Mike's Musings

     Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how to tell what people are really thinking.  You can ask someone how their day was or what they thought of a movie they just saw, but “fine” rarely means “fine” and is never the whole story.  This leads to social isolation at best and frenzied conflict at worst.  Too often I’ve had no problem letting someone who’s clearly upset put the kibosh on a conversation by saying “nothing’s wrong.”  I know that’s not true, but don’t see the value in having a long, and potentially ugly, discussion that might not solve anything.  This has been on my mind, not because of any interpersonal relationships I’m slowly destroying, but because of the fine peeps at Speakeasy and how they’re trying to help businesses.
     Trying to get the truth out of anyone can be tricky, but business owners are in an especially tough position because they have to deal with people like, well, me.  If I’m out to eat and someone comes over to my table and says something like “And how is everything tonight?” I will say “great.”  Sometimes I’ll say it because everything is great, sometimes because it’s not so great (but I don’t want to be a jerk), and most often just to get this guy to leave me alone with my friends, date, or book.  I’m just not that invested in how well the restaurant does.  Maybe my opinion could help them improve something about their menu or service, but if I had a real problem I assume they would just deal with it then and there, then go about business as usual.  I’m just not convinced my feedback would help and, really, I just want to eat my meal in peace.    
     Some businesses print information about a survey at the bottom of receipts and, while I have filled a couple of these out, usually I simply can’t be bothered.  I’m thinking specifically about retail chains here, but the chance of being entered into some drawing for a gift card doesn’t really get my blood pumping.  If anything it makes me want to fill out a survey less.  It just feels like a scam.  Someone who really wants to know my opinion so they can make real changes should say so.  With the receipt/contest surveys I feel like I’m not so much being bribed in exchange for my sparkling review, I’m being entered into a drawing to be bribed.  It doesn’t help that those online surveys often feel so antiseptic.  Believing a business truly cared about my opinion and wasn’t just fishing for positive data points would make me more willing to help out with a little feedback.
     Admittedly, I’m not very familiar with things like successful business models and terms like SEO and MVP.  MVP meant Most Valuable Player to me; before meeting these guys I’d never heard of a Minimum Viable Product.  That decided lack of business knowledge is what made understanding Speakeasy ultimately more interesting.  I need to feel invested in the place I’m providing information.  Balancing things like asking enough questions, asking the right kinds of questions, and not annoying customers is paramount, and I’m anxious to see how Speakeasy intends to solve these problems.  For now, stay away from my table, but soon these guys might be able to squeeze some blood out of my stand-offish stones.