Is anyone else ready to roar at the next company seeking feedback for just doing what’s expected?
It seems wherever you shop, or whatever service you engage, businesses want to thieve your precious time by asking for a rating.
I’m all for it when it comes to food and accommodation as that’s how we achieved seismic innovations such as parmi nights, cronuts and chocolates on pillows.
However, for day-to-day activities, can we please just get on with things?
At a store that sells modestly priced, surf-style clothes, I recently was asked to punch in a rating regarding the service.
I was not sure what service they were referring to. The person behind the counter, let’s call her Khrystelle, had not helped me select something ill-fitting, poorly cut, far too youthful and in hues incongruous with my pasty complexion. No, I did that all by myself, thank you very much. Ten out of ten for self-service.
What she did do was jam it in a bag, hand it back, deftly punch in the amount and signal where to insert my card. But, before I could pay, the rating demand came up and I was trapped.
I looked up, hoping for a smile that might have reaped an extra point or two, didn’t get it and hastily plugged in a mid-range figure. She had, after all, demonstrated she could operate the till, fold a garment and effect an exchange of goods for currency. And she had neat hair, which is always worth something.
Perhaps the most ludicrous request for a pat on the back came via email after a parcel arrived containing some of my older lad’s mysterious muscle powder that apparently contains more protein than a herd of cattle in each scoop.
The request was not from the retailer, but the delivery company.
It asked: “How was the experience?”
As I wasn’t home when the parcel was expertly left near the front door, I wasn’t sure.
It did make me think about what sort of value-adding efforts would have been achievable by the courier if I indeed had been assessing them.
Perhaps they could have dressed as Elvis and crooned Return to Sender as they shimmied up the driveway.
Maybe I could have been dazzled by their electric speed as they launched out of their van, vaulted the letter box and dived on the mat like they were scoring a State of Origin try.
They may even have walked on their hands, juggling the item with their feet and used their gluteus maximus to thump on the door.
For maximum pointage, they could have recognised, probably by their sense of smell, that the Labrador scanning them for food through the fence urgently needed a shampoo and jumped on that big, hairy stink bomb for us.
Alas, with only my imagination to go on, I couldn’t attest this was any great event.
“Could the experience have been better?” the delivery company concluded in its bizarre survey.
Yes, I mulled, it could have come without an appeal for feedback!
Peter Hall is editor of sunshinecoastnews.com.au and a random column writer. He can be contacted via phall@sunshinecoastnews.com.au with any story ideas.
