Customer Satisfaction

Have you ever gotten a really bad haircut and then when the stylist was done and they asked you if you like it you said yes? No? I definitely have. They put me on the spot! I had no choice! I've even gone back to someone who gave me a bad haircut to give them a second chance, mostly because this is a small town and there aren't that many people who can cut hair. But then that same person gave me a second bad haircut that took a long time to grow out and I quit going back and found a super nice new girl to cut my hair and she has never given me a bad haircut.

I bet you're reading this right now and wondering if there is a point to it. I promise you there is. I consider myself an honest person. I never say a baby is cute if I don't really think that it is. I don't eat food that I think is gross to spare someone's feelings. I actually rarely eat other people's cooking if I'm unsure about how clean their kitchen is. I don't give compliments that I don't mean. I want to be real and I want people to believe me when I say something. But when I am put on the spot like that, I have said that I liked a service that I was paying for when in reality I did not.

Sometimes I see other people complimenting things and saying stuff that is different from my own opinion and I doubt the sincerity. They could genuinely like what they are calling cute, or they could just be being polite. I don't know what to believe. This is especially true when it comes to pictures, mostly on Facebook. I see a picture that is not that great (in my opinion) taken by someone who has recently declared themselves a professional photographer extraordinaire and everyone is like High five this is awesome you could totally charge millions of dollars for your photography services! and I'm over here thinking Vignettes do not automatically make a picture look better what is wrong with people! and then I kind of feel bad for being so judgmental but I don't want to be dishonest.

I keep my sometimes negative opinions to myself. Even if inside I'm thinking that a photo is too dark or over saturated and stop using selective color people! I just keeping on trucking and don't say anything. If I do say something, its nice and you can bet your life I mean it. That doesn't mean my silence is disapproval, it just means I never say anything mean online when I think something could be improved upon. Except this blog right now. But I'm not being specific and I do think there are good pictures being taken by people besides me.

There is a good reason that I never say OMG cutest photo ever! when I don't mean it. It is because I don't want people saying that stuff to me unless it is sincere. If you compliment me it better be your honest opinion. If I am being paid to take someone's picture I wanna know what they really think, even if its not favorable. I want to be told what people want, not something nice to spare my feelings.

If I had been braver I would've told my former hairstylist that I hated my haircut, but I didn't realize just how much I hated it till I looked closer when I got home. If I disliked it at the salon, I loathed it at home. And I never said a word.

There are some people whose opinions I value more than others. If someone compliments my writing and I think that they are also a good writer, then I value their opinion more. If someone compliments my pictures and I know they have a good eye and can also take good pictures then I take that more seriously because I think they know what they are talking about. I also tend to believe people when their compliments are in person, completely unsolicited. When someone just says, totally out of the blue, I really liked that one picture you took that one time! I'm pretty sure they are telling the truth. I just want to be sure that people really like a picture that I take and they aren't just saying that. I like my pictures, and I have pretty high standards, but everyone's opinions are different. Some people like vignettes.