Just about every website you visit nowadays has a ‘contact us’ link. It’s hard to find a box of anything without a customer feedback mailing address on it. This publication provides a number of ways to make your opinions heard. Even conglomerate software empires try to force automatic reports to be phoned home. I think it’s safe to say that save for some shady examples, every company or organization who provides any kind of good or service, maintains a line of communication to its users.
This is a necessary practice. If a company can’t tell what aspect of their business is pleasing or displeasing to their user base, nothing can be done to remedy faults or bolster successes. No matter how useful this information is, providing methods of feedback is often costly. With this in mind, a certain level of responsibility is extended to the opinionated public.
It is essential that everyone provide criticism and praise of the products they consume to their creators. If you ever feel strongly enough about something you use, good or bad, do not hesitate to call that number or write to that e-mail address the organization in question spent resources to make available. Failing to do this will only ensure that you will be repeatedly bothered by annoyances, and that your favorite things might disappear due to apparent neglect.
Under the same light, no one should ever abuse this power. It’s easy to become frustrated and feel the need to vent the ensuing anger. This is not to say that you should refrain from expressing your discontent, but unless constructive criticism is included with the message, it will accomplish nothing but wasting the time of the recipient. Even if you can’t come up with a solution to the problem on your own, it is important to explain exactly what it is that disappointed or upset you. Similarly, if you come across as insulting or badgering in your response, you will most likely be ignored, whether or not you had anything contributory to say.
