I had lunch with an old friend earlier this week and the most suitable location for both of us was a neutral venue midway between both our houses. Having checked out the options for lunch I duly booked a table, (online naturally), as the venue seemed reluctant to show a telephone number anywhere obvious.
Lunch was fine. Nothing special, nothing fancy, more a light snack and a couple of glasses of water as we caught up on each other’s lives.
Today, however, I’m being asked for feedback.
Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t recall, ten years ago, being hounded to give feedback for every meal I ate. The waitress had asked me on the day if everything was okay with my lunch, as she cleared away an empty plate; I said it was. Perhaps I’m old fashioned; if I don’t like something about the meal or service, I tend to say something on the basis that unless you give constructive feedback, how can the business improve?
In short, assume I’m happy unless I say something.
Sadly, that’s not good enough these days. Everywhere you go firms are desperate to grab your email address and inevitably, this means a dreaded follow up survey.
Checking back on my recent inbox I’ve been asked for feedback on a huge range of items including restaurants, banks, newspapers, hotels, eBay, my doctor and most bizarrely, a parking space.
That’s right, a parking space.
I was asked to give feedback on a piece of tarmac.
Seriously. What am I supposed to say?
“The space was welcoming and inviting and as I slid my vehicle into its tight embrace, I knew my car would be safe for the day.” “The gaping maw of the charcoal blackened space, constrained by tight, brilliant white lines gave my car and I a warm satisfied feeling of comfort”?
I’ve written before about the issue I have with reviews and the danger of relying on them. The problems are myriad, including bias and peer pressure, ill defined criteria and social status, all of which mask the true facts about a business or service.
Since my earlier articles about the dangers of relying on reviews, AI has become an everyday feature of people’s online journey and the thing about AI is that it relies on environmental cues of reliability and reputation to determine whether a business is sound or not. Which on the face of it would probably make you assume that more reviews were a good thing?
It’s the complete opposite.
Faced with a sea of four and five start reviews, there’s nothing to differentiate businesses. Adding more to this pile of nonsense is a waste of everyone’s time and effort.
Smart businesses realise this and have begun to do something different.
Smart businesses remember that machines don’t have pockets, people do.
Trying to please machines is a waste of time. Trying to please people is the definition of running a successful business. Happy customers not only return to see you again, they tell people about you.
There used to be a well-worn statistic that one unhappy customer will tell ten others how bad you are, but happy customers will only tell one or two.
But if you give them a great experience, they will more from happy customers to evangelists very quickly.
So, whilst we’re all focused on the digital environment, let’s remember that experiences happen in the real world.
If you want people to do something extraordinary for your business, give them an experience that goes beyond the ordinary.
And don’t ask for feedback. Ask them to tell their friends instead.
