Just finished watching the first episode in Series 3 of Charlie Brookers excellent dystopian satire Black Mirror. Black Mirror offers a scarey glimpse of how certain technological developments are perhaps throwing us way of course when it comes to aspects of human interaction and socialising. You can watch it on Netflix and some of its insights into the future made me reflect on how quickly we've also evolved when it comes to selling art and antiques online. And not necessarily into the right places.
In the first episode, Nosedive the lead female character is desperate to boost the ranking of her social media status. Come on own up, who has obsessively counted how many likes a Facebook or Instagram post has got? In Nosedive a dark vision of the world is presented where your social media status and ranking is like a credit rating - the higher your count the more doors are opened and priviledges offered. In this way every social encounter, interaction or meeting is rated via a quick zap - after pointing it at the other person - on your smart phone.
As many similar aspects of this are happening now anyway, the show presents a future that is essentially already happening. As it is - it seems like everything we do now has a rating out of 5. Every meal you eat - score it. How many stars will you give that film, book, show, concert? How was the hotel room - how much out of 5 would you give it for cleanliness. Was the receptionists smile wide enough? How was your Uber driver - on time, friendly, clean? On eBay every transaction can be measured on five different criteria from speed of delivery to communication. I mean I see how it can improve customer service, but doesn't it sometimes go a bit too far? And get a bit exhausting? How long before we judge other humans on marks out of five in various different categories (looks, friendliness, odour, intelligence etc)? Does everything we do in life have to be a judgement?
In Nosedive a world where everything is judged, is presented as anodyne and fake. It is unreal as it promotes a false reality of bland niceness in the hope of not offending. It is the customer service extremity of fake smiles and insincere have a nice days which finds its apotheosis in the United States fixation on service and tipping culture. How many hoops did the waitress jump through to make us happy and subsequently how much money should we give her for doing that? Sometimes I like a bit of old school service, you cannot beat Parisian waiters who sling down your cafe au lait on the table without even acknowledging your presence. No time for inane pleasantries and vapid have a nice days.
We do sell on eBay and sometimes - if I am completely honest - I find it exhausting as you are constantly - frequently unreasonably - judged on multiple criteria. Before I continue it is worth stating a disclaimer - we are completely about making sure our customers have a good experience and are happy at the end of it. We will bend over backwards to ensure this happens. If it does not happen we will make it happen. We've been in business since the late 1960s so I feel this longevity supports this assertion.
(Shipping one of these around the world is a bit more involved than putting a CD in an envelope)
I think one of the issues with selling antiques and large pieces of furniture on eBay is that you are being judged by the same criteria that people who sell - for instance - CDs are scored on. Particularly when it comes to shipping, it is way easier to pop a CD in an envelope and put it in the post, than deliver a 8 foot high Victorian walnut breakfront bookcase to a small house in Warwickshire / New York apartment / Australian farmhouse / Oman beach house /Texas mansion / delete where applicable, smoothly and without delay. The eBay feedback and scoring system works on the Detailed Seller Ratings scoring where you are marked out of five (speed of delivery, cost of delivery, communication, item description) for each transaction. If you repeatably get low scores you can even be kicked off eBay - thankfully we are Top Rated Sellers. It can get exhausing though - it feels like some people want to sit and catch you out if the goods arrive later than advertised even though there are often factors (weather, customs etc) out of your control delaying things.
But as our always on 24/7 hyper stimulated society continues to speed up peoples expectations and demands will only increase. Now that many companies (Amazon etc) are experimenting with same day or delivery within the hour services, you wonder where it's all headed for the antiques trade? 'Where's my 18 foot bronze fountain, I ordered it an hour ago??'
(One hour delivery on a desk like this? Maybe we can use a drone to deliver?)
It is a strange old world. Who would have thought that even five years ago, people would be buying our goods from their mobile phones? But they are - and regularly. It is only going to intensify so as a business you must adapt and stay in front - which we will. The good thing about what we do is, if you do not want to look at everything on a screen, come into our large Canonbury Antiques showroom just north of London for a old school real time browse and we will put the kettle on. It is far better to view these goods in person and for some authentic face to face dealing. Please remember to rate us favourably on Facebook, Google, eBay, Yelp or wherever else are smiling faces deserve five stars out of five.
(Come visit us in the real world in the Canonbury Antiques Hertfordshire showroom )
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