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Comment by alonmower | Hacker News Reader

Totally agreed. I also think Uber should be slightly more explicit in their ratings screen (e.g. Bad Experience, Good Experience, Exceptional Experience)

If someone has a problem with a ride, the only thing they really care about is letting Uber know that the ride was terrible (I bet the rating distribution clusters heavily around 1, 4 and 5 stars).

Looking at passenger rating histories should also play a role in how these are interpreted (if someone is an asshole and rates tons of drivers poorly even if they're well liked, that should be discounted)

By doing something like this, you have a way of weeding out bad drivers, rewarding great drivers, and leaving everyone in the middle alone.

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Sidecar does something like this, They ask if it was bad, good or exceptional. If you say good, they ask what could've been improved -- and I usually find myself selecting "nothing in particular"

That gives a very accurate picture of the driver. It's cool that sometimes my sidecar driver gives me candy and tells jokes, but that's not why I use the service.

I wonder what "exceptional" even means?

I expect a driver to get me from A to B, and notice whether I'm interested in talking (in which case talk and be friendly) or not interested in talking (in which case don't talk please).

A half-pint of water is nice but hardly necessary - it won't convert a horrible ride into a great one, and its absence doesn't make a great ride a bad one.

So much is outside the control of the driver - a late night drive with no traffic is generally more pleasant than a sluggish rush-hour drive, but it's not the driver's fault.

An example of an exceptional driver:

I once took a longer Uber Black ride to pick up my wife a few towns away, who was quite sick. Once I mentioned this to the driver, he drove noticeably more 'efficiently', offered me his phone to call to check on her once mine had died, and waited outside the building briefly to make sure everything was ok.

Also, I've got a bit of prior race driving experience, and this guy clearly grokked car control. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd spent a good bit of time on a track. He also, without drawing any attention to it in any way, adjusted the suspension settings from 'firm' when we were going around on- and off-ramps to comfort on the highway, to keep the ride comfortable and level.

I gave him a five-star rating and sent Uber customer support an email raving about him. Wish I could have done more.

Excellent example.

I think it this case you did it right with a letter to customer service.

When the "expectation" is a 4/5 star rating, then the average is generally 4.6-4.7 stars and there's no way to distinguish "normal, good service" from truly "above and beyond".

Additionally, if the "above and beyond" just gains a 5 star review, that doesn't really give the feedback needed for extraordinary service.

If you thought they handled a crisis really well, that could be exceptional.

>I wonder what "exceptional" even means?

In my experience with cab drivers if they don't offer unsolicited conversations about religion or politics that's an exceptional experience. When I say conversations I mean they just drone on and on one sided about how great God is and how Obama is ruining the country.

I'm curious what would happen if they asked a simple y/n question: "Was there anything negative about your Uber experience?"

Of course, this means you can't really reward drivers who are amiable and make you feel comfortable. But I feel as though answering "no" to the above question implies that your ride was a at least a "4."

I think three tiers of experience make more sense anyway. Your ride was either Bad, Good, or Exceptional. It's difficult to gauge what a 2/5 or 3/5 means.

Uber does this already. If you rate 3 or below they ask you to classify the complaint and leave a comment.

But that misses their own threshold. Rate 4 and you're not asked a thing (if I understand you correctly), but the driver might be kicked out if enough people do the same, right?

If there 4.5 is the minimum average rating, everyone not rating 5 should be asked what was wrong. Or .. fix the rating so that not everything needs 5 out of 5.

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