My Audi was in for service. I like my car, I like my dealer and I like the Audi brand but all those fond feelings were diminished when I started taking the online survey.
I’m an advocate of asking for customer service feedback. I’m also an advocate for making it quick, easy and painless.
After clicking through what seemed like endless pages of questions and numerical scoring, I finally and thankfully arrived at the end. “Is there anything else you’d like us to know?” was the final question, to which I responded, “Yes. I won’t complete another ridiculously long survey like this again.”
I often don’t respond to surveys because I have neither the time nor inclination. I did in this case because I was quite pleased by the job my service advisor did and wanted Audi and the dealer to know. I came to rue the decision.
Deciding how much to ask and how long the survey will take are important considerations. I realize that more information and detail is more helpful. But beware: asking for too much of the customer’s time is off-putting.
Why not bundle a short survey with a long survey? The short survey may be 5-10 critical questions or scores that don’t take more time. Tell the customer how long it will take before they opt in. Then, after they’ve finished the short survey, ask if they’d be willing to answer some additional questions (and let them know how much longer that will take).
J.D. Powers provided the painfully long survey for Audi, and I respect their ability to gather and crunch useful data. But in the age of perpetual distraction and limited attention, we’ve got to remember that if you don’t get feedback quickly, you may not get it at all.
Totally agree! We always have surveys at the end of our events when featuring new speakers. If they’re not short and to the point, we get nothing – or perhaps only one adjective. If you’re sending out customer service surveys, better make sure the SERVICE is what stays with your customer, not the experience of filling out the survey.
I especially dislike the surveys that require that every question be given a numerical ranking, and those that provide duplicate but rephrased questions (as if they’re afraid I might just check boxes at random, and they want confirmation of the answers). Get a writer to write the questions in plain English, with check box choices that make sense to the survey taker. What’s wrong with simple “Yes” and “No” choices? Some questions, like, “Would you recommend this service to your friends?” might require a Maybe or an NA. For amounts, what’s wrong with “A little” and “A lot”? I think most customers will give you answers on a quick six clicks survey. Most won’t bother with in-depth analysis of their motives and feelings.
Hi Mark,
You make a good point about surveys. Problem is most times there is no WII-FM for the person filling them out.
In reference to the type of survey you filled out, the dealership probably gets graded on your responses, so it helps them, but no incentive for you. I remember Carl Sewell always making a point of providing his informal focus group participants with a very nice Cross pen.
This resonates with me. I recieve numerous surveys via the phone and the person tells me it will take “two minutes”. Of course you know its usually six to eight. Your not going to get valuable information after the third minute. I’m firing off answers just so I can stay polite and not hang up. I “thank” my mother for that. What companies should do is the next time some customer takes their valuable time to call and give feedback, is to make them a prefered customer/product consultant and dialoge with them occasionally. Give them a bone or two. If a customer takes the time to offer true and workable feedback, not just ranting and blowing off steam, dont you think this customer really likes the company and the product? What we really want is to see the product stay around and become more successful.
It just floors me when I call to a company and give 95% feedback that is positive,telling what I like, and so on. Then give constuctive feedback on a issue,concern or problem that I see for them to look into. All I get is defensive, excuse filled reply. Why cant a customer get a company to ask “What are we doing right? Why did you take the time to call? How could we improve? And all they need to do is thank us and that they will take the time to review and use the feedback carefully. Its not that hard people.