Who has occasionally followed my blog, might have realized that not surprisingly as an entrepreneur I am pro business, pro commere and pro innovation. But there ought to be limits to subdueing every bit of human interaction to an economically entrechned transaction.
What I have come to realize particulary in Germany when you collect your items in a superstore like Kaufhof and you queue at the cash register, you will inavoidable witness how the person at behind the cash register will ask each customer “Haben Sie eine Kundenkarte?” (=Do you have a customer card?) It’s one of this customer retention-tools to collect points across a network of affiliated shops which you can redeem for “free” products and services. Then it’s your turn and you get the same crappy standardized dialogue where my standardized response is “no”.
Yet, today I had an eye-opener and a deep confirmation about my own doubts when buying a train ticket. An elder gentleman in front of me complained in a very charming way: “I don’t know about this, I really don’t understand this, I get confused by this and I in fact don’t need this.” And how right he is. What happens is in my eyes really sad: the poor sales clerk gets drilled like in a circus by his management to convey these sentences in order to both have customers present their cards in time and second “up-sell” to those who do not have it.
Once it went really over the top at a fuel station where I got asked before anything happened:
“Do you have a customer card?” – No – “Are you are member in the ADAC?” – “NO!!”
Get a life. What is this? It’s really ok to just have more or less speechless transaction with me showing the items, putting my money on the counter and buggering off. Or, as long as we are still humans, start some sort of small-talk. Ask me whatever, I’ll respond. Crack a joke, and be assured that I’ll crack one back. But spare me these retarded content- and soulless standardized wording loops which are nothing but completely depleting the beauty of our human communication.
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