Improving Your Experience

A few days ago I went to the drive-thru lane at my bank to deposit a check. A cheerful young man behind the window greeted me and slid open the drawer into which I inserted the check and went off to do his job. About a minute later he returned with the deposit slip and told me to "have a good one!" I thanked him and drove off.

By the time I arrived home there was an email from the bank asking me to fill out a short survey rating my recent experience with them. Really, that was an experience? I ignored it. But the next day I got the following email:

"We recently sent you an invitation to provide feedback on your experience and we'd love to hear from you. We want to ensure we are meeting your expectations and providing you with exceptional solutions and service at KeyBank. Please take this short online survey to tell us how your visit was. It should take less than 4 minutes. Your feedback will help us improve the experience we offer our clients."

What I found annoying had actually been an invitation! And to provide feedback! I wondered, what could I possibly say that would improve someone else's experience at the bank drive-thru? As for providing me with exceptional solutions and service, they closed that branch of the bank which is two miles from my house the very day I was there, and now everyone in Freeport will have to drive seven miles to the nearest branch. Should I mention that? 

It's everywhere: Rate me, rate me, help me do better. I made a dinner reservation and the app asked me to rate the ease with which I was able to do so. Then the next day the app asked me to rate my dinner experience. The only person I never heard from was the chef, the one person to whom I had plenty to say.

You'd think with all this rating business going on things would be a lot better in this country. Too bad the White House doesn't send out those surveys. I'd fill that one out in a heartbeat.