Online reviews have expanded into the government, as federal agencies will now be reviewable on Yelp.
The agreement excludes any financial gains for Yelp, and no ads will be allowed on public services and government pages.
Some presidential candidate hopefuls have embraced the partnership. Carly Fiorina left a brutal one-star review of the TSA.
The TSA, she said, “is part of a pattern that confirms what we have known for a long time about our government: it has become too big, too powerful, and too corrupt to do its job.”
I reviewed the TSA on @Yelp. One star. Stories of inept fed. bureaucracies have become far too common. #Carly2016 pic.twitter.com/P2dB7IY2Dk
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) August 18, 2015
Deviating from the TSA, Fiorina took the review into a stump speech: “The American people are tired of a professional political class that speaks in platitudes and cannot get anything done. Whatever your cause, whatever your issue, whatever festering problem you hoped would be resolved, the political class has failed you,” she said.
Whether a Yelp/government partnership will lead to improved customer service is questionable.
With a bad restaurant, consumers have other choices nearby. With the TSA or the DMV, an alternative doesn’t exist.
Regardless, the reviews will bring entertaining reading from angry commenters.
