Are you being served?

By Paul Flower on Apr 7, 11 02:36 PM

Cold calls are often quite random. Occasionally they provide temporary relief from staring at a screen or trying to solve a problem. Usually they're just dull, as the disinterested caller launches into the pre-prepared script with little thought or care for the recipient's level of interest. There are also those that start with the most ridiculous leading questions, like 'Would you like to save money on....' They get quite perturbed if you answer, 'no'.

Often I'm forced to laugh - which is probably neither big nor clever and it will either amuse the caller or send them into a fury as if I've insulted their very being instead of just mocking their script or style. This one caused some reciprocal laughter: What do you look for in an energy supplier? It's an interesting question that bears some consideration. What do I look for - charm, good sense of humour, style, panache?

Perhaps my only requirement is their ability to supply energy efficiently at a price that doesn't reduce me to tears. I suspect the latter may be too much to ask so perhaps I only need them to not call me randomly and ask stupid questions; that would be a bonus.

Companies are obsessed by feedback. I tend to think of it as the Amazon/e-bay factor - giving us all the ability to rate products and retailers may have put the power back in our hands. Equally it may have turned us into spiteful humourists, as anyone who has read these reviews (and their numerous offspring) will testify.

Amazon is king of reminding you to review products or retailers, as if the latter deserve commendation for their ability to take your money and put a book in the return post.

The power of the internet and the speed of communication often mean that companies are asking for your feedback on the quality of their customer service before they've even provided the service. Or maybe that's just me, or maybe that's just my experience with American Express - who have yet to answer a question put by e-mail but have asked me what I thought of their service answering my question they have yet to answer.

Of course I know they're auto-generated, another symptom of the robot-age where every site you visit tries to second-guess your intent and then bombards you with similar advertising thanks to the cookies they've left behind. It wouldn't be so bad if they were real cookies rather than virtual ones. Consequently you can't even look up some funny reviews of aluminium foil without knowing that the next time you visit Amazon they'll be bombarding you with reviews of similar food-roasting-accessories.

They'll even suggest stuff to accompany the foil along the lines of 'if you liked that' then you'll surely like this baking tin. If you're especially lucky they'll also e-mail you on a weekly basis with the latest offers on kitchen utensils. Eventually you'll work out how to re-arrange your preferences to make sure this stops happening, but you'll never find out who the hell buys tin foil online in the first place.