In their eagerness to improve the customer experience, some workplaces are doing the opposite by nagging customers for feedback on how they are performing.
If you recently bought a car, signed up for insurance or shopped for pretty much anything, chances are that within seconds of your purchase you will have been asked to “take a few moments of your time to complete our survey” because “we’d love to know how we treated you today” while completing the survey will “help us to help you”.
The flood of feedback requests is starting to wear thin with consumers, with many suffering from survey fatigue and refusing to take time out to share their thoughts.
There is no doubt that surveying customers can help an organisation improve its performance.
What was once an exceptionally slow exercise involving handwritten documents and postage stamps has become easier for the businesses seeking feedback, and for the customers whose feedback is sought.
Low-cost online and automated survey technologies have meant more businesses than ever are able to jump on the bandwagon and chase their customers’ opinions.
But those technologies, combined with a pandemic-induced online “spendemic”, mean survey demands placed on consumers are at an all-time high.
Too many surveys with too many questions too often result in the beleaguered consumer turning their back on the feedback-gathering exercise.
Response rates will drop like flies and it is not hard to understand why.
Many consumers feel uncomfortable when approached for feedback because they prefer to speak up only when they are either exceptionally pleased or extremely disappointed.
Some become annoyed when companies continue to send surveys after every purchase or service transaction — even if previous requests have been ignored — while others feel companies are overstepping the mark by sending multiple reminders to respond to the same survey.
Increasingly, consumers feel their contact details are being misused and even exploited when they are asked to complete surveys. They provided contact details in good faith so they could be kept informed of new products or sales, not to receive a barrage of surveys.
There are also those customers who feel placed in an awkward position when they are offered a form of reward to complete a survey.
Some customers walk away from surveys because there are too many questions, or because they are regularly misled about the time required to complete the survey.
The impact of survey fatigue is serious, with many customers fed up with being asked to give too much feedback too often.
Survey fatigue can result in the recording of a bad customer experience because consumers feel frustrated, annoyed and harassed. It can also damage a company’s brand and drive buyers away altogether.
As our online spending onslaught continues and the number of surveys we are sent shows no sign of abating, perhaps what is really needed is a “survey about surveys” to find out how we really feel about being asked to provide our feedback.
Either that or we could all consider going on a prolonged survey strike.
Professor Gary Martin is chief executive of the Australian Institute of Management WA
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