A while ago marketers were telling business people they needed to know what their customers wanted and how they were (or weren’t) meeting those expectations. The best way to find this out was a customer survey.
Well, guess what?
Business owners listened and now we’re struggling with survey fatigue.
A home service company sent out six surveys for one service installation. There was a survey for the tech who diagnosed the problem, a survey for the sales person who sold the solution, a survey for each of the installers (separately because they were incentivized based on their survey results), a survey on the company and service in general, and a paper survey left behind by the tech. Then there were email follow up texts and emails with links to review the business on Google.
Enough already!
Businesses need to find a less intrusive way to figure out if they are meeting expectations. The solution may involve not getting feedback on everything you think is important but rather going with what you can find out in the moment.
Remove the EWWWW from Your Feedback Requests
Here are a few ways to get feedback without disruption. Choose one.
- simple email with a smiling face or frowning face for the customer to choose the emoji that best represents their experience. That’s it. No additional forward to another page for a review.
- QR code to a review page (if they’re so inclined to review you) on the receipt.
- small token of appreciation (like a candy bar) given to the customer with a link to a review site or short survey.
- space when the customer signs the invoice (or credit receipt) to sum up their experience with you in one word.
- exit poll in store. Place a token in the great experience or not so great experience bucket. See what you have at the end of the day.
- call or text from the owner (or manager) to ask if they are satisfied and if there’s anything else they need.
- a follow up email in a few weeks or a month so that they have time to think about your performance.
Surveys are wonderful ways to know whether you are meeting/exceeding expectations. But when they come at the detriment to customer satisfaction, that’s a problem. You need to get the information you want in a less invasive way.
