The blog post Why I don’t write about customer service sets out my problems with the general concept of “customer service”: the fact that it doesn’t deal with the biggest problems in the relationship between people and businesses. By way of illustration, it starts with a story about a friend and I using the weighing machines at the central Oxford branch of Boots.
Here’s another observation test for you. Does the pub pictured below sell food?
Not sure? Have a look at a different view of the same pub.
Still not sure? How about now?
One final picture in case you’re still dithering,
The answer? Well, I’ve been to this pub, the Cross Keys in Witney, a grand total of three times. The first time was with my husband and his parents on a Saturday at lunchtime. We were hoping to enjoy some of the “great value food” the signs keep banging on about, but it was not to be. We walked in and were told they weren’t serving food because the kitchen had just had a big delivery that would take hours to sort out. We went to a different pub.
It was Shrove Tuesday 2010 and my Christian friend was mentally preparing for her Lent fast. Well, I say “mentally”, but I suppose having a nice lunch counts as physically preparing too. As we ordered dessert, we ended up having a silly debate about how much weight she would lose by going vegan and giving up sweet things. We decided to solve the argument the scientific way by weighing her before and after Lent, so we went to use the scales at Boots.