Groupon's Hidden Influence on Yelp Reputation

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27150/

by robg • 15 years ago

16 3 15 years ago

achompas• 15 years ago

First, a direct link to Arxiv and the study: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1109/1109.1530v1.pdf

Second, let's avoid talk about how "correlation doesn't imply causation". Quote:

They examine this effect in more detail by pinpointing reviews that specifically mention the words "Groupon" and "coupon". "Reviews mentioning either keyword are associated with star ratings that are 10% lower on average than reviews that do not, while the very small fraction of reviews mentioning both keywords are more than 20% lower on average," they say.

I'll offer an alternative to the hypothesis that "Groupon customers are terrible:" customer volume shoots up after a deal, causing service to suffer. I haven't read the paper yet, but I hoped they checked reviews for content as well as final ratings.

Still, a novel little study that takes advantage of a naturally-occurring experiment. I'd love to work on research like this in the future.

count• 15 years ago

Every year, our city has 'restaurant week', where tons of local restaurants offer 3 or 4 course prix fixe menus for the same price (usually $24.99 or so).

For some of these restaurants, that price point is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than their normal price.

Inevitably, what happens, is that throngs of people who wouldn't dream of making reservations and paying $150 for a meal show up and demand the same high quality food and service for $25. Guess what - it doesn't happen.

Now those people who don't know any better, assume that the $150 is a total rip off and that the restaurant isn't any better than the $20 place down the street. It also makes life hell if you want a real 'nice' meal that week...

Is it dumb for the high end places to do this? I think so, but I guess they like to 'show support' for local restaurants or whatever. Groupon feels like it's just the same thing, one place at a time.

rhygar• 15 years ago

This raises the question: Are the merchants giving poorer customer service to Groupon customers, because Grouponers are cheapskates, or are Groupon customers just jerks?

Groupon's Hidden Influence on Yelp Reputation

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