The customer is always right, so
the saying goes. Of course, they aren’t always right but in these days of
self-assessment and corporate image, the views of ‘the customer’ is of
paramount importance to the vast majority of big and not so big businesses (BT and
First Group being the obvious exception – see Rants passim)
I am used to using particular
products and services and then receiving an email a few days later from the
company concerned asking for my opinion. It’s human nature to only respond to
these customer satisfaction surveys if you have something ti complain about.
And, as you all know, I’m not one to complain…
The hotel chain Travelodge have
done this for several years now. Whenever I stay in one of their hotels, I am
usually asked for my opinion. The last time I stayed in one was in May last
year when I stayed overnight in Aberdeen. The location was always going put a
dampener on Travelodge’s effort to seek praise for their services. The hotel
was clean enough and served its basic purpose of having a comfortable bed on
which to crash out after a indulging in a couple of half pint shandies after
watching Hearts play at Pittodrie. My grip with this particular visit was with
the lass on reception who was about as welcoming as Aberdonians can be (there
was never any danger of her face breaking out into a smile and she advised me
the lift was ‘doon the hall there’) Naturally, I referred to this in my ‘customer
satisfaction survey’ which I received a couple of days later. The point I am
rather labouring here is Travelodge would have been none the wiser about their
surly employee – if they hadn’t rather inconvenienced me with one of their damn
surveys.
While I’ve been used to
Travelodge’s ways of gauging customer satisfaction, it seems to me more and
more companies are now following suit. I ordered something from Amazon a couple
of days after Christmas. Their customer focus is second to none and upon
placing the order on-line, I immediately received an email advising me when I
could expect delivery. In fact the goods arrived the day before the expected
delivery date so I was a happy chappy. I fully expected the ‘customer survey’
email from Amazon and this was duly received yesterday. However, to my
puzzlement, the survey wasn’t asking about the delivery process; it was asking
if I was satisfied with the way it was packaged. This is a new one on me. As
long as the goods were intact and they were delivered on time, it’s a fair
assertion that I couldn’t give a monkey’s toss about the packaging.
I’m like any other person in that
if I’m unhappy with a service I’ll damn well complain about it (and this worked
to good effect with BT in September). I really can’t be bothered with survey
after survey about how my ‘customer experience’ was.
Unless I’m sent a survey about
the customer satisfaction survey. Then I may let loose…
