While growing up on Long Island, I had the pleasure of playing golf with a diverse cast of colorful characters chock full of whacky wit and practical proverbs. One afternoon, after watching me shank 20+ balls and verbally assault my clubs for their errant execution, one of these gents looked at me and said, “Hey kid… it’s not the violin; it’s the violinist.”
Less eloquently said, it wasn’t my clubs’ fault that I waved buh-bye to $60 in balls that day; it was my fault.
I flash back to that statement every time I hear VoC industry pundits or practitioners debating survey fatigue and survey toxicity (this article comes to mind). I absolutely agree that there is an issue with surveys today; however, the root of this issue is NOT the survey tool or the act of surveying (the violin). It’s the way businesses are abusing their violins by surveying customers in extremely customer-unfriendly manners.
Some examples:
Transactional surveys that are absurdly long
“This survey will take 5 to 7 minutes” …yet it’s for a 2-minute transaction!
Surveys structured with company interests at the forefront, not the customer’s
“Tell me (company x) about the things that matter most to me” …yep, that’s backwards.
Surveys offered days or weeks after the interaction
“Click the link in this email to rate your phone conversation with us last week.”
Ironically, an increasing number of companies are touting how customer-friendly the purchase and servicing processes are. They’ve made it easy to buy, self-serve, and get help when you need it, but god help you if you want to give feedback.
I firmly believe that if more companies surveyed in a customer-friendly way, we would not be seeing most of the public backlash that is bubbling up.
The trick to a successful VoC program is not getting a customer to give feedback once—any knucklehead can do that. The trick is creating a feedback program that inspires more customers to give more feedback, repeatedly over time. The following are some basic tactics for surveying well and creating an ongoing dialog with your customers that doesn’t leave them fearful of, or annoyed by, your feedback program.
1. Offer customers something for their time wherever possible and appropriate
Why
Asking a customer to complete a survey is asking for their time: arguably the most precious, non-replenishable resource known to man. So if you are going to ask customers for something that valuable, the least you can do is strive to find a way to compensate them (other than the typical “hey thanks pal!”). I fully understand the arguments about incentives potentially biasing data—I just don’t fully buy into them. Especially not when it comes to transactional feedback. Again, if the goal is to create an ongoing, candid dialogue with more customers, you won’t get there just by being swell and asking nicely.
2. Make the survey process easy
Why
If a customer is on the phone, allow them to continue their phone experience. If they are interacting with your brand online, allow them to extend that online experience. The bottom line is, make it simple for a customer to say yes or no to a feedback opportunity, and make it even easier for them to provide feedback after they say yes.
3. Keep it short and sweet
Why
Remember the uber-precious, non-replenishable resource I touched on earlier? The one called “time”? Well, one of the easiest ways to show a customer you don’t give a rip about their time is to make them suffer through an obnoxiously long survey, even for the simplest of interactions. Do not subject customers to a survey that clearly places the interests and time of a market research group or executives ahead of theirs.
Two simple rules
1. Post-call IVR surveys should be around 2 minutes long
2. Post-interaction email & online surveys should be around 3 minutes
It’s really that simple. Following these guidelines, businesses will get higher quality data. You honestly think customers are truly engaged 4+ minutes into a transactional survey? Even if they are answering the red herring questions correctly, I would bet more than a few pesos that they are only half in the saddle at that point.
4. Less quantitative, more qualitative
Why
This one helps facilitate number 3. Let the customer tell their story in their own words, as opposed to a litany of ratings and multiple-choice answers that some propellerhead is going to try and derive their experience from. Years back, the technology to help businesses quickly distill insights from massive amounts of unstructured data only worked well on The Jetsons. That is no longer the case. Speech and text analytics applications are now delivering on the promise. Businesses can deploy shorter, more customer-friendly surveys that ultimately deliver much richer feedback to all levels of your organization, especially those interacting with customers on the front line.
5. Tell customers, en masse, when you act on their feedback
Why
Perhaps the simplest of all, and the most frequently overlooked. If you make changes based on feedback, for the love of all that is holy in this world (whatever that is to you), publicly celebrate those changes to customers. Show them that you are listening to, and, more importantly, acting on, the feedback that they have spent their time providing. Show them their time was not spent in vain.
6. Respond immediately to poor experiences, and create a closed-loop process
Why
A slightly different spin on #5. When your brand falls short—and it will happen—make it right with the customer. Get them back on the phone quickly. Seek to better understand their dissatisfaction, apologize, and do your best to remedy the situation. Use your feedback program to show customers—on an individual level—that you value their feedback. If this closed loop/service lapse recovery process is executed properly, positive word of mouth will spread, and spread quickly. Birds will sing, clouds will lift, and there will be peace on earth.
In the end, these are my two cents, or perhaps just the over-emotional ramblings of a frustrated consumer and VoC practitioner. Take them or leave them. However, if you do use my two cents and execute a proper VoC effort, I promise you that it will pay your business back a hell of a lot more than two cents.
Sincerely,
-Lonely in Survey Land
Erich – Read your blog with interest. Survey fatigue and toxicity are things I have experienced particularly with the Holiday Inn organization. I frequently stay with them when traveling because they are consistent. However, I now avoid their surveys for the following reasons -
1. They are way too long I used to quit in frustration with the length and time required.
2. Certain answers elicit lengthy probes – “If yes then ……….”
3. There is no incentive to complete – as you point out – no reward to the responder – send a coupon for a free drink.
4. Sometimes endless questions about a certain topic seems to suggest that there really is a problem and the surveyer already knows it or is determined to confirm it.
Nice job.
Bob
This kid knows what he’s talking about! Love, Dad