Feedback

I have just returned from my trip to Ahmedabad. It was a great experience but more about that in my next blog. This one is about feedback. I am very particular about safety, so much so that it borders on obsession sometimes. This can be partially attributed to the industry I work in (oil) where all the time you are dealing with a potential mass-destructive bomb and partially to the fact that I believe dying on roads is a waste of life.
Anyways, so I took this taxi to the airport the other day. I had ordered a Meru Cab, which is one of the best taxi services available in Bangalore (and also in Mumbai and Delhi I think). They have very high safety standards etc etc (so they claim). But half-way to the airport the driver started to resort to his own ways (which he must have picked up driving call centre cabs - a guess) which included driving at 100 Km/hr without maintaining enough distance from the car ahead and talking on the mobile phone at the same time etc etc. In spite of repeated warnings he stuck to his ways and some how delivered me at the airport in a bit of shaken state. First thing that I did when I got off the car was to call the Meru Cabs and give FEEDBACK. OK my thoughts were exactly same as yours are now - whats the use?. I went ahead with the call anyways. I told them (Meru Cabs operator) look he (the driver) has managed to get away with this sort of driving this time but you cant expect him to be lucky all the time and the greatest danger he poses is to himself because everytime he drives he is a potential victim. I said all this and a bit about the potential damage to their reputation and hung up. Two days later I got a call from Meru. They were grateful for the feedback and wanted to know some more details so that they could take some action, which I happily provided.
Yesterday I took another cab back to home from the airport and made it absolutely clear to the driver and the booking guys at the airport that I won't tolerate any indiscipline in driving. They reassured me that the driver will comply. It was a pleasant ride back home. This time the driver delivered me in a joyous (someone help me with a better adjective) mood. And the first thing that I did when I got off the cab was - you are right - give feedback - certainly a positive one in this case requesting the operator to make sure that this driver is allowed to play a role model in some way to the other staff. I was amazed when the person on the other side of the line ensured twice that it was not a complain but a postive feedback.
So I learnt two things that day, one- give feedback - you never know when it might help some one and two - also give positive feedback - our countrymen have begun to expect it less and less.
I do this to my IT helpdesk. I make sure that the voice on the phone passes over his/her boss's email id to me and then I send a personal email acknowledging their effort. I do this to people who give me ride in their cars and congratulate them on driving safely. I do this to my boss. Ok I agree that could be seriously career limiting sometimes but what stops us from doing that to the others I just mentioned. I am sure you all in your corporate lives (Selva sir I will pass on the feedback models etc to you) have heard about various models of giving feedback BIC and all that. Use them or whatever and try giving feedbacks - it is a very rewarding experience - but like in all acts of life so also in this - let's be genuine.