Most of what I do on Google Maps is Rating. Rating restaurants, hotels, mini golf courses, barber shops or other places and businesses. Ratings are easy to do, but has so much power to it. I mostly like giving good ratings and avoid giving a place only one star, as ratings affect the people behind the business. Ratings can influence the demand and the interest of the public in certain places, so giving bad ratings may hurt their business while good ratings may give them additional customers. I dont see myself in a postion to judge businesses as a complete failure out of my own experience of one time, so I try to avoid negative ratings. Yet if everyone would rate as I do, no one could differ between the good shops and the bad ones. So for a society it is important to give critique and to show the flaws of the respective place. The Shop Owner might read it and change the thing that bothered people in fear of losing customers. So although i personally try to keep my ratings mostly positive and only critic lightly, I feel the need for bad reviews as well as good ones, in order to choose the right place. Most of the time I rate restaurants or bars. I look at the design, the customer service and the food or drinks they were serving. If one of them is not ideal i tend to give them a 4 star rating. if 2 main areas are not to my liking a 3 star review seems appropriate. And if they fail all 3 criterias, they get 2 Stars, as I feel that my opinion may be completely subjective and others may find it perfectly fine. so sometimes if I read 1 star reviews i wonder what people mean by “the worst restaurant ever” and I wonder if the receiving end even accepts this critique. With a 2 star review, that actually points out the flaws, I see a higher chance that the restaurant does not feel insulted and actually tries to change in order to satisfy customers. One star reviews will never come back while 2 stars maybe will. In my opinion ratings matter on the demanding and the supllying side and need to be taken seriously by both. This means writing proper critiques where businesses can learn from and as a shop owner being open for critique and open for new ideas and changes. If both sides treat ratings and reviews with respect, businesses can strive and mistakes can be reduced.
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