(GOV) Agencies Look to Yelp for Customer Feedback

Government Executive ^ | August 22, 2015 | Russell Berman

[Stand Watch Listen]

Did you wait in an egregiously long line at your local passport office? Did a TSA agent get a little too frisky with his or her pat down before your last flight? The federal government now wants to read your complaints—on Yelp.

The popular online review site and the General Services Administration this weekannounced an agreement giving government agencies access to their Yelp pages, a move that could allow federal workers to respond directly to feedback—potentially in realtime—from frustrated users of public services.

The news isn’t quite as revolutionary as it might sound. People have been reviewing federal departments on Yelp for years; the TSA, for example, “earned” its first one-star review all the way back in 2006, less than a year after Yelp relaunched as an open website, when a Seattle-based user with the handle of MissMaryAnn D. complained about harassment, said she did not feel secure in the airport, and, speaking the universal language of the online commenter, called the agency “A PAIN IN MY ASS.” Over the years, a handful of similar critiques have accrued on the TSA page, along with one or two comments defending the workers charged with preventing another 9/11 and accusing the complainers of pettiness.

Yet the agreement handing over the pages to the government has the potential to the make the experience of venting online more interactive, and ideally, more productive. For one, it can serve as another outlet for agencies to provide basic information about their hours and services. …………………………

[DUMBGRUNT]

Our bureaucracy looking for a way to pat themselves on the back.

[Stand Watch Listen]

Yes, am reminded of various restaurant that would participate in "The Best Of" polls, wherein their staff would be instructed to flood the polls in that particular restaurant's favor.

Just wonder if the bureaucracy would even allow genuine 'constructive criticisms'?