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When I started traveling more frequently for business I learned from a veteran traveler, “always fill out the surveys they email you and nit pick anything and e

When I started traveling more frequently for business I learned from a veteran traveler, “always fill out the surveys they email you and nit pick anything and everything they did wrong”. This, she said, would result in more upgrades, shorter hold times, etc. From what I’ve been able to gather it’s true. I’m upgraded almost every time after I complain. I do this for hotels too. I’m regularly gifted extra points and meals. Being a sophisticated programmer I thought complaining too much might weight my feedback. Seems the airlines and hotels aren’t that sophisticated.

lowercased 7y ago
it's also going to bring down the scores of every human employee that was part of your experience, meaning they may not get bonuses or raises, even if they were generally good at their job. :/
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- isoskeles 7y ago
  They get bonuses?
  - jaclaz 7y ago
    Anyway they try to avoid maluses.
    - clairity 7y ago
      "maluses" doesn't seem to be a real word (in american english, anyway), but i like it!
      - jaclaz 7y ago
        I don't know but in Latin there is both bonus and malus, and if we accept the anglophone plural (like one virus, two viruses) it seems fine to me (in Latin it would be mali but it originally is only an adjective). Anyway: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malus https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malus >Noun >malus (plural maluses) > (business) The return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.
        clairity 7y ago
        yah, being a natural latin antonym was the appeal! and now that you mention it, i think i might have seen that term in a legal context, but it's not used in any other context i am acquainted with.
        jaclaz 7y ago
        JFYI, here (Italy) bonus/malus is a common name for the formula of most car insurance policies, where basically if you have a car accident (of course if it is your fault) you are demoted 2 "classes" (malus) and if you pass one year without accident you are promoted 1 "class" (bonus). The "entrance class" is the 14th, worst is 18th and best is 1st.
- ryanmarsh 7y ago
  I don’t rate people poorly if they were generally good at their job. Also those surveys are lengthy. You don’t know what aspects I’m rating or how so don’t assume anything.
maxerickson 7y ago
A local store has a gadget built into their card reader that asks a question about your "shopping experience" that day. I had to train myself to not answer the question, because fuck helping them manage their employees that way. I think that's something to consider when doing your customer feedback.
jaclaz 7y ago
It must be a pleasure providing you services. That strategy might work as long as you have to deal with large corporations/chains/etc., but besides being unfair to the people involved, it won't likely work in places where you are not a number.
- ryanmarsh 7y ago
  Yes. I’m not a monster. I don’t poorly rate the gal who grabs my dry cleaning because she wouldn’t deserve that. If United, however asks how clean the aircraft was and there was chocolate smeared on my seat they get a 1 out of 5. I think people don’t use these surveys enough to tell companies how they’re doing. If the company wants to take general cleanliness feedback and punish good hard working employees then I’m not sure what my role in that toxicity is. I prefer to err on the side of strong signals rather than weak ones because they help force the system to respond. If that means they loose key people to Delta for treating them poorly then maybe it all works out. I have no idea how I’d know or could take action otherwise. It’s a big opaque bureaucracy.
  - jaclaz 7y ago
    >If United, however asks how clean the aircraft was and there was chocolate smeared on my seat they get a 1 out of 5. Well, but then that is not nit picking anything, it is objectively reporting issues that are real. From your original post it sounded (to me at least) like you would downrate a hotel because the maid forgot to leave in the bathroom a shower cap. (as opposed to just call service for one, if needed) BTW I know someone that actually did that, and he was (is) completely bald.

lowercased 7y ago

it's also going to bring down the scores of every human employee that was part of your experience, meaning they may not get bonuses or raises, even if they were generally good at their job. :/

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
isoskeles 7y ago
They get bonuses?
- jaclaz 7y ago
  Anyway they try to avoid maluses.
  - clairity 7y ago
    "maluses" doesn't seem to be a real word (in american english, anyway), but i like it!
    - jaclaz 7y ago
      I don't know but in Latin there is both bonus and malus, and if we accept the anglophone plural (like one virus, two viruses) it seems fine to me (in Latin it would be mali but it originally is only an adjective). Anyway: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malus https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malus >Noun >malus (plural maluses) > (business) The return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.
      - clairity 7y ago
        yah, being a natural latin antonym was the appeal! and now that you mention it, i think i might have seen that term in a legal context, but it's not used in any other context i am acquainted with.
        jaclaz 7y ago
        JFYI, here (Italy) bonus/malus is a common name for the formula of most car insurance policies, where basically if you have a car accident (of course if it is your fault) you are demoted 2 "classes" (malus) and if you pass one year without accident you are promoted 1 "class" (bonus). The "entrance class" is the 14th, worst is 18th and best is 1st.
ryanmarsh 7y ago
I don’t rate people poorly if they were generally good at their job. Also those surveys are lengthy. You don’t know what aspects I’m rating or how so don’t assume anything.

maxerickson 7y ago

A local store has a gadget built into their card reader that asks a question about your "shopping experience" that day. I had to train myself to not answer the question, because fuck helping them manage their employees that way. I think that's something to consider when doing your customer feedback.

jaclaz 7y ago

It must be a pleasure providing you services. That strategy might work as long as you have to deal with large corporations/chains/etc., but besides being unfair to the people involved, it won't likely work in places where you are not a number.

ryanmarsh 7y ago
Yes. I’m not a monster. I don’t poorly rate the gal who grabs my dry cleaning because she wouldn’t deserve that. If United, however asks how clean the aircraft was and there was chocolate smeared on my seat they get a 1 out of 5. I think people don’t use these surveys enough to tell companies how they’re doing. If the company wants to take general cleanliness feedback and punish good hard working employees then I’m not sure what my role in that toxicity is. I prefer to err on the side of strong signals rather than weak ones because they help force the system to respond. If that means they loose key people to Delta for treating them poorly then maybe it all works out. I have no idea how I’d know or could take action otherwise. It’s a big opaque bureaucracy.
- jaclaz 7y ago
  >If United, however asks how clean the aircraft was and there was chocolate smeared on my seat they get a 1 out of 5. Well, but then that is not nit picking anything, it is objectively reporting issues that are real. From your original post it sounded (to me at least) like you would downrate a hotel because the maid forgot to leave in the bathroom a shower cap. (as opposed to just call service for one, if needed) BTW I know someone that actually did that, and he was (is) completely bald.