I am out shopping in town and see that a new clothes shop has opened. I am not sure whether the shop is my kind of thing having never been inside before but it has a few interesting garments in the window so I head towards the door.

Suddenly a man in a black suit and glasses comes out of nowhere and stops me from entering.

“Sorry sir’ he says ‘but before we allow you to enter, you have to complete this form – we need to know your full name, your email address and your date of birth. We would also like you to let us know how you heard about this shop and why you came here today. In addition, we need to create a unique password that you have to memorise. If you leave the shop and want to return, you will have to remember the password otherwise you can’t come in again.”

He goes on “The password needs to contain numbers, letters, some upper case letters and it would be nice if you could add some hieroglyphics as well – oh and can you let us know the name of your first pet or your first girlfriend’s mothers maiden name which we can use to reset your password should you forget the 18 digit number we just talked about”.

He then points to a painting by Jackson Pollack. ‘One final thing sir’. Can you have a look at this picture and write down the string of letters or numbers that you can see contained within it. If the Pollock is too confusing, we have similar pictures from the Abstract Impressionism era and perhaps you could have a go at finding meaning in one of those?’

Exasperated I ask for the reason behind this intrusion – ‘Well sir we can email you every week for the rest of your life about products from shops in our wider network so that you can be lucky enough to take advantage of some amazing offers. This service is completely free you understand as a small gift to you – we are great believers in customer service for all our customers’. He continues. “You are also entitled to look at the clothes we have on offer and even try some of them on”

This weeks blog is dedicated to Swift e-learning services and others like them who won’t allow you to browse through their web site without ridiculous form filling.

So company processes and bureaucracy get in the way of customer focus. I bet you have similar experiences.

 Music in the office..

This week is nothing but Lucinda and Ryan… one never tires of genius.