There was some sensationalistic hype about the case of Michelle Levine vs. Dr. Joon Song and how he cast the first-do-no-harm medical profession aside to plunder Ms. Levine’s assets in an attempt to — some say line his pockets, others say out of pure vengeance.
I think, it was utter exhaustion.
Medicine and reviews. It’s just soul-sucking, exhausting, draining and a huge waste of time. Instead of focusing on providing better healthcare — we respond to reviews. Focusing on improving wait times — we respond to reviews. A but of free time in your day? Let’s just take a look at our reputation first. God forbid, if our reputation goes under.
I would like to point out a simple Google search for Dr. Joon Song, in between the vapid articles of OMG! A DOCTOR, ONE MILLION, DOLLARS, BLAH BLAH — there are scattered genuine reviews that portray Dr. Song’s good bedside manners, recommended by many patients as a reliable and professional doctor.
A Google “Local Guide” posted “ If I don’t like his practice or agree with his diagnosis will I be sued?” to the amusement of thirteen like-minded wits along with their thirteen thumbs up. Clever. And stupid. Clicking further on this user’s profile leads us to further gems such as a review left for a sushi restaurant 4 months ago.
Go to Wild Ginger across the street, this place is full of rude staff or maybe it was a language barrier idk. Either way if you want great sushi in a environment that doesnt feel like a sketchy porno shoot go to Wild Ginger.
And the response from the owner:
I’m sorry to hear that you have a bad experience at our place please provide us detail what happen and if there anything we can make your experience better next time you visit us.
I mean, I just felt so bad for them even though I’ve never been to their restaurant that I wanted to leave a 5-star review saying “You’ll find a couple of jerks here and there but hang in there guys.”
It’s painful to receive a negative review. You instantly perk up and start going through your recent patients and trying to figure out if someone in particular had an unpleasant experience. But no one comes to mind.
And then it’s a catch-22. Your only resort to your boiling anger is a carefully thought out and edited response in a passive-aggressive tone. You don’t want to stir the pot but you also seek out the same platform to post a rebuttal. Exhausting.
The issue is this: People need to vent their frustration and in our increasingly digital tech-world – fewer and fewer interpersonal skills and lack of human beings to discuss their issues with — disgruntled people turn to the internet.
There is no inherent value in posting positive reviews unless some sort of incentive is provided. The incentive for a negative review is that “your frail voice will be heard” – even if it is just a stranger scrolling hastily. And even if the truth has been skewed a bit in your favor. It feels good to shift your angst to the world.
I would just like to say one thing:
Fuck Yelp.
Yelp has played games with my other business. Like that time we naively decided to pay for ads and then after not receiving any sort of meaningful ROI, stopped abruptly.
All of our positive reviews were filtered within days and a couple negative reviews surfaced. So we decided to pay the bare minimum since our reputation had plummeted and this was a retail business. Within a week, the reputation-meter reversed and we were again the shining gold star of our neighborhood. Their algorithm does have human input and it was so blatantly obvious what had just occurred that my partner and I looked at each other, stunned. Just a sense of “are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
ZocDoc has a verified system where actual patients can post reviews. And our reviews are stellar. Yelp, on the other hand, can not possibly filter out non-patients and entitled elitists. We don’t have some sort of API set up to provide actual patient statistics and no-shows. It’s just a coffee shop honor system. It’s ad CPC is based on some random number du jour. I spoke to them about it and: “well, the market goes up and down and our algorithm automatically adjusts for that.” No. No, it’s not. If I fiddle with the settings I’m sure I’ll be able to find some sort of pattern based on how much you’re willing to pay.
I’m good without you sticking your nose into my business. I’m good without your “help”. It has no business in the medical industry. And it has no good business with any other business. Unless you’re the Halal Guys. Then God bless.
Pay or extortion.
I’m delisting my businesses from Yelp and I don’t care much about the 100 people who saw my business in the last month. Because I don’t believe that the 100 people exist. I know that people don’t think too good, but to evaluate a medical practice on Yelp’s make-believe yardstick…it’s better if you don’t come after all. Please and thank you.
