In a recent post Tracey Cheetham takes to task a business that wrote to her regarding the delivery of wine and the postal strikes. Now I could take her to task over the position she took - business should use the post office because of its social mission. Sod whether or not that business gets a decent service from said business.
But what really struck me was the nature of the response Tracey received from the business - they'd taken the trouble to read the letter, consider the point she made, examine their business practices and respond accordingly. It looks likely that, through this action, that business has a friend and advocate (albeit not sufficiently for them to be named in Tracey's blog-post) - someone who'll buy some of that there wine!
Does Tracey think that a similar letter to a nationalised industry, a government department or one of those myriad agencies of the state that she loves so much would get such a positive caring response? Does she think that a random e-mail raising a slightly critical point to - say - the Royal Mail would get that kind of response? Somehow I very much doubt it - what Tracey would get (eventually) is a series of excuses wrapped around with a half-hearted apology. The person answering the letter doesn't give a monkeys whether Tracey is happy with the response or not -it's just another letter off the pile or e-mail from the box.
For me, Tracey's post is a timely reminder of why private business - and certainly small business - delivers so much better service than we get from the state. And the reason? Because - unlike the government - they care about having our business.
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