# What's with all the darn surveys??



## ummgood (Feb 13, 2017)

So here is an off topic rant. I hate surveys. When I leave a great service experience it really chaps me when they close the entire 'relationship' with "Hey in a day or so you'll get a survey. If you don't fill it out all perfect then I have failed." I get this all the time now and it really bothers me. It feels like when you are getting on a bus and the driver says "Hey we work for tips". Don't get me wrong I love to give positive feedback for great service and I am usually a big tipper. I have been known to call managers and give positive feedback. But when someone asks for reward then it completely turns me off. If it is a waiter or waitress then usually I'll tip my normal amount but if I was going to tip more it makes me cut back to my normal amount. With these surveys if someone asks me to fill it out and tells me that I need to fill it out a certain way or it is a failure I won't fill it out at all. I would even go to the extent to say that when someone asks me to fill out a survey and put all perfect on it it kills the entire service experience for me.

Anyway this came up when I got my car repaired at a Tesla Certified body shop. I picked up the car and was requested to fill out the survey with all '5' ratings. I then found out it still wasn't working right so I took it back in. For over 2 weeks I kept getting survey requests to fill out the survey texted to my phone. They still had the car because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it the entire time I got these requests! The only option they gave me to stop the texts was to opt out of all future text communication from them. Well that wouldn't work because I wanted texts for the status of my car. Imagine being in meetings and getting texts for me to fill out the survey for my repair experience.

Anyway I am just ranting because I hate these stupid surveys. I feel like it masks issues that customers face because they are tempted to give perfect scores out of compassion for the employee. I also feel that honest criticism cannot be given because something that might help them in the future will come down on the person giving me the service instead of the management that needs to make the change.

What does everyone think? I would love to hear from someone who deals with these or pushes them. What am I missing? At this point I pretty much refuse to take a corporate survey unless there is some compelling evidence that it might help to change something. That hardly ever happens. If someone loves them help me see the light.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

I'm pretty much there with you. If an employee tells me how to fill a survey on their performance out, I either will not at all, or will honestly do it. What is the point of all 5star ratings on every survey that is turned in? I am sure the higher ups that created the survey did not intend for the staff to tell their customers that they need to give them a perfect score.


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## ummgood (Feb 13, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> I'm pretty much there with you. If an employee tells me how to fill a survey on their performance out, I either will not at all, or will honestly do it. What is the point of all 5star ratings on every survey that is turned in? I am sure the higher ups that created the survey did not intend for the staff to tell their customers that they need to give them a perfect score.


I think they probably didn't intend for that to happen but when they set performance reviews or pay off of their score that is bound to happen. I know someone in the insurance industry and he told me they have a 94% requirement. The problem is in order to get that high of a score the employees have to beg for 100% because they'll get angry people that want unobtainable results that will give 0%.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

@ummgood, I feel your pain. Long ago I used to eagerly fill out surveys, honestly wanting to give helpful feedback. But it seems some evil management consulting genius decided that if one survey is good, let's do 10, and we are bombarded by them daily. I especially hate the airline surveys as I guess I'm supposed to remember the eye color and every detail of every interaction I had with every employee.

I rarely fill out any surveys now, but if I do, it's all perfect scores or mostly low scores. From what I've seen, the bean counters who care about these surveys really don't know how to interpret a score of 6, 7 or 8.


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## ummgood (Feb 13, 2017)

Bigriver said:


> @ummgood, I feel your pain. Long ago I used to eagerly fill out surveys, honestly wanting to give helpful feedback. But it seems some evil management consulting genius decided that if one survey is good, let's do 10, and we are bombarded by them daily. I especially hate the airline surveys as I guess I'm supposed to remember the eye color and every detail of every interaction I had with every employee.
> 
> I rarely fill out any surveys now, but if I do, it's all perfect scores or mostly low scores. From what I've seen, the bean counters who care about these surveys really don't know how to interpret a score of 6, 7 or 8.


To me it should be averages. I agree though we have so many now that I don't bother unless they are willing to actually pay me to do it (I actually was paid by Benz because I owned a Model 3).

What I do now is leave honest reviews on Yelp or Google because I find those useful when trying to find a business.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I hate them as well and don't fill out as many as I used to. I've heard stories though and car dealerships are the worst, that if they don't get high marks then corporate is always on their ass about what they aren't doing right. It's just a way/reason for the men making the big money wearing suits to have a reason to go beat on the poor guy at the bottom of the food chain who typically gets nothing for bending over backwards.


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## ummgood (Feb 13, 2017)

GDN said:


> I hate them as well and don't fill out as many as I used to. I've heard stories though and car dealerships are the worst, that if they don't get high marks then corporate is always on their ass about what they aren't doing right. It's just a way/reason for the men making the big money wearing suits to have a reason to go beat on the poor guy at the bottom of the food chain who typically gets nothing for bending over backwards.


Exactly!


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## Michael Russo (Oct 15, 2016)

I fill them in occasionally, either when I’m really happy or when I’m really p.o’d. I guess if it’s middle of the road, I don’t feel as motivated. 

They do come too often, though...


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

I don't like the dishonesty behind surveys.

The anonymous kind (where they don't ask you for personal info), they try to pretend it's giving the customer a voice - but they don't really care about that, they only care about metrics. They have no other way to rank the performance of their employees numerically. And you can bet if they're ranking employees, the ones with low rankings are probably fired for underperforming. That's why you get employees who beg you to give them all highest ratings. It's basically applying used car lot sales rankings to employees who don't generate income directly.

Now the other kind, where you're asked to fill out a form with personal info, is way more dangerous. Also pretending to give you a voice, that's how the company who issues it gets to legally harvest and then sell your personal info to other companies, because you did it "voluntarily". That's also why those kinds of surveys are pushed so hard. You buy one thing, and they nag you twice a day for weeks - because there is a _lot_ of money in it, and if you refuse, you cost them big.


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## ummgood (Feb 13, 2017)

Michael Russo said:


> I fill them in occasionally, either when I'm really happy or when I'm really p.o'd. I guess if it's middle of the road, I don't feel as motivated.
> 
> They do come too often, though...


Yeah same for me. I am getting to the point where I don't bother at all.



JasonF said:


> I don't like the dishonesty behind surveys.
> 
> The anonymous kind (where they don't ask you for personal info), they try to pretend it's giving the customer a voice - but they don't really care about that, they only care about metrics. They have no other way to rank the performance of their employees numerically. And you can bet if they're ranking employees, the ones with low rankings are probably fired for underperforming. That's why you get employees who beg you to give them all highest ratings. It's basically applying used car lot sales rankings to employees who don't generate income directly.
> 
> Now the other kind, where you're asked to fill out a form with personal info, is way more dangerous. Also pretending to give you a voice, that's how the company who issues it gets to legally harvest and then sell your personal info to other companies, because you did it "voluntarily". That's also why those kinds of surveys are pushed so hard. You buy one thing, and they nag you twice a day for weeks - because there is a _lot_ of money in it, and if you refuse, you cost them big.


I completely agree with you. Plus opting out of them typically removes you from all communications from the company all together which is crazy. I don't think they really understand the level of harm that they are getting themselves into.

I agree with you and the employees. It really sucks. If you get an unreasonable customer they put too much weight into this artificial ranking system and it hurts you more than it should. Good management should be able to tell who is giving good support or not. The problem is they don't want to manage their team well so they would rather rely on ridiculous metrics to manage their team.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

ummgood said:


> I completely agree with you. Plus opting out of them typically removes you from all communications from the company all together which is crazy. I don't think they really understand the level of harm that they are getting themselves into.


I've seen a couple of web sites - notably Disney and a couple of game registration sites - that will not let you complete registration unless you check the "sign me up for your newsletter" checkbox.


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## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

JasonF said:


> I've seen a couple of web sites - notably Disney and a couple of game registration sites - that will not let you complete registration unless you check the "sign me up for your newsletter" checkbox.


Wow. Isn't that in gross violation of GDPR?


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Bokonon said:


> Wow. Isn't that in gross violation of GDPR?


Yeah - if only Americans were protected. Maybe they know if you are from Europe and don't force that. We are screwed as Americans and any kind of privacy or not having our data sold. It starts with the law makers and it seems most of them are already bought.


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## BigBri (Jul 16, 2016)

The few SC visits I've had they bring up how important the survey is to the staff etc. Gave me great satisfaction when I had a terrible experience at the bodyshop and I got the survey link.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

I'll flip the script and put in a perspective from the other side of the coin.

I worked for a Fortune 500 publicly traded company company that used customer surveys. Our company put a lot of stock in those surveys. Granted, our product delivery time was 9 months from initial order on average and average transaction price was around $750k. But our company and our management knows that customer satisfaction is paramount. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire, was have multiple competitors and we strive for not only satisfied customers but repeat customers as well. And ones that are willing to sell us to their friends and colleagues. As managers, we were repeatedly told that customer satisfaction and the survey results were equally as important as the financial performance on each project. And I can tell you that was not mere lip service. If you screwed the pooch a bit financially on a project, you and your supervisor discussed lessons learned, what went wrong, and how to right the ship on future projects. Sometimes his boss got with you as well. A bad survey, and you might get a call from your boss's boss, his boss, HIS boss, or even an email from the COO asking what happened. No joke. People were fired for bad surveys (really more like a string of them). 

I lived this life for 6 years. I will tell you that in those 6 years, we went from doing 1 buyer survey to 5. The reasoning? People are more honest in surveys. You can meet them on a weekly basis, do weekly phone calls to check in with the project team to make sure they are ok, and they will tell you they love you and that everything is grand. When they get a survey, which they view as anonymous, they are brutally honest. If they have an issue with you, they cut your freaking knees off if they are unhappy. They will lie to your face in order to avoid conflict and stab you in the back. Before you know it, something you said or did is plastered on their social media warning people to never trust this company again. If you got a bad survey along the way, there was a chance to figure it out. Bring in a new player on the team. Switch out team lead or contact priorities. Really crank through the rest of the project at warp speed. Bring in Sr. Management (people love getting attention from a senior manager). Whatever, it's chance to recover without being blindsided. Now, those customers that like you generally are the opposite. They go out of their way to thank you and really enjoy working with you. They bring you treats, they bring in their kids, and they friend you on facebook. They look to steer in referrals (we gave bonuses) and espouse how wonderful you are.

Rarely was there someone in the middle.

People also have varying ways of doing surveys. For one guy, we did everything we said we were going to do and then some. He was happy with the product and said he wouldn't' hesitate to do it again. But he gave us 5's and said he wouldn't recommend. Why? Because he doesn't recommend companies. And while he was happy with the outcome, the process could have been smoother. We didn't coach surveys or buy them. And people had very different ways of looking at them. 

The point is, companies really do use these as a tool to help improve customer service. I get that some of these huge companies with millions of transactions a year may just be collecting data, or putting it on a report someplace, but that may be the exception rather than the rule. 

It's tough out there selling a consumer product. People are fickle, will drop you as a customer with no second thought over whatever they deem the reason (price, performance, whatever). People demand the latest and greatest and want you to keep up. There are many ways to find information as a consumer before voting with your wallet, and there is more competition than ever. Businesses cannot rest on their laurels, they are as good only as their past performance.

Companies with stellar reputations like Chick-Fil-A, Nordstrom, etc. get that customer service is key. That's why people at CFA bring you refills, and wait outside in the rain with an iPad to take your order. For an average transaction price of less than $10 / per person, many times less. They want you to be happy and excited to come there. That's how they get people in the door. Like them or not, surveys are an important part of the feedback loop. In the case of CFA, there's no way a franchise owner or a manger or even a cashier can see the results of every customer interaction. There are too many, the transaction time is too fast (on average under a minute), etc. It's difficult to gauge how people are doing without these types of mechanisms. 

I never got tired of seeing people smile when they took final delivery of their product. Some I was happy to see gone, but most were grateful, no matter how it went. The above isn't meant to be sour grapes. It's just stating the facts of the service / retail industry these days. And it's not getting easier.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Interesting and I get it how some are truly important. While this sucks for the guy on the bottom line, it fits the exact profile of what I mentioned. The guys in the suits in the big offices live by the surveys and they get **** for results, ie your perfectly happy and satisfied customer that rated you 5. So the surveys are useless. If the big guys got out of those offices or were in tune with what was really happening in the company and with their product, they wouldn't need survey's to understand if the customers were satisfied or not. Your story is also the perfect one, because I can tell you that not every Tom, Dick and Harry are buying $750K products, so the customer base is likely in the 1000's, not millions daily at CFA. 

I will say at least you found a way to keep things on track by offering more survey's throughout the order and build process.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

GDN said:


> Interesting and I get it how some are truly important. While this sucks for the guy on the bottom line, it fits the exact profile of what I mentioned. The guys in the suits in the big offices live by the surveys and they get **** for results, ie your perfectly happy and satisfied customer that rated you 5. So the surveys are useless. If the big guys got out of those offices or were in tune with what was really happening in the company and with their product, they wouldn't need survey's to understand if the customers were satisfied or not. Your story is also the perfect one, because I can tell you that not every Tom, Dick and Harry are buying $750K products, so the customer base is likely in the 1000's, not millions daily at CFA.
> 
> I will say at least you found a way to keep things on track by offering more survey's throughout the order and build process.


They aren't living by surveys. They are living by customer satisfaction. That one survey is an aberration but it was certainly a data point. The point I was trying to make was that people are more likely to tell the truth about how they feel on a survey. Even if the CEO is calling, they are still going to hold back.


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