Survey Says....??
We're being surveyed to death but do you notice any appreciable uptick in customer service?
You can't buy a taco anymore without being inundated with requests to take surveys. You can't conduct any business on the phone, hardly, without being asked to take "a quick, three-question survey on the quality of my service."
Granted, many survey requests, from JC Penney to Del Taco, are accompanied by a chance to win something. Your name will get tossed into a cyber hat to win cash and prizes. Or so they say.
This increase in requests for survey taking has been going on for several years. Yet I am still seeing the same level of crappy service. Or, at the very least, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference in service, other than being asked to take a survey about said service.
I don't want to broad stroke brush the service industry, as I have been a part of it and continue to be in an indirect way. But what is happening with all the feedback that we're doling out these days? Is it being read? Investigated? Acted upon?
No way to prove it, I suppose. I guess we are just left with taking it on faith that when we fill out the surveys and punch the numbers on our phone, the data is disseminated and analyzed.
I am not adverse to taking the short phone surveys, mainly because they're short. I'm not much of a phone person, especially when it comes to transacting business with the utility companies or the like. I just want to finish my business and be done. Not a big fan of extending the phone call. But I'll do a quickie survey that takes 15-20 seconds.
And while I'm at it, how come I am asked to type in account numbers and account passwords into the automated phone system, and the first question the rep asks me when he/she comes on the line is, "May I have your account number and password, please?"
Is anyone listening?
The latest thing is something they're doing at K-Mart and elsewhere: asking you if you'd like your receipt e-mailed to you, instead of a paper version from the register. This is for anything from a gallon of milk to a big screen TV.
Now, why I'd want to have a receipt e-mailed to me when I am standing right in front of a machine that can spit one out in a matter of moments at the point of purchase, I'll never know. But at K-Mart they make you answer this question, using the stylus and machine used for debit card transactions.
But back to my original query.
Is the quality of service increasing? And if so, do you attribute it to all the survey taking we've been doing in recent years?
Who the hell knows?
By the way, now that this blog post has ended, if you could stick around and answer a few questions, I'd appreciate it. On a five-point scale:
1) How was my writing? With 5 being Very Satisfactory and 1 being Very Dissatisfied
2) Will you recommend this blog to a friend? With 5 being Very Likely and 1 being Very Unlikely
3) Do you agree with this post? With 5 being Agree Highly and 1 being Highly Disagree
Thank you. You are now entered to win a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni.
You can't buy a taco anymore without being inundated with requests to take surveys. You can't conduct any business on the phone, hardly, without being asked to take "a quick, three-question survey on the quality of my service."
Granted, many survey requests, from JC Penney to Del Taco, are accompanied by a chance to win something. Your name will get tossed into a cyber hat to win cash and prizes. Or so they say.
This increase in requests for survey taking has been going on for several years. Yet I am still seeing the same level of crappy service. Or, at the very least, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference in service, other than being asked to take a survey about said service.
I don't want to broad stroke brush the service industry, as I have been a part of it and continue to be in an indirect way. But what is happening with all the feedback that we're doling out these days? Is it being read? Investigated? Acted upon?
No way to prove it, I suppose. I guess we are just left with taking it on faith that when we fill out the surveys and punch the numbers on our phone, the data is disseminated and analyzed.
I am not adverse to taking the short phone surveys, mainly because they're short. I'm not much of a phone person, especially when it comes to transacting business with the utility companies or the like. I just want to finish my business and be done. Not a big fan of extending the phone call. But I'll do a quickie survey that takes 15-20 seconds.
And while I'm at it, how come I am asked to type in account numbers and account passwords into the automated phone system, and the first question the rep asks me when he/she comes on the line is, "May I have your account number and password, please?"
Is anyone listening?
The latest thing is something they're doing at K-Mart and elsewhere: asking you if you'd like your receipt e-mailed to you, instead of a paper version from the register. This is for anything from a gallon of milk to a big screen TV.
Now, why I'd want to have a receipt e-mailed to me when I am standing right in front of a machine that can spit one out in a matter of moments at the point of purchase, I'll never know. But at K-Mart they make you answer this question, using the stylus and machine used for debit card transactions.
But back to my original query.
Is the quality of service increasing? And if so, do you attribute it to all the survey taking we've been doing in recent years?
Who the hell knows?
By the way, now that this blog post has ended, if you could stick around and answer a few questions, I'd appreciate it. On a five-point scale:
1) How was my writing? With 5 being Very Satisfactory and 1 being Very Dissatisfied
2) Will you recommend this blog to a friend? With 5 being Very Likely and 1 being Very Unlikely
3) Do you agree with this post? With 5 being Agree Highly and 1 being Highly Disagree
Thank you. You are now entered to win a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni.
Comments
Post a Comment
As you will...