For anything more than payment for merchandise or service rendered? Or to fill in those reviews that pop up after a transaction? Sometimes I’ve been asked why when I’ve ceased to do business with one. I don’t mind them asking, but I sure don’t feel any obligation to reply. Opinions seem to be about 50/50 with those I work with.
Peace,
mangeorge
No, definitely not any other obligation. It often is a good idea though. In the case you give, lets say you stopped going to that merchant for reason X. If enough other people leave for the same reason, they will do what they can to correct reason X. Even if you no longer planning on shopping there the fact that they have improved themselves often means the competition (which you are now shopping at) must get better as well.
You have no obligation, but you might want to. There may just be a coupon that comes later on saying “Try us again, please!”
Awhile back we bought a car from a dealership and the salesman stressed how important it was that we fill out a questionnaire that would be e-mailed to us on how the transaction went and how we viewed the salesman (he mentioned pointedly that it was vital for him that we rated him at the top level).
I do not like being pressured into giving a business or anyone working at it excellent ratings.
I have ignored all followup e-mails from the dealership. What are they going to do, never sell us a car again or refuse to service the one we have?
These requests are similar to telephone “polls”.
My guess is that about 99% of this sort of stuff is marketing disguised as an effort to be more responsive to their customers. How hard is it to figure out that most people want a product that is relatively inexpensive, reasonably durable, and works appropriately for the job at hand?
I’m not obligated to help market professionals to figure out how to better influence me to buy their stuff. You may feel differently.
Walt
I’m fairly sure that the questionnaire comes from the manufacturer and the results affect the bonus paid to the salesperson.
The service writer at the Chevrolet dealership I used to take my car to always said the same thing. She said that I would get a call in the next few days about my experience and that even though I could rate between 1 and 5 on each question, as far as her end is concerned it’s a pass/fail thing. If I rate her lower then a 5 in any area it’s a fail for her. She was always very nice and got everything taken car of for me so when they called I always gave the same response. As soon as they started asking the first question I’d say “I’m sorry, I’m actually very busy right now, but everything went well, put her down for a 5 on all the questions”
It’s kind of annoying to get the call, I understand the reasoning behind it, but, well, I just don’t really care.
If there was problem I’d put more thought into my answers, but there typically wasn’t.
I ignore them and kill the browser tab if necessary. Emails go straight to spam or trash depending on whether I’ve bothered to set up a filter.
It’s just more info to feed the data miners. Starve the beast.