link on your pages so that people can read and submit ratings on you.

 

[pitzerwm]

I really need you guys to help get this rating idea off the ground.

http://www.autocareforum.com/formmail/distr_survey_hook.php

It will only take a minute and you all do business with someone. This will make your lives better and will help others down the road.

Paul, I know that you have at least one that you want to rate.

 

[JustClean]

I really need you guys to help get this rating idea off the ground.

http://www.autocareforum.com/formmail/distr_survey_hook.php

It will only take a minute and you all do business with someone. This will make your lives better and will help others down the road.

Paul, I know that you have at least one that you want to rate.

Hi Bill,
What's the best way of putting it in, if I think the distributor is average, the SS equipment is great and the automatic annoys the crap out of me? Do I fill out more than one survey in that case?

 

[pitzerwm]

That is a good question. To keep someone from submitting more than one rating on the same company, that is blocked. I guess the best way is to rate with the average, then explain in the comments.

 

[JustClean]

That is a good question. To keep someone from submitting more than one rating on the same company, that is blocked. I guess the best way is to rate with the average, then explain in the comments.

I just got an idea and think this could work. How about to make a list like this:

What do you want to rate?
Distributor
Manufacturer
Self service equipment
Inbay automatic
Tunnel
etc.

and allow more than one survey but not for the same item. Depending on what one chooses ask different questions.
So if you rate the distributor you could ask for timeliness, etc, if you rate the equipment you could ask for break-downs, etc.
And at the end (if you can get enough information) you could even build up graphs and charts automatically...
What do you think?
cheers Justclean

 

[pitzerwm]

The Forum Consumer Reports is ready to use.

Thanks to you guys/gals that started rating the companies that you do business with. You will find the link to it in the Nav Bar, of click on this link.

http://www.autocareforum.com/ratings/ratings.php

I'm open to all suggestions.