Everything's fine: I'm not complaining

A few months ago I took a train to Manchester.  Later in the day I was on my way back home when I got an email from the train operating company, Virgin Trains.  They asked me to complete a customer survey based on the morning's rail journey.

The questions seemed clearly designed to inform Virgin Trains' customer relationship management (CRM) system.  Was the train on time?  Was it clean?  Did the air conditioning work? (this was July).  That kind of thing.  Yes, yes, yes, I replied, everything's good.

Then they asked "Would you recommend us to your friends and family?".  No, I replied (I hardly ever go to Manchester and don't tend to get into conversations about travelling north).  The journey was fine, it met my expectations.  End of story.

Oh dear.  The Virgin Trains survey then went into damage limitation mode.  They apologized for giving me a poor service and asked how they could improve things for me.  I explained that the fact that I don't invariably go about recommending services  didn't mean I was unhappy.  These are two completely separate questions.

But when I submitted this answer I was directed to the Virgin Trains complaint system.  It recorded that I had made a "complaint" and asked for more details: date, time, nature of problem, and so on. They said how they needed full disclosure if they were to consider compensation. Once again I explained that I wasn't complaining, but when I pressed 'submit' I got a thank you, a complaint number and an assurance that it would be investigated within 48 hours.

On the form I had also added that instead of sending customers these pointless (and misleading) surveys, Virgin Trains could just as easily monitor what was being said on social media.  As it turned out, the journey home was magical.  Several groups of passengers in our carriage were celebrating: it was someone's birthday, another had just graduated, yet another group was off on a hen night in London.  All this partying was helped when Virgin staff appeared with free wine and chocolates.

Expectations well and truly exceeded!  We were all busy on social media talking about it.  But there was no reaction at all from Virgin Trains.  I guess they were too busy investigating non-existent complaints.  Two days later I got a formal response thanking me for raising these issues.

Today, a similar thing happened.  This time Sainsbury's supermarket contacted me to ask for feedback on a shopping trip I made yesterday.  In fact I only dashed in for a couple of items: I wasn't in the store for more than 10 minutes.  Everything was fine, it was clean, the staff were friendly.  But once again I was asked would I recommend this branch of Sainsbury's to my friends and family?

No.  Because most of these people don't live anywhere near the store.  Those friends that do live nearby almost certainly already shop there.   Oh dear!  The Sainsbury's survey software must have been programmed by the same CRM company, because once again I was asked to explain why I was "unhappy" with my shopping trip.

I feel as if I am talking to myself here.  Once again I had to say that failure to recommend something is completely different from being unhappy about it. Actually it was a very successful trip, as I was able to validate a Sainsbury's voucher for 4000 Nectar points, worth £20.  So now I am recommending the company - if not the local store.

 I am waiting to hear back from Sainsbury's.