It seems like after just about every transaction nowadays you’re asked to take a survey about how it went. Just recently I’ve gotten emails asking me to take a survey after the following:
[ul]
[li]A few months ago I bought a new car. Now Mazda is sending me emails asking me to take a survey about how I like it. And J.D. Power sent me a letter asking me to take their survey as well. At least J.D. Power sent me a dollar, too.[/li][li]When I took my cat to the vet they sent me an email asking me to take a survey about my visit.[/li][li]Since I use Target’s Cartwheel coupon app many times Target emails me asking me to take a survey after I shop there.[/li][li]Similarly, since I signed up for Petco’s rewards program whenever I buy something there they send me an email asking me to take a survey.[/li][/ul]
Why the heck does every minor transaction require me to give feedback?
I hear you. I bought a Tesla last fall, and have been getting surveys from marketing companies since then. They are weird, too. Stuff like “if your car was a person, which traits would describe it?” Which was followed by a list of 10 or so positive traits. Of course, it also had questions with no appropriate answer “is the gas mileage what you expected?” Yes, I suppose, no gas used so far? Of course, Tesla never sent me a survey. They either don’t care, or don’t want to know what I think of their service.
And Target. I get a survey for picking up items, and I get a survey asking me to rate and review each item I bought. For each purchase. I can’t find a way to turn these off. I’ll buy from Target, Amazon, etc. whoever is cheapest, but everything else being equal, I buy from the one that annoys me the least.
I’ll occasionally fill out receipt surveys for discounts at restaurants and such. Because I don’t want to cause any trouble for the server, I always put everything as high as possible. I have no idea if they actually use the survey responses intelligently to see if there are any problems, or if they just have “performance meetings” where the server is scolded for scoring a 4 out of 5 for one of my responses.
I did this for a hotel stay recently, and since I gave it relatively high marks, the final question was “are you willing to share this survey’s results with Yelp?”
I’m with you on this. I took a redeye flight and a week later received an email from the airline asking me to complete a survey. Now, I fell asleep shortly after sitting down (sleeping through the safety announcement) and didn’t wake up until shortly before landing. I really have nothing useful to say. “Your flight attendants didn’t wake me, so I’m happy with your service.”
Or I went to Citibank a couple of weeks ago and then get email asking me to complete a survey. On this particular visit, all I did was to use the ATM in the branch to withdraw cash. What can I possibly say?
I buy something online from Costco, Amazon or Home Depot and then get emails asking me to rate the product.
Every other website I visit has a pop-up screen as soon as the page opens, asking me to complete a survey (usually for some company called ForeSee), sign up for their newsletter or subscribe to their service. All before I can do anything on the site.
If I’m not being compensated, I don’t even open any email that’s asking for my opinion. In fact, I got so annoyed with Home Depot that I emailed them asking them to knock it off since every (online) purchase I make comes with 4 emails over the next week or so asking me to review the product.
Oddly enough, someone actually called me to tell me they took care of it.
The hospital where I recently had surgery texted me a survey to see if I was happy with their service. I could only say yes or no to the five questions they asked me, though, so I was unable to express my opinion about the nurse’s aide who aimed the handheld shower head at my ear. Oh, I know, she meant well.
It’s not required. And most of the time I don’t bother. But on those rare occasions when things do go badly, it can be a useful mechanism for having your complaint addressed.
As Machine Elf said, it’s not required. Just don’t do it. For extra credit, tell the company (not via the survey, which I’m sure won’t give you this option) that you’re more likely to buy from companies that don’t do this.
– what particularly annoys me is that I get asked for my opinion within a few days of buying the item. One of the factors that goes into my opinion of the quality of most things is how they last. I don’t know yet how I like your lawnmower or the kitchen knives somebody gave me, ask me again in a few years!
Those retail and hotel surveys are minor annoyances, but I can only say that because I have experience with Deloitte and Touche, whom my company hires to handle international taxes for international assignments. They have a survey after every, f’ing interaction with them, and if you don’t complete the survey, you’re bombarded by automated emails, and the survey blocks the screen every time you want to log in. One time I capitulated and left scathing reviews about the survey process itself, only to be harassed by a Deloitte human that tried to insist that I have a phone conversation with her, twelve time zones away.
Some good people work there, but I genuinely detest working with that company, and their survey B.S. is 50% of it.
It would engender more goodwill if the requests for feedback were framed more along the lines of “we want everyone to be happy with our product/service, please let us no if there are any problems”.
According to our records, you were recently asked to complete a survey. Your views are important to us, please take a moment to help us improve our surveying procedure.
How easy was this survey to complete? (1-10; 1=difficult 10=easy)
Were the questions relevant, and was there an option that accurately reflected your views? (Not at all=1, Occasionally=2, Often=3, Most of the time=4, All of the time=5)
Was the survey sent at a good time? (Too early, before the product was fully tested=1, At a good time=2, Too late, when details had been forgotten=3)
Do you like ticking boxes? [yes] [no]
If yes please go to question 4a
If no or box unchecked please go to question 5
4a. Please tick all boxes that represent your views on ticking boxes [It’s great!] [Woo, ticky time!] [More!] [Yes] [Maybe] [Getting bored now] [Can I go to question 5?]
Do you think anyone reads this crap? [Yes] [No]
Are you just filling this out because you’re bored? [Yes] [No]
If yes please add any additional details or draw a picture of your favourite dinosaur in this space:
Is that a stegosaurus? [Yes] [No] [Not sure]
Stegosaurus are pretty cool though, aren’t they? [Yes]
The IT services for my library are principally provided by the county. Unfortunately, the county system and our system have some fundamental problem communicating which results in this fun “feature”: After I submit a ticket for an IT problem, it gets assigned to an IT tech, and when resolved, I get an email saying “this ticket has been resolved, please take this survey,” with a hyperlink. I can click on the link and take the survey, but when I click “submit,” I get an error to the effect that I am not an authorized user of the survey system and should go away.
I wonder if it has ever occurred to anyone in county IT that they have a 0% response rate for surveys from the library. On second thought, I’m sure it has and they couldn’t care less.
The vast majority of surveys in my opinion are not actually designed to solicit opinions that someone will pay attention to.
They’re a way to 1) make the consumer think that the business actually gives a crap about them and thus elicit goodwill that will lead to further purchases, 2) an intro to sending you ads, or 3) an intro to begging for money (which is what political ‘‘surveys’’ are all about).
I’ll leave a review on a third party site or specifically bitch to/praise the company/politician if I feel strongly enough about something.
That is the way I took it. But to be sure I would have to go take the survey again and give it bad marks and see if it still offered to post it to Yelp for me. But I don’t care enough to do that today.