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August 28, 2015

4 Star Fail

There are many companies out there that use a 5 point rating system, but they treat anything other than a top 5 point rating as a failure. Car dealerships, eBay and Uber come to mind as places I've heard of this system being employed. I don't get why you would use such a system. I understand and applaud the desire to reach for excellence and obtain it. I don't understand why you would consider anything less than 100% a failure. 60% and 80% (3 or 4 out of 5) are generally accepted as passing grades, a 4 star hotel isn't a place you are going to avoid nor are you going to stop eating at a restaurant with a 4 out of 5 rating. Why avoid using the entire range? If it really is the desire to limit the result to a simple pass/fail, employ a rating system that produces that result instead. Providing a scale from 0 or 1 to 5 and then only accepting 5 or other as valid results induces a bias in the results. Many people are going to provide a rating out of 5 using the full scale or even avoid using the top and bottom for anything but exceptional results. This can end up penalizing those who provide good or excellent products or service but don't warrant an exemplary rating. It also encourages coaching from the provider to avoid failures which further invalidates the results.

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