Office Review Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety

[Eric]

 

[Eric]

Starting Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety off with a 2/5 rating based on Yelp reviews (https://www.yelp.com/biz/city-of-los-angeles-department-of-building-and-safety-los-angeles).

Based on the reviews, the LADBS appears to be operating poorly due to unresponsiveness of staff and generally subpar customer service. You wouldn't generally think of Yelp as something that's used for government agencies, but some people do appear to be turning to Yelp (or Google reviews) to express their frustrations and satisfaction with government services.

 

[Korner6]

That's kind of hilarious that someone turned to Yelp!

The more I think about it, it could have been one of two things. It could have been someone who was disgruntled by the process or even a worker there that they had difficulties dealing with. It reminds me of people who go around letting everyone know their dissatisfaction with a company on the internet.

The other thing brought to mind is that it could be that someone was so used to using Yelp for other things, so why not use it for Building and Safety as well? Kudos to them for getting this trend started!

 

[Eric]

The other thing brought to mind is that it could be that someone was so used to using Yelp for other things, so why not use it for Building and Safety as well? Kudos to them for getting this trend started!

Yes, exactly. Yelp is most typically used by customers to review service industry businesses, like restaurants and the like, but unsurprisingly some users are turning to the platform to report their experience with government services as well. Quite a few permitting offices are getting reviewed on Yelp, Google, and even Facebook actually. As one example, Greensboro, NC's Building Department is rated only one out of five stars on Google out of six total reviews. Although citizens can't readily vote for change or organize a petition down at city hall, at least technology has made it super convenient to get on one's smartphone and lodge complaints via social media rating platforms - there's definitely something positive and democratic about that.

 

[Heatman]

Well, my conclusion to this is going to be that the said reviewer probably didn't know exactly where should be the best platform to give his or her reviews about the experience he/she had with the process because if they knew, Yelp would be the last option the individual would use for such purposes. Unfortunately, Yelp won't take down any kind review dropped on their platform, it's more of a win for them.

 

[Ravenfreak]

It's odd that my local DMV has the same rating as the LA Department of Building and Safety on Yelp. Perhaps there will be changes in the future as more and more people share their feedback and experiences on Yelp. I know places like these can be stressful for employees, and that could be why the service isn't that great.

 

[Eric]

I just came across this news from earlier this year about corruption at the LADBS. A former whistleblower alleges he was marginalized within the department for speaking out about leadership "misappropriating city funds, using their positions to attempt to benefit their friends, and covering up fraud and misappropriation." There's a lot of negative online commentary about LADBS but I think this provides some important additional perspective on LADBS's internal dynamics. No one should be too surprised when organizations whose leadership lacks integrity, as appears to have been the case at LADBS, end up with poor morale and performance amongst their staff-level workforce.