Next Week - New Reviews Features!

I agree. Quality remains generally disappointing.

Some applications sacrifice quality for agility, but we don't seem to get agility either.

@Dawn04

@Laura

I love the update!

I love this update

I love this! I feel the categories are a little arbitrary, and that having it all assimilated will really work.

I do think having an explanation of what each star rating means for the member would be really helpful- it would encourage realistic reviewing!

@Laura My concern is that even with these categories the members sometimes come here with an expectation of us solving their problems magically for them. So the reviews can sometimes be judgemental with nice or not helpful etc without any explanation. I would suggest something that does require clarification from them furthermore so that listeners have a fair trial too.

@Laura

Very interesting and I like that banner that will show up for members when they choose a star. I'm not sure how much this will work but I'm open to it. Also in my opinion, waiting for 48 hours to give another review is a lot, I'd prefer it stay as it is or be able to leave feedback 2-3 times within 24 hours.

I think, only one thing need to be change is that, members can review only when they exchange 30+ messages with listeners. It should be compulsory for all members to leave a review. Otherwise, they can't continue their chat with that particular listener. Once, they reviewed their listener, only and only that time, members can continue having conversation with that listener. That will not just help all listeners to understand about their knowledge and capabilites, but also it can help with self awareness about being a listener and i think, thats the most important fact to keep in my mind when you are accepting a new chats.
But Again, that same member can't review that listener, till they exchange 30+ messages. Im giving this idea, because as per my knowledge and experience here on 7cups, one thing that came in my mind which bothers me that, some members doesn't even bother to leave a review, even you know that you are so helpful for them on time to time, in every way possible. So, that let me think, that i was really helpful to that member in any manner or not, and that throws me in different direction, which confuses me about my own knowledge, and about being helpful, not just for that particular member but other members and listeners as well.

So, that's why I think this idea would be helpful for everyone.

@ViewScenic09

I think 30 messages is too few messages to really know how a chat is going sometimes and to have enough info to assess it.

I mean some chats start of slow, by the time you getpast explaining the situation often 30 messages have come and gonebut you havent really gotten to the heart of the chat yet.

I also think if some members/guests dont want to leave a review then that should be respected.

@indigoBeing9907

What do you mean by I havent really gotten to the heart of the chat ? What are you implying here?

@ViewScenic09

Ah my friend its my slang I guess thats caused confusion, I wasnt referring to you. I was saying in general often after even 30 messages people,listener and member often havent yet gotten to the root of the issue, depending on the length of messages I guess.

But I promise I wasnt implying anything about you ❤

I am concerned that this update might effect listeners ability to know what they need to work on.

Because you dont allow listeners view negative reviews how will they really know where they are going wrong?

Someone could give 3 stars solely because that listener is slow at typing/responding then give a written review just stating "they were ok" whereas the current sytem they have to assess each category individually which no matter what they write you can see what the listener possibly needs to improve on.

Reviews often arent very wordy or very long and I fear this update will deprive the listener of valuable info in order to try and improve.

I also think waiting 48hrs before another review is allowed is wrong, you prompt members to leave a review after a few messages and if they regret their initial review either in a positive or negative way then they should be able to change it.

Something like being able to change the review until the chat has ended could help with that issue there.

@Laura

I like the current (old) star rating. Could you tell how the old star rating was abused and how the new star rating would be better or immune from the same kind of abuses?

As a reasonably new listener, I spend a decent amount of time exploring the platform to better understand it, and I've seen a lot of room for improvement, and it's great to see that new developments are happening! Even if it has been 4 years :)

Some feedback;

- While making the ratings easier is a good thing, I did find the categories very useful, it's a great quick overview on where you should improve on as a listener.

- Sadly it appears there are teams of people who work together in reviewing eachother into giving themselves good ratings (I'm trying not to be discriminative however they all seem to be from the same country) I'd highly recommend some sort of IP filtering will be done for reviews or chats.

- I've seen situations where a member would connect to a listener, check for the listeners gender or paste a set of rules, and if the listener does not suit their rules, they would end the chat and leave a negative review. In this instance it would be great if there was a minimum amount of messages exchanged before you are able to leave a review. There is actually no need to leave a review if nobody actually had a chat right?

@WonderfullTree i absolutely love your suggestion at the end.

@usefulFlamingo12 Thanks! Let's hope it gets implemented :)

I can see the value in having a simpler system, but I think keeping helpfulness and dropping the other categories is a poor choice.

We already have the problem that, for some members, there is an "expectation of us solving their problems magically for them" (as @usefulFlamingo12 so accurately puts it). I think this new emphasis on helpfulness can only make that problem worse.

We also have the problem that some listeners dump or block members as soon as they hear about anything unfamiliar or difficult. I think this new emphasis on helpfulness can only make that problem worse too.

It would be better, in my opinion, to use a neutral word like "good" instead of "helpful", so as to avoid undermining the importance of active listening. Let's not reduce listening to a suggestion competition.

@Laura

@RarelyCharlie I agree with you. It already takes a toll on the strain in the listener member interaction so it would make matters worse.

This is great feedback everyone!! Thank you!

I read everything and I think these are the main points (comments from our team in bold on if possible)

- Make it required to leave text with all star ratings. Add a character limit. *added this
- The timing of the review pop-up is too soon ( i think its after 10 messages right now) *we can tweak this once the feature is live
- instead of a review every 48 hours, make it every X chats. A member can only leave a review for every X chats they have together. This will reduce spammy reviews. *we discussed this in detail with dev team and dev wise it was a huge load.
- this update makes the reviews too simple
the 4 topics categories gave us something concrete to work on.

*if we ask members to leave more detailed reviews, it makes them not write one at all. All feedback is currently sent out via emails. We can explore ways to make that email process more effective, maybe having Noni give onsite feedback in the future.

Let me know if you think I missed anything!

@Laura

Current feedback emails currently really don't tell you what you are doing wrong thou if you talk to a lot of folks in 1;1's there is really no way to tell what you are doing wrong if you don't know of a bad 1;1 chat. It is only helpful if you know you really messed up and they think you really didn't help them and that you failed them.

@Laura

what counts as a new chat?

@Laura

That's exactly what I was talking about! :)

Re:

"maybe having Noni give onsite feedback in the future."

No, and besides, the poor bot has enough things in her cup, uh, I mean on her plate right now. Her cricuits are bound to get overloaded.

@BeautifulBreeze

I agree Noni can't answer current questions so not sure how that would work at all.

@Laura well I am a member and I can't agree I wouldnt leave feedback that'd have to me more detailed .I often find it difficult now not knowing what to say but the categories at least help me to see what I can think of and write about .I might be different than other members at this point but I'd find it easier if I just have something to fill out similar to the system LeftistFreedomfighrer suggested .I don't know if most members see it different or not but I found it a good idea to make a voting about how the new system should be with this ,old system or the one presented here. Tho itd make sense to have separated one for members and listeners to see if they have the same preferences.

@brightPlane9640 I agree and I find it easier with the categories too

@brightPlane9640 I'm quite new here and just wrote my first review and the categories helped me too. if it was just a scale abou helpful id have chosen a rather random number and just write he was good or something really short but the categories helped me to write a more reasoned review and I'd also welcome something to make it even more structured even if it takes a bit more time but who would complain about spending a few mins for that. I think thats the least we can give back to a listener that eventually spent hours helping us.

@crimsonMango5233 yes its nice if you can at least give something back to a helpful listener no matter with which system but I also prefer a more detailed one

@Laura Im a very new newbie to 7 cups but I would like to share that it is overwhelming to get a pop up review window more than one time during a session with a listener. I think changing it to 1 time every 48 hours is a great idea.

The one thing that worries me is the this chat wasn't helpful part because "helpful" for one member isn't helpful for another member. Some members define helpful as you fixing their problem or as you offering advice. When you tell them you actually can't offer advice but are here to empower them because they are the expert on their own life members can end up raging.

Some new members also assume we are adults or actual therapists so they don't understand we are teen volunteers. I think new member assumptions can hurt overall listener ratings as well

Also for chatroom moderators any time you have to warn/mute a user it impacts your rating because they automatically rate you lower for revenge even though they aren't suppossed to rate your listening skills and instead use the mod feedback form. They usually pm you on purpose to rate you lower especially when they learn you can't undo a mute or take back a warning

Having 3 stars as 'it went ok' isn't really ideal- members will see this as a default imo

@Lucy

I agree with you and those of us trying to work on certificates we are aiming for 5 stars for the higher certificates.

To reiterate,

I felt the old rating system was a great one. You could rate listeners in different areas such as helpfulness, empathy, response time and professionalism. I believe these are important for guest/members and also helped listeners to improve. It also was helped members know more about their listener.

As a member and a listener, I feel the category-rating system really encompassed what great listening is. Also, if a member has an unsuccessful chat, which happens often before they have a great one, they won't be able to leave great feedback for the next listener because there is a limit. This decreases quality control.

Specific feedback is what helps listeners to improve.

And that in-turn would give everyone who uses 7 cups have a positive experience.