Wanna tell her what you think?

Sometimes I see a valiant attempt to do something well and all i want to say is “dont bother”. A misplaced attempt at customer feedback at my local coffee shop in Atlanta is just one example and it reared it’s head this morning. It’s simple you would think, place a ‘comments’ box with a small pad of tear-off comment cards and pen within easy reach of customers and the feedback will start rolling in. Wrong!!! So the guys at Aurora Coffee in Little 5 – or i should say manager Mark because it’s his name on the little sign – has created one such “point-of- feedback” on the counter within eye shot and handy reach of every customer right next to the espresso machine and cash till. Bad location, bad implementation. My coffee was poorly made with a heavy dose of attitude this morning. I wanted to give feedback to manager Mark and reached for the comment pad. Now, I’m not normally backward about coming forward but i thought better of this and jaded removed my hand: the glaring eyes of the attitude ridden Barista was too musch (not because i was frightened of his wrath but i was more worried about how remake-2 of my cappuccino would end up if had followed through. Plus i have to come back tomorrow). My point is, that 99% of customers wanting to give feedback would have and probably do back-off giving it because of the way the feedback loop is set up. I’ve been observing this as a common occurrence in many retail businesses.

Someone please come up with a system that facilitates a better feedback loop and experience for customers and business owners. My feedback to businesses is find a better way to get feedback, afterall we do live in the day of SMS, iphone apps and email. I smell a product idea but surely it already exists!