The worst vanity metric I’ve ever seen

This is a photograph I took in a French train station a few weeks ago. It has been installed there by the France’s national state-owned railway company.

If you are not French or if you have never visited France, you need to know that this company does not have a good reputation at all. The employees are often on strike and are seen as layabouts, the trains use to be late, out of order or just blocked by two centimeters of snow.

When nobody loves you, it is comforting to believe that this is actually wrong but it will just rush your fall.

For the non-French speakers, here is what is said on the device:

Are you satisfied with the offered services?

- If so, say it to us.

- Else, help us make it better.

Customer feedback, interactions with users… Awesome, right? Nope.

Here is an other translation of what is told by the machine:

• You like us?
• Ok, just press the big button!

• You hate us?
• Man, it’s going to be hard for you..
• Unlock your phone
• Remember that you deleted your QR code scanning app because you realized they’re useless
• Download it again
• Wait for it
• Open the app
• Scan the QR code
• Wait for the web page to load
• Write down a message
• Send

Don’t be like the SNCF. Don’t make it easy for people to say they love your company and hard for them to say what they hate about you because you just want to feel better.

This is not customer care, this is pretending that your customers love your company with falsified feedback mostly sent by kids who see a big blue button that looks fun to press.

Make it easy for your customers to tell you what is wrong. Correct it and then they will love you.