Criticism can make a positive contribution

Sir, While it is flattering someone has been tracking all my letters for years ( The Oban Times, August 10), Kenny McLennan has not woken up to how complaints are actually positive.

Back in the 1980s, some business people were talking at a meeting and one man was having a major whinge about complaining customers. ‘ But Gus,’ said a friend, ‘how else do your customers help you to improve your business?’

The penny dropped and he went on to greater success and to retire 10 years early.

This use of customer feedback became standard with the 1990 book, The Machine that Changed the World and the story of Toyota. Instead of sacking staff, its lean approach not only satisfies customer needs but also copies best practice ways of doing things from other organisations.

Oban business people though were already alongside Toyota.

Nancy Black saw computerised stock control at an exhibition, realised the benefits and pioneered the use of IT businesses in the town.

Here in 2017, as well as taking telephone bookings, my chiropodist also offers appointment bookings online. The time she saves enables her to see more clients and keep her prices down. For the NHS, instead of being bogged down in routine calls or carrying folders around, staff can spend more time with the patients who need it. Surely this is better for both patients plus staff can enjoy doing what they were trained to do?

So please, Mr McLennan, have a go at Holyrood, not me, for insisting the NHS goes online. And rather than see 21st- century technology as negative, accept my approach is that of an adoptive son chiding his out- of-touch parents – because we love them, we don’t like seeing them let themselves go downhill, and we want to see them being part of the modern world through a tablet and the internet. Mike Foster, Crannaig a Mhinister, Oban.