Customer satisfaction: a succinct review
There’s a Radio 4, 6:30 comedy, called One Person Found This Helpful and in the introduction host Frank Skinner quotes the old adage, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything”, followed by the more modern take, “if you can’t say anything nice, write an on-line review.”
The anonymity and absence of face to face confrontation have emboldened many a disgruntled consumer to put finger to keyboard. The rise of the on-line review has led to rivers of abuse, bursting their banks with bile and vitriol and flooding the internet.
Wear wellies if you venture into this swamp, and pedants, don’t even think about peeking, the grammar and spelling will leave you apoplectic. And apart from laying bare their true nature, what do these folk achieve? The aim is clearly to get ”free stuff”, most often dinner. But it seems as though the days of on-line blackmail may be fading and kudos to those whose goods and services have been trashed and who have the resilience, emotional fortitude and wit to post the most sardonic ripostes.
At the opposite end of the scale there are the paid for and AI generated 5 star reviews; the shining lights so dazzling they blind the innocent purchaser. But again, we are all learning to read between the lines and Charlie Chatbot’s use of language is often no better than Chuck from Chorley’s as he complained about the lack of ketchup for his pommes frites. A glow in the dark review will surely fade in time.
Having said all that, customer satisfaction is important to us and believe me, when someone writes to or phones us with a heartfelt compliment it makes the whole team smile. And it is for the dual purpose of making one of our customers happy whilst posting a positive review that we want to share the following exchange on X (formerly, and still by many, known as Twitter).
Short and to the point. Cheers, Anoop, we made it happen.
