Taking the Post Call Survey

20/07/202220/07/2022 by Some Small Things In Do 15 Comments

Yes, I will take the post call survey.

I will round up at check-out. I’ll let them know how they did with the chat. I will rate the product (except on Amazon (anti-), sorry). And I’ll leave a five-star review.

I made this one decision a few weeks ago after a 1.5-hour call with my cell phone carrier. After a week of frustrating misinformation at both the store and on the phone, I connected with a representative who figured out the problem. He was kind. And patient. He came back to the line every minute or so while I was on hold to say he was still there. He solved my problem. He even gave me two credits on my bill.

At the end of the call, I asked to be transferred to his supervisor so I could give him an excellent review. He said, “Really?” then connected me.

The conversation that ensued was great. The supervisor said, “Wow.” And I felt really good.

Honestly, I used to ignore the post call surveys, the reviews, the round-ups or the extra dollars at check-out. Even worse, I used ratings, on occasion, to complain. But I made one decision to say yes every time. Now I don’t need to make a lot of decisions as they arise; I’ve already made the one.

Good reviews do more than make a person’s day. They can make or break a career. A job. A side hustle. A business. I know. I’m trying out mine. We live and die by the five stars.

For the past few months, I’ve listened to a podcast called Side Hustle Nation. It’s got a lot of great ideas, but it kind of makes me crazy. Seems like every other guest hit it big from the start. I need to hear the initial failures. The grind. The I made $32 in the first month. Or negative $32. Or negative $3200.

But then there was this episode with Vincent Pugliese. He’s a photojournalist turned wedding photographer turned highly successful business coach. His interview was refreshingly humble. Not surprisingly, his philosophy is built on giving. Somewhere — in that episode or his newsletter — he advocates for an hour of giving each day. That’s an hour you spend doing stuff for someone else. Small stuff. Promoting a friend. Reviewing a service. Commenting on a blog post. Supporting someone’s small business.

I want to be like him.

So I’ve been trying. I’ve got some stuff to do and some to undo. I’ve curtailed the complaints. And started with the post call survey. And the reviews and the comments and the stars. (When earned, of course. Otherwise, I just remain silent.)

When I was in college, there was this professor that everyone wanted to take. His name was Bob Gurland. (To my NYU friends: read the article. It’ll make you long.) He taught philosophy. I somehow got into his course. I remember only three things from the class (other than I never did the reading):

1. He mentioned he liked the smell of crayons. So some student put a box of crayons on his chair one day before his lecture. He laughed graciously.
2. He said, you know what the dirtiest four-letter word in the English language is? And then he wrote AIDS on the board. It was the 1990s.
3. He stated there is no selfless act.

Not groundbreaking — any of these things. The selfless act and AIDS discussions were a plenty at the time. Crayons was a little quirky but eh, not that quirky. But this guy’s reputation was really hard to live up to.

In any event, the selfless question stayed with me. Does it matter? Yes, it matters. No, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know. Is it true?

I’ll just keep pressing 1 for yes to the surveys.

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Do you take surveys? Review the service? Did you take Prof. Gurland back in the day? Love the Portlandia skit like I do? Do tell.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

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