This is in response to a thread on the GD board. It isn't a slap at anyone specific. It’s a reminder that we provider are in a SERVICE business. Established providers sometimes get too comfortable with the status quo. Newbies often don't think of this as a business. For you providers who already/still provide great service, keep it up! For those who might need a wake-up, read on.

What you do in your business is your business. How you advertise and present yourself is your business. What you will or won’t offer is your business. How much time you offer for how much compensation is your business.

Reviews, however, are the unseen coin of the realm. Ladies, always keep in mind that it's a PERFORMANCE review. Successful businesses have them. So does this one. Reviews show others how you actually run your business (in advertising, words are cheap). Reviews are totally subjective. They’re the recommendation or condemnation from one man to his buddy. They’re the whispers from ear to ear. Good reviews are profitable for your business.  Bad reviews are expensive.

It doesn’t matter what YOU think you should get. Your CLIENT thought you deserved the score you got. Client perception is the key to any service-oriented business. In any service, your client’s opinion carries more weight toward future business than your opinion. In this business it's especially true because this is more intimate.

It’s easy enough to get better reviews: study yours. Figure out why you got the low scores, especially when you were so close with 7 or 8. Even study your 9s and 10s. Figure out what to keep doing and what to stop doing. Be truly service-oriented. Improve your service for the next client. If you fail to see that YOU didn't deliver the service expected, then we ALL suffer the fallout.

When clients don’t write performance reviews or reliable ones, nothing good happens. Future clients cannot make an informed decision about the provider. An inflated review sets up client disappointment which wrecks it for the next provider. An unwritten review makes it rough for providers (especially new ones) because they then don't attract quality clients. And on it goes.  

If you must rail against the harsh review, do it in a diary entry; cry and yell and cuss to your best friend. Then put aside your hurt feelings and study the review. LEARN FROM IT. Make your next service memorable, using what you’ve learned. Consistently give your best to EACH client and your reviews will show it.

Now, I know you’ll be saying, “But you’re ‘just’ a newbie! You’re four months old in this business! You don’t have reviews! What the hell do you know about it? You had questions when you started! How do you have the gall to write this?!”

True, I have only one written review as a provider. However, after 30 years in retail- and service-oriented businesses, I’ve had my share of performance reviews. I learned from them all; what to keep and what to improve on. As a result of knowing that, I already have regulars and repeats.  

Providing is simply another service business. Granted, I have a lot of fun in this one. But, it’s still a service and thus subject to performance reviews. I can’t afford a bad review.

Can you?  

This is a very powerful post, thank you for taking the time out to write it so eloquently.

Ok , This may be long or short depending on how i feel when i start writing, So i will say sorry now BUT

Jolene , I do and dont agree with everything you said 90 percent .. I DONT.

10 percent- yes, reviews are important.. On this site. I gives people who join a since of what they are looking for in a small or large market. It also, can open peoples eye to things they may want to try with a provider.

90 percent-UM NO. You are very wrong.. and borderline out of line. You are very new.. I remember you posting about how to screen and NOT screening your clients ?...correct, because your in a small town.. and dont want to loose business ?

reviews are a double edge sword.
Some women dont like them.
Some men dont like to write them, nor read what a women has done with someone else.
Some of them of FALSE - Just to get a free member ship and or because i girl didnt CIM or BBBJ- he gave a crappy score. keep in mind each persons perception of a good time, Is just that.. there perception. It doesnt mean they were great nor bad.. just means someone who saw them liked .. or disliked them.
Some women request none are written
Some times reviews are used to incriminate people in court and bait them.

So when you write about IF YOU GET A BAD REVIEW... Write n a diary, tell a friend" WTF.. r u kidding me ? If someone lies about you where everyone else reads it ,...and it-as you said "Effects your business"  you really feel a women should just learn from it ?


For you to post on a newbee board to providers about getting reviews.... AND HAVING none, yourself.. boggles me , as to think how would you know anything about it. How can you tell a women / provider, to do a better job at her service, Because its going to cost her...

And yet- you meet clients off the clock for coffee, and don't screen clients,  your ethics arent jiving well enough for me to take a tutorial from you. I am sorry but you haven't graduated far enough n thi hobby to tell anyone about what to do .. and or how to do it

Bella

you learn that the off-the-clock coffee often yields greater and more lasting results than insisting on getting paid for every cup. When you realize that reviews are purely subjective (even the lying ones), then you learn to take them with a grain of salt (sometimes it takes a whole pound).

There is a difference between knowing specifics of THIS particular business (such as how to screen clients) and knowing general business practices (that reviews are still and always will be subjectively-based performance reviews).

Yes, I really think a woman can learn from their reviews; even the false ones. They'll learn, if nothing else, to stay away from that particular hobbyist (and also to encourage others to put him on their DNS list).

However, Bella, you missed my point: I wasn't writing on how to GET reviews.  I was writing on what they really are; they are subjective reports by the hobbyists on our performances as SERVICE-oriented providers.  

Based on many of the posts I've seen on this board, it's a reminder to providers that we are here for the hobbyists. We're good at what we do. The hobbyists show us that every day when they agree to hire us.

Until you can disprove my MAIN points:

**that we are in a SERVICE business and
**that reviews are simply the means by which we're shown whether or not we're performing our services as expected

I have every right to say what I'm saying. I graduated from the school of hard knocks a long time ago. It's a business, regardless of whether it's a "hobby" or selling shoes or whatever. I expect that you and I and all our sisters give excellent service.

BTW, a woman learns a lot in 4 months - including how to screen, how to ignore or clarify for posters who veer from the main points of the OP, and how to accept that not everyone is going to agree with the OP.

Disregarding any facts or otherwise of Jolene that you may or may not know, the thesis of her post was in all forms correct.  Consumer reviews are very important, and serve as a learning experience for those providing the service.  While some may be falsely made, I would imagine that the majority of reviews made of any company, product, or service, are likely a true representation of what the customer experienced.  Regardless if I'm buying a new computer, washer/dryer, or looking into spending time with a provider I read reviews.  I don't just read one or the latest, I read a lot of them.

It is the provider's responsibility to ensure that the client has an accurate expectation of what is offered and what is not.  I realize you cannot exactly advertise all of these services on your websites.  For me, YMMV always is assumed.  However, if you feel that it may give you a lower review based of what others have inaccurately said in previous reviews it may be beneficial to you to state these things at some point during your dates.  That is, of course, a personal choice.  As a rational person, I do not consider a one or even two bad reviews out of many to be a blemish on you.  There are many variables, such as an overly picky client, a client who has malicious intent, a fake review, a bad day for any numerous personal reasons on the behalf of the provider, and so on.  I look at the overall picture.  If most of your scores are good then I am assured that it's a safe bet that we'll both have a great time.  If a majority of your scores are low, then I will look elsewhere.

As a provider, you should file a dispute if there is something inaccurate or incorrect about a review.  As a client, I despise when people lie about their experiences.  It harms the future clients, the provider, and the extent of the damage is impossible to quantify.  I sympathize with this fact and that it is something that the ladies have to deal with.

In my job, I get quarterly performance reviews.  There have been times that there was false information in them, and in each instance of that I have tried my utmost to correct those falsehoods.  I have also diligently corrected any accurate shortcomings because my personal pride in my work and livelihood depends on it.  I think it's important for both client and provider to take reviews seriously because they are a reflection of yourself and they do matter, for better or for worse.

In theory it is good. But you must look a bit deeper than the surface, when it comes to reviews.
Personally , I do and dont agree in reviews. you can search my post and read about me going rapid admits a couple of times about them . But here on ter that is what makes this site tick. f you solely depend on this site for business... Then yes.. Work your ass off for reviews. But.. Not all women her get there fair dues when it comes to them. And argurably they are not all accurate and not always helpful.. good or bad.

I agree customer service is key. That we hands down agree on. the point i am at not agreeing on is that you seemed like you were saying that - even though someone says something about you negative you should suck it up etc. all coming from someone who has none here.. doesn't jive well with me.

Coming from someone who has gotten good reviews.. and dishonest reviews. I see both sides of the coin. And dont completely agree with what you said. It does in fact matter what you think you should get if someone says something not true, and never happened. It takes months to get it taken off.. if ever. If someone gave you a 6 and said you did or didnt do something. But you havent gotten that far yet.. So you cant speak on this happening.. That is what i was saying.

reviews are reviews are reviews, and the concept spills over from any business to this one.

False reviews hurt, no matter what the business. In 30 years of customer/client services I've received an occasional false review. There wasn't a thing I could do about any of them except learn from the experience.  

So, yes, despite the fact I've only one HOBBY review (on another site), I have years of other reviews. I can still speak knowledgeably about sucking it up regarding the review process. It isn't fair and it isn't right, but it is what it is - and it still doesn't negate that the client's responses are what they are for whatever reason.

Let's simply agree to disagree here and go on.

in the ass
take it or leave it from someone who's been in the buz awhile

I have met well over 30 gals on TER at least partly on the basis of their ads and I've never been burned by them.

Sure, any system is going to have some flaws, and some phony reviews will get through, but the bottom line is that Jolene is correct in that overall the system works.

As far as off the clock time is concerned, no rule can apply to all providers.

I do spend off the clock time with a number of providers over many years, and for the most part that has worked fine too, with a notable exception here and there.

No one should be trying to impose a one size fits all rule on anything, with the exception perhaps of screening.  But that's a topic that deserves its own thread.

Jolene might be new at this, but I'm pretty impressed with what she posts on the boards.

For me my reviews are so helpful.  They assure me I am doing well and when I read them I know what I need to continue doing.  True, they are purely subjective and in the eyes of one single client, but it is what it is.  
xoxo

Agree with your thesis. I'm sure you were referring to legit reviews, so we can debate the best way to handle fake reviews in another thread.

An occasional low numeric score does not deter ME if a lady has a page of good reviews.  I do read the details to see what went wrong...  often the reviewer will take some blame for the lack of chemistry.  After all ever coupling is unique.  In fact even repeat visits with the same lady will be different...  If I reviewed visits for a Fav Lady...  over 4 years...  each experience IS unique.  I expect a variation of +/- 1.  So a average of 9 would have a range of 8-9-10.  The details should back this up.

What does deter me is wide swings in reviews...  again, I don't look "just at the numbers" if I am otherwise interested...  but this is where I start.  If the swings are up & down, gives me reason to wonder if the lady is moody or does great with those she may have chemistry with...  but not others.  I have never been lucky that way...  I'm no longer a young stud...  so I will pass.  

I do agree that ladies ought to take an overview of their reviews...  consistancy is what I look for.  
skb

5-minute sit-down chat that leads to immediate BCD and then 5 or 6 repeat visits adds up to many more $$$ earned than spent. That's good business as far as I"m concerned.

And hopefully, during one of those BCD visits, one of them will relent and write a review!

I agree with you. I know that times are bad and we all, or at least most of us are having to struggle more tan usual. But that does not justify the decrease in rates for the services provided... though i must admit i miss the old days (not that old..lol 3 years ago).. we, as stated by you, are providing a rare and very unike service..

I agree fully that this is a customer service business.  I disagree that the reviews are very useful monitoring your performance.  In seven years I've not one single bad review.  I KNOW that I have had "off" sessions in that time.  I get my intel and feedback from my clients directly.  Many hobbyists would not "want to hurt (your) business over one little thing" and are often more honest with you directly than I have ever seen in one of my reviews.

After dealing with regulars for a year or more (or, seven years... ten years... in the case of many who will disagree with you on your "off the clock time is a good investment" theory) then let us know how it's working for you.

A sure fire way to kill your own enthusiasm for service is to become jaded, burned out and resentful.  This is the natural progression for most when collecting a stable of clients with no respect for you, your time, or the actual agreement rendered.  The first time that a client is pissy or gives you a bad review as a "clock watcher" simply because you actually wanted the session to end at the contracted for time... when you realize none of your new clients will respect your time because you have the reputation for not maintaining professional boundaries... when new clients see this as a sign of weakness and continually push to see what other boundaries you may bend... well, maybe then you'll start to see the benefit of establishing and maintaining clear and firm boundaries.

May the way you manage the details bring you happiness and prosperity.

With Love,
Sola

is this one of those "girl quit your bitchin and move on" speeches as well as informing the Ladies here what reviews both good and bad mean to our business...from someone with few to no reviews. Little time under her garterbelt and so on....??

Now they are not as important as you think they are. Not all Gentlemen read reviews or write them.
Not all Gentlemen are ter members. Not all men are Gentlemen. Not all revews are realistic and not all expectations are either.

Now all publicity can be both good and bad but don't stake too much on what is written in a review it's just an opinion and very one sided at times.

Now i'm gonna give you a lil advice myself...just worry about your own self.
Knowing customer service is not all there is to this business.
This business is Not like all other public services and its not run like any other. Theres no standard one way of doing this its all subject to personal preferences. One Lady may be a 10 to half the gentlemen and absolutely not the other half's cup of tea.

the key to a successful encounter lies in the way they choose who to see as much as the Lady herself.

now we have all been new at one point and we have all had great encounters as well as nightmares. You'll see in time.
Concentrate on living your life running your business and making your encounters the best they can be.

Leave the "providing 101" to someone who IS an expert. I have been in this biz for 5yrs and I don't intend on dishing out advice even yet on the dos and don't of this biz. There are women here and else where who know far more than I do about this biz.

if it's true you screen poorly also...concentrate on that for a while and then maybe you can give us a whats what about screening in a week or two. Can't wait for that one.

The reason you don't have any bad reviews is because you are so good, your off days outshine many gals' on days.

Just saying....

sure how far you have to go back or even if she is till around.  Damn, I never got to Buffalo.