Up until now, I've tried to handle issues behind the scenes... with very good results finding resolutions or removing problem clients or providers. The thing is that the volume of complaints is becoming unmanageable, and the vast majority are extremely minor situations... and I mean EXTREMELY minor.
Originally Posted by GinaXXX
Off the top of my head . . . [sit down, this make take a while]
There seem to be at least three different concepts involved here: (1) resolving conflicts/disputes
resulting from a session, where one of the parties was unhappy with the other (rather disputes about P411, e.g., giving an OK or not, or what rating is given under the system you're contemplating); (2) identifying clients or ladies whose behavior is so egregious that you would not want them as members; and (3) allowing the exchange of information that someone contemplating a session would want to know.
With respect to #1, if it's not serious enough to fall into category #2 -- and you indicate the vast majority are not -- well, in your shoes I'd tell the complaining party "That's not my responsibility; work it out on your own." They may want to report it to so others thinking of dealing with that person will be aware of it, but that's category #3. (And if someone doesn't like the online rating given him, again, "That's not my responsibility; work it out with him/her.") [*]
With respect to #2, I would think it would be best to continue to handle that behind the scenes, rather than anything online. You're really talking about maintaining the fundamental integrity of your site -- not allowing a lady who is a cash-and-dash for example, or a client who consistently shorts the envelope a non-trivial amount or physically threatens the ladies. Some people you just don't want associated with your site. But something this serious should be handled manually behind the scenes rather than an online rating because it's serious enough that you would want to investigate it before taking any action (including information being shared publicly). But it should be feasible because it sounds like it would be very low volume.
With respect to #3, I'm not sure you need that for the clients to rate the ladies. That's what we use reviews for, and there are already a lot of review sites out there. Not to mention that clients will likely not rely solely on the type of thing you describe anyway; we would still wind up checking out review boards. [**] Unless you want to break into that market full bore, I would suggest skipping it. But a way for the ladies to rate the clients, behind the simple "OK" or not, might be valuable, because short of alert-worthy problems, there's little available to help the ladies that way. They can get it by calling around to the other ladies who've seen him, but the whole point of P411 is to simplify some of that process.
I'm not sure what all factors the ladies would like to see including in a rating of the clients. Your list strikes me as a good one. Some factors might be rated on a scale, others a more binary "yes/no" vote -- what would it mean to be "excellent" at timeliness?
The primary problem you face is whether the ladies would feel comfortable giving the same type of information they would want to receive from others. You know what the typical fragile male ego is like, as do the other ladies. Unless it was a guy they wouldn't see again, would they feel comfortable rating him with less than the highest possible rating in a category, if he can see that she gave him that rating?
Not letting the client see who gave him that negative rating isn't an optimal system either, though. That limits accountability and would allow some abuses. On the other hand, for some things accountability may not be that important. If one lady (anonymously) reports that Client X has some minor hygiene issues or was 20 minutes late to the appointment or has inaccurate information in his profile . . . it may not be the type of thing he can, or
needs to, refute. Will some or even most of these factors be serious enough that it will impede his ability to P4P without several corroborating reports? Some may be the type of thing that a lady would like to know about ahead of time but won't prevent her from seeing him. Best to ask the ladies, rather than the clients, about that.
I'd like to see something like this work, as I suspect it's information that would be very helpful to the ladies. I'm just not sure if it's feasible, given the potential reaction by the clients.
Good luck.
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[*] There's a reason that a lot of P4P boards don't try to be the "P4P police," refereeing off-the-boards disputes between lady and client. And there's a reason that a lot of P4P boards don't try to referee disputes about the accuracy or fairness of reviews.
[**] OK, maybe not, for some of the guys who want to check out some possibilities online and have the girl show up 20 minutes later. So you would need to think about whether you want to serve that market
in that way. Maybe not, because they might be relying more on P411 than you're comfortable with. Do you want a client to decide whether to see a lady solely based on that rating in P411?
