At what point in the history of shopping did retail stores (and companies in general) become whiny, needy, insecure organizations that beg and plead every customer to tell them how they’re doing after a transaction.
From the beginning of time until our wimpy, fragile present, purchasing something was a simple process that was easily understood by both buyers and sellers. Buyers entered a store for an item or service, purchased it, and left. If you bought something, your trip was satisfactory. If not, it wasn’t.
End of story.
If for some reason a consumer was disappointed in their experience, they could call customer service and voice a complaint. They’d probably not get a response, but that was life. The company lost a future customer. Or not. Whatever. It was business, not personal.
Nowadays, companies want it to be personal to the point that you feel like you’re suddenly in a relationship with a desperate zero with confidence issues. In its current state, every transaction has become a pleading attempt by a company to have its customers evaluate every facet of their business.
Then they ask for your e-mail or phone number so they can incessantly harass you if you choose not to take time out of your day to tell them how to run their business.
Online surveys. Follow-up calls. Text surveys. Twitter surveys. Endless e-mails. Facebook polls.
It’s annoying. It’s lazy.
Companies should treat customer interaction with them beyond support or a purchase like most people treat news. No news is good news.
If I bought something and I’m happy with it, you’ll know it because I’ll come back one day. That’s how you’ll know I was satisfied. That’s the only way. Crunch your numbers to find out if you’re losing customers. Pay people to do surveys. No more free rides for free evaluations of your service. If you want my advice on how better to run your business, either pay for it (and not with discounts) or leave me alone.
On the other hand, maybe I hated the experience and I won’t go back to your store. If that’s the case, it’s not up to me to help you do your business better so that I come back. Stop penalizing and bugging me. You had your shot and it’s over.
If I choose to use a competitor of yours while you get your crap together, or I choose to simply not come back, you need to figure out why, not me. This is truly a one-way street. I didn’t walk into your store to become a partner in your business. I simply needed sneakers. So I bought sneakers. Or I didn’t. It’s not my job to help you sell sneakers to other people based on your ability or lack thereof to sell them to me.
I wanted shoes, not homework to help you run you store. And please keep this in mind. I am not only visiting your store. I may go into five or ten different stores, which means if I enter a mall, I might theoretically leave with ten surveys to fill out. Ten follow-up e-mails about how ten companies did. Ten texts asking me to fill out a survey… and on and on.
So, in short, stop. Do your job.
Sincerely,
Everyone