I don’t know about you, but it seems that I am inundated with requests for customer experience feedback using online NPS and CSat surveys. This week alone I’ve received three feedback invites in my inbox. I’m finding more often than not that feedback surveys fall into three categories, ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’.
The Ugly Scenario: When customer experience feedback is not warranted
During the week I was sent an online feedback request for a 3 minute Q&A discussion on the phone. The odd thing is, I’m not a customer and I don’t need the product. Subsequently they’ve sent me 2 further reminders, just in case I missed the previous requests – no wonder our customers are suffering survey fatigue.
The Bad Scenario: When customer experience feedback requests are all too constant
If you grocery shop online you will be well acquainted with this scenario. Every week I order my groceries online and-every-week after the groceries are delivered the retailer emails me a request for customer experience feedback. Enough with the weekly requests – this only educates customers to dismiss requests for feedback and impacts overall data quality.
The Good Scenario: When customer experience feedback engages customers
This week I needed a new insurance product, so I reached out to a colleague for a recommendation. Now from previous experience I was expecting the process to be time consuming and fraught with paperwork hurdles. To my delight, the broker’s approach was effortless across each stage of the journey and seamless across their physical and digital channels – so much so, I’m still raving about the experience.
However, what really surprised me was their approach to a customer satisfaction survey. Firstly, being respectful of customer’s time they only asked 3 questions. Secondly, the wording of the questions had been re-invented using language that was personalised for the segment.
Instead of the traditional ‘how likely are you to recommend’ question, they’d substituted, for most likely and least likely to recommend: ‘Absolutely! You guys rock’ and ‘Not at all, pull your socks up’.
In the race to understand our customers’ satisfaction, many organisations are neglecting the first principle of customer-centricity – honoring a human approach. By simply talking to customers using everyday language, instead of business-speak, we have the opportunity to connect, engage and make our customers feel good.