Dropped/Blocked Chats - Suspicious Reasons
It's not atypical to have chats blocked or simply a lack of response when a listener asks and then I supply something like:
- my age
- my gender
- that I'm in a relationship
- that I'm not just here for a casual chat
- that I'm happy with my relationship
To me, the end of responses imply a listener is likely looking to sext or have an inappropriate chat. They don't get reported for inappropriate chats in these cases though, as there's no 'proof'. Those who do want an inappropriate chat are likely to give them a great review if they review at all.
My experiences here suggests there is very little being done to stop this behaviour. Little is done if a listener stops chatting - when I give 1 star the rating doesn't even get accounted into their overall rating.
There's talk about improving quality but what I'm seeing is ways to limit members from getting support while these listeners carry on, with great looking ratings and reviews.
@GlenM
@EvelyneRose I'll tag you in here too, as I've been chatting with you on ratings issue.
@Heather225 I know you've seen the ratings not going through as well.
@AffyAvo In theory it would be reasonably easy for the system to detect when a listener abandons a chat. Then some action could be taken automatically. If it were up to me I would suspend the listener instantly until they've explained themselves to a quality mentor who can see chat transcript.
However, when I write "in theory it would be reasonably easy" I am not taking into account 7 Cups' internal difficulties with managing change, which I think we've seen exposed recently, and not for the first time.
When a listener blocks the chat after messages have been exchanged it's not so easy. The member might really have said dreadful things. An artificial intelligence could evaluate all blocked chats to determine whether the block is reasonable, and pass suspect ones on to a human evaluator, but I think AI is probably always going to be too expensive for 7 Cups, which appears to have been falling behind competitors since last year's difficulties. We're left with the current broken system of sending a complaint with a screenshot.
As you say, talk about improving quality hasn't been followed up with effective action. I think a large part of the problem is the flawed "OKR" approach that came to light back in November, which is a narrow focus on whatever is easy to measure, and which tends to sabotage the design of effective systems.
We keep hearing about how many listeners we have—424,000 was the latest, I think—as if that's all that matters. While that remains all that matters I find it difficult to imagine how there can be a real focus on quality.
Charlie
