Hi there,
You have not offended anyone at all! I think it's super important to ask these "hard" questions if spending time + money on something.
Please also ask these hard questions when seeing if a job/role are right for you :)
Also, these are great, well-organized questions!
Q: Do the meetings data capture the # of coaching sessions?
A: Yes - any session the coach has conducted on preplounge is captured. Now, if they coach through referrals, schools, other coaching websites, this of course is not captured here.
Q: If so, is the recommendation rate then: # of people who gave feedback/ # of meeting?
It is actually the rating from the subset of those who provided reviews. So, if a coach has coached 100 people, and 50 provide reviews, it's based on their reviews. If 49 gave 5 stars, and 1 gave 4 stars, the coach would obviously have a very high rate!
Two caveats:
- Generally, candidates don't provide reviews unless they're a positive experience. We have a bit of an Amazon effect here
- More reviews for a coach doesn't necessarilly mean they're better - some explicitly ask/urge their candidates to give reviews while others don't)
Q: How do we know that anonymous reviewers are legit and not just some fake persona? (I compared the writing style of the comments and the "my approach" writing of one coach and it looks very similar; I don't know if it's a coincidence.)
A: They are definitely not fake! While I mentioned the Amazon effect, there is absolutely no way to purchase reviews here. They are all 100% genuine!
Free Q&A: How do I pick the right coach?
A: Ask them for a call :) Message a few that look promising, and ask them these same pointed questions you've asked here! (e.g. what is your coaching style, what resources do you have, what's your success rate, what's your plan for ME).
Good luck in your search!
