Hello, my name is Jeff Whitton, and I’m a suggestaholic.
I see simple things every day that can easily be improved. Something in line at the bank, or walking through the airport, or in a restaurant, or on a website, or at the mall during the Christmas rush, or driving around town, or at an event, or on vacation, or at work, or at the zoo with the family… I’m always trying to figure out a way to make things bigger, better, more efficient and more enjoyable.
I love improvement, progress, streamlining, simplicity and new gadgets that always seem to come out the month after I buy one. I usually have a suggestion to make even a fantastic experience just that much better. The problem is, I never give them.
I think I’ve only submitted 2 suggestions in my life. Once, after an outstanding event, I sent an email saying that my family loved it, and that we would certainly be back the following year. I was so excited after returning home, I wanted to help. I gave them a bulleted list of probably 10 things they could do to be more efficient and improve for the next time around. After I clicked “Send” from my personal email, I felt awkward… I didn’t want to be “That Guy” with the bulleted list of ideas. I felt especially awkward when I never heard back….
The second time I made a suggestion was after buying one of the aforementioned new gadgets. I was excited to learn all about it, and went to their website to explore. I clicked on a feedback form and told them that I loved the product, and suggested all sorts of features and functionality it should incorporate into future models. I clicked “Submit” and my suggestions vanished into who knows where… I did get a pop-up message saying essentially “Thank you for your submission, but we get so much feedback, we can’t possibly get back to you”. I thought, “This is one of the most technologically advanced companies on the planet. They can’t devise a system to electronically categorize all of the similiar suggestions and respond to people that are trying to help?” Mmmm, they’re really missing out on a opportunity.
So I’ve got all these ideas and nowhere to put them. It’s far too cumbersome to give feedback by email, or web form, or on a survey, or call an 800# on a receipt, or post on an online forum, or tell an employee, and it seems pointless when I never find out if anything happens. Why bother? I would sarcastically joke with friends when we’d come up with some crazy idea about how to make something better, “Put it in their Suggestion Box.” We’ve all seen suggestion boxes around, and I started to wonder: Who actually puts a suggestion, in a box? More interestingly, I wonder what happens when someone dumps out the suggestion box? Who writes on paper anymore? I thought, there needs to be a SuggestionBox DOT COM that is connected to the entire Internet. One place where you can find the Suggestion Box for everything that actually does something. Since it’s online, you can do all sorts of things like digitally track your ideas to see if anything ever becomes of them, and be anonymous if you want. I got out of bed, went to my computer, typed in: S U G G E S T I O N B O X . C O M and pressed “Enter”.
