Five-Star Commentary

 

How do you write a 5-star Guest Commentary?

By Debra L. Karplus

Maintaining indoor humidity at the recommended 40 to 60% is challenging during Central Illinois winters.  I wouldn’t care what my 4.6-star hygrometer displayed, typically 33 – 35%, but getting little static electric shocks though not dangerous, are annoying and a smidge uncomfortable.  Normal people would purchase a bedroom humidifier (4.1-star) for about $40, but I’m a bit of a contrarian.

So I searched online for a queen-sized cotton blanket, recommended blanket fabric for less static, and discovered the Bedsure 100% Cotton Queen , breathable & soft, white, 90x90 inches, 4.4 stars (out of 11,634 reviews total), for $44.99. I always read customer reviews that give 1-star (not higher), and disregard those that involve, “dented box” or “arrived late”.  “The Blanket That Followed Me Into The Grave” by Richard S, October 20, 2024, grabbed my attention.  If I knew Richard, I’d encourage him to write News-Gazette Commentaries because he appears to be a darn good wordsmith.  The gist of his very long, engaging review is that this blanket caused the demise of his relationship with now ex-partner Mary.

I got off my comfy 4.5-star Sleepova Office Chair Cushion, steeped a hot cup of soothing  4.6-star Celestial Seasonings Roasteroma Herbal Tea, and Facetimed my daughter on my handy 4.7-star IPad, to share a few laughs about the review. Once we stopped chuckling over the cotton blanket review, Sari referred me to a customer review of the 4.4-star Hutzler 571 Banana slicer.  I had no clue that a specialized kitchen gadget was a required tool for banana slicing, since I’d always found an ordinary kitchen knife adequate, or just eating the banana whole, bite by bite; but not everyone’s like me!  A compelling 1-star review was written by curmudgeon entitled “Sliced!” (February 3, 2013).  According to the author of this well-crafted review, a series of bad events evolved in his 23-year marriage to Marsha because of this particular slicer.

Searching the Internet, I learned that customer reviews emerged c.1999 when online shopping started to become trendy.  Before that, 1995 was when Angie Hicks founded Angie’s List (now Angi) in Columbus, Ohio.  And in 2004, we first heard of Yelp, another generally reliable source for customer input on a wide range of local services.

I’m a happy Christie Clinic patient, and whatever specialty doc you are looking for, you can read their profile and examine the Patient Satisfaction Score, which rates patient satisfaction related to specifics, such as communication and lab work ordered, on a scale of 1 to 5.  I would say all my Christie providers are worthy of 5-stars.  Thanks for keeping me healthy, Christie Clinic.

A few months ago, I totally freaked out when I learned that my local dentist of nearly 30 years was retiring.  It had to have happened sooner or later, but I still wasn’t at all prepared for such bad news, (though I need to congratulate him on his upcoming retirement).  I’ve had only 4 dentists in my entire 72-plus years, so finding a new one who met my specific needs was not a task to be taken lightly.  So I did what felt was the right way to approach this, asked for recommendations from my same-age friends with good teeth, narrowed my choices to 4 dental clinics, and carefully scrutinized the patient testimonials and proceeded from there.

These days, you can, and are encouraged to review most any product or service you receive.  I live in an essentially low-maintenance townhome, yes still I’ve purchased big and little items, and routinely when the job is complete I receive an email soliciting input on my experience.  I’m a member of numerous local fitness centers thanks to my Medicare Supplement Plan; periodically I get an e-mail, as do most of their member, I am certain, to rate various aspects of the gym’s features. 

I’m somewhat baffled when I read an excellent review, yet the customer only gives 3 of 5 stars.  What’s up with that?

There was a stretch of time when my now 12 year old grandson found our FaceTime chats sometimes disappointing.  So we established a rating system, and I’m delighted to share that to the best of my knowledge, our chats now are typically 5-star.  Hoorah for us!

How did we function before this 5-star system that seems to prevail in virtually all industries? I guess word-of-mouth was our source for finding acceptable products and services.

I pride myself in trying to be non-judgemental, but these days we all must learn to function in this 5-star world.