The survey dating game: CX is not just about samples

The only thing I get more than “please complete the survey”, are calls to sell me funeral insurance. Has some clever AI worked out the date my impending demise?  That aside, it has made me think about how we, and I mean the average consumer, receive surveys.  As fewer people respond to surveys, more and more get sent, in a vain effort to “make the sample”.

Now that I’m a researcher, it seems to me that flooding customers with surveys isn’t sustainable.  It’s probably quite counter-productive.  As researchers, we need to do better.  Better planning, better sampling, better execution, better language, better branding – just better.  I have to wonder, what does a good survey look like if you’re on the receiving end.  Said differently, which companies make the effort to put out a good survey and deserve your time?

So, in a long and tortured metaphor, here are the red flags to look out for if you’re going date a survey:

Swipe right on the pretty.  Nothing is free, not even surveys.  Look for the ones that are pretty.  Only brands and companies who are serious about getting your view, will spend money and time on making their surveys look good.  When the survey looks good, they value you and your time.  Let them get to first base.

It’s all about you.  Any survey that starts with “Dear Customer” – swipe left!  If they don’t know who you are, they don’t get to waste your time.  In truth, these kinds of surveys border on spam and you have my permission to ignore them.  Better still, get your inbox or AI assistant to consign them to the Junk Mail folder of doom.

Green light the stalkers.  We all do it, socially stalk blind dates.  Companies who know you will never ask you a question they already know the answer of.  My favourite is “have you used our self-service?”  Well don’t know, you tell me!   When you get that wasted question, abandon ship!  Proper researchers will notice the drop off at that question and fix the problem.

Out of the blue.  There must be a reason for you to get a survey, perhaps you’ve visited your bank or used their app.  Surveys for s#its and giggles is a little spammy!  Just after your visit to the bank, getting a survey means they want to know ABOUT your visit.  They know what and why you visited, and now they know how you feel about that visit.  That’s the reason we have surveys – to find the real issues from customers and make them better.

Smaller is better.  If you can’t answer the survey in the same amount of time it takes to watch a Reel, abandon ship.  The simple truth is no company can fix all the problems for all their customers – asking you to rate them on 20 aspects of their service is pointless if they’re only going to focus on 5.  Good researchers will know what is most important, ask just those 5 and move on to the next 5, once these issues are fixed.  The perfect survey has one headline number, like CSAT or NPS, 4 or 5 follow-up questions and free text for anything else.  Longer is not better.

Not Promoter Score.  Fair warning, my unpopular opinion ahead.  First published in 2003, Net Promoter Score is everywhere.  I’m not a fan because I don’t like recommendation as a measure of success.  I don’t recommend anything to anyone, ever.  There is also a significant drop off from people who say they would recommend, to people that actually DO recommend. 

And, for the researchers among us, ignoring passives makes the score volatile.  Don’t get me wrong, NPS is better than nothing, so if you love the brand that’s asking, answer the survey.  For my money, satisfaction is a better measure, and I’ll always answer those surveys. In the end, good surveys will come from organisations who are serious about improving their experiences.  Spotting them is relatively easy if you look out for these few red flags.  Sift out the ones who are the middle-aged-living-in-the-basement-of-their-parents’-home equivalent and have dinner with the ones that matter.  Who knows, it could be the start of something beautiful.

About the author

Clint Payne is Chief Growth Officer at Ipsos South Africa. He is the architect of Upside Down CX and a seasoned CX culture transformation expert who orchestrates organisational shifts to ignite customer-centric revolutions. With a proven track record at MultiChoice, he pioneered the Upside Down CX approach.