While we talk a lot about feedback through digital forms, we rarely see any more direct delivery of feedback. Perhaps the size of the business, the comfort of collecting feedback automatically or the fear of facing the reality in real time makes the owners and the workers reluctant to seek for direct feedback from customers.

I had such an experience recently and that is why I right this article now. Last week I visited a small snack bar at the center of our city, that I had noticed several months ago. During our walk around the city, I arranged the route strategically in order to end at that spot. We were on our own as perhaps the place had more traffic during the night and not during the mid of the day that we visited.

We got our drinks and some small dishes (meze as we call them here). One of them was a dish with shrimps, known as “saganaki”, taking the name from the type of pan that is used to cook it in. While it is not so common as a dish, we prefer it at restaurants and we cook it also at home, as it was one of the dishes that my father made a lot, and we loved it. Once we tasted, we both agreed that it was very tasteful and that it was almost like the dish that my father made. Great success! And at that point the cook came to us and presented himself. He was the owner/cook and wanted to learn about our opinion on that dish. We told him the whole story and congratulated him. He thanked us and left. Perhaps he noticed us discussing the dish, perhaps he had made the dish with a new recipe, or he just had some free time and wanted to talk. But in the end, he reached out for feedback.

Fast rewind 14 years ago, around 2010 and in another city, this time in the capital. Visiting a snack bar in center, named after a famous drink. It happened that, that night we ordered absinth. Oh boy, the memories. Three years earlier than that I had spent 2 months in Prague, mainly walking and drinking. And at that time the norm was beers and absinth (perhaps a fad attributed to movies like Eurotrip). As a result, I was more educated than most of my friends on both of those drinks. And that night, I did some show-off, based on the random knowledge and experience I had on that drink. My friend was amused, but perhaps the most interesting part was that the barman himself, was observing us discussing across the room and commenting on the preparation and the presentation of the drinks. So, he came to us all wonder to get our opinions on the whole thing. He said that he understood that we were not some common drinkers and that we knew what we were discussing. His presentation and preparation were fine, we discussed a little bit, he thanked us and he returned to his post. Again, one of the few times that someone asks for honest and direct feedback, no platforms and filters in between.

Conclusion

In the digital era, honesty and directness have faded away. The result is that we rely on platforms and people in between to tell us the truth. Influencers tell their own version of truth, and paid promotion distorts reality. For users, not everyone wants to hear their voice. But for owners it is crucial to leave the comfort of their digital façade and talk directly to customers for valuable, honest and direct feedback. Give the feedback to me baby.