What the heck is with all the surveys ?

[frayne]

I think I get a survey on darn near everything these days, have your car serviced, get a survey, buy something on line, get a survey, buy something at a retail store and get a survey, pick your nose in public and get a survey.

Now if I get unusually bad or good service I am going to contact the appropriate parties but for God's sakes, stop with all the damn surveys.

BTW, I never fill them out anymore. What say you or am I just being an old cantankerous fart ?

 

[pb4uski]

I ignore them all.

 

[RunningBum]

If I'm pissed off or especially pleased with service, I'll do a survey. Otherwise, not unless I'm bored.

 

[MichaelB]

What say you or am I just being an old cantankerous fart ?

You forgot something.
Get off my lawn - YouTube

 

[braumeister]

am I just being an old cantankerous fart ?

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Research has shown that getting a customer involved with a company by filling out a survey (which will be ignored) leads to a more favorable impression of that company later down the road. And it makes no difference whether you give them high marks or low marks. You'll forget which it was, and just remember that they reached out to touch you and you'll feel a warm fuzzy for them because of it.

 

[urn2bfree]

This is all about "metrics." Every sharp pencil guy is using these survey results to measure what they are doing and how they might do better.. All of this despite the lack of validation that the survey measures anything meaningful. This is happening everywhere. In medicine reimbursement is going to be tied to patient satisfaction scores. I have seen people graph these out by month based on 8 surveys a month! How can that mean anything? and what about the fact that patient satisfaction may not actually be as important as other outcomes.

Example: Doctor does not prescribe antibiotics for acute bronchitis because 40 years of evidence shows they do not help, and they increase resistant organisms. No matter how many times docs try to explain this, it remains an expectation of the patient to get antibiotics. So they are supposed to take time and explain it, which makes the appointment take longer, making the doctor run behind..and the other patients are unsatisfied...and doc has to explain this over and over and over. So doc schedules longer appointments, which means longer time to "get" an appointment because now there are fewer appointments in a day....So no matter what the patient is "unsatisfied." And so instead. Just write the prescription to satisfy patient and get good survey results. And meanwhile the patient is less healthy and breeding super bugs that will not respond to antibiotics...

And this is one of the many reasons that almost nobody I know who practices medicine nowadays wonders why I retired early...

 

[Alan]

Has anyone been surveyed on their favorite style or type of survey? Just wondering....

 

[frayne]

Maybe we need a survey to get the real feelings about surveys. As far as Doctors go, they should schedule a set amount of patients per day and be done with it. I hate waiting in the doctor's office and my doc knows it, I tell him what I think I need and he agrees or explains his views. Then usually we talk about non medical issues and at his request.

 

[MBAustin]

Has anyone been surveyed on their favorite style or type of survey? Just wondering....

I've actually taken a couple of surveys that asked questions at the end about how well I liked the survey. Made me wish I hadn't bothered with the survey in the first place.

 

[Major Tom]

I'm getting stressed just reading this thread......

 

[aja8888]

For kicks, I participated in a survey on my cell phone's service (PagePlus) that was quite long. For doing this, a $10 Amazon gift card was to be "sent" to you (never explained how sent). Well, the survey was very detailed and I never got the $10 card. Go figure...

 

[W2R]

What say you or am I just being an old cantankerous fart ?

If you are a cantankerous fart, then I'm the female equivalent. What would that be, a cantankerous fartlette? a cantankerous fartess? a cantankerous fartelina? Whadevah...

I just wonder who if anybody actually ANALYZES the data collected in these surveys, and how, and what conclusions they draw and with what degree of statistical confidence, and, and, and.... Oh well, they probably just get stuffed into somebody's bottom file drawer to look at later. Then, when that person retires, somebody will put them in the shredder, not knowing what else to do with them, and with the fervent hope that nobody notices.

 

[Walt34]

I'm tempted to start at survey about surveys. I suppose that should go in the "what did you do today?" thread.

 

[easysurfer]

I think the reason for all the surveys are copy cat companies. One place has one that maybe worked one time, then before you know it, every place has one. You know, kinda like selfies. That was probably cool when new but now over done and commercialized (uhh.. Big Poppy?).

As for online surveys, nothing like a good spam filter to route them to my spam folder

 

[photoguy]

Somehow I got stuck in a longitudinal study at the NSF. They keep tracking me down every couple years to see how I'm doing (even to the point of emailing former colleagues as to my whereabouts -- very annoying). The last time I delayed so long they said they would send me $20 but it never arrived.

 

[EastWest Gal]

This is all about "metrics." Every sharp pencil guy is using these survey results to measure what they are doing and how they might do better.. All of this despite the lack of validation that the survey measures anything meaningful. This is happening everywhere. In medicine reimbursement is going to be tied to patient satisfaction scores. I have seen people graph these out by month based on 8 surveys a month! How can that mean anything? and what about the fact that patient satisfaction may not actually be as important as other outcomes.

Example: Doctor does not prescribe antibiotics for acute bronchitis because 40 years of evidence shows they do not help, and they increase resistant organisms. No matter how many times docs try to explain this, it remains an expectation of the patient to get antibiotics. So they are supposed to take time and explain it, which makes the appointment take longer, making the doctor run behind..and the other patients are unsatisfied...and doc has to explain this over and over and over. So doc schedules longer appointments, which means longer time to "get" an appointment because now there are fewer appointments in a day....So no matter what the patient is "unsatisfied." And so instead. Just write the prescription to satisfy patient and get good survey results. And meanwhile the patient is less healthy and breeding super bugs that will not respond to antibiotics...

And this is one of the many reasons that almost nobody I know who practices medicine nowadays wonders why I retired early...

Been there and am doing that.

 

[EastWest Gal]

If you are a cantankerous fart, then I'm the female equivalent. What would that be, a cantankerous fartlette? a cantankerous fartess? a cantankerous fartelina? Whadevah... .

A fartlette is a little fart. A fartelina is likely a dancing one. I go with cantankerous fartesse, e.g. a royal female fart. ;-D

 

[scrabbler1]

Those surveys are pretty worthless, I have found (especially those from banking and other financial institutions). I recall getting some bad service at a restaurant and took a survey only to find no way to let them know what I did not like. Instead, I went to the restaurant's website and was able to complain there. I got a call from the manager 2 days later (I asked to have him call me) and we had a useful conversation.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

I hate them. It seems like every transaction these days comes with a demand for my information or my time. Sometimes you just want to buy a mother-loving tube of toothpaste without being accosted...

 

[timo2]

The plethora of surveys is because the current methodology for organizational customer support is very heavy on metrics, especially as related to customer relationships. These surveys probably only go as far as the supervisor of the people you dealt with. People have their job performance rated on the results of these surveys. That said, I rarely fill them out unless I am sure they will get to their desired destination. People will intercept the surveys and pitch the bad ones (wouldn't you?)

 

[athena53]

Definitely a pet peeve of mine, and I've designed a few myself.

I saw one where any rating below "Very good" REQUIRED comments in a text box. That would, of course, discourage most people from clicking on lower ratings and bias the results. I once filled out a survey form a waiter included with my restaurant check. It was a buffet at a hotel in India and the food was heavenly but I thought it was overpriced for the location. On the way out the manager stopped me and argued the latter point. He said it would cost that much in London or New York. Yeah, but this is Delhi. Never again.

Now, I don't bother with surveys unless there's a legitimate incentive. You send me a survey after I stay at your hotel, tell me what's in it for me. Gimme 500 points in your loyalty program or I won't bother. I am, however, happy to post reviews on TripAdvisor. I guess it's because I'm not locked into clicking pages of boxes and can use my own words and pictures, and because I've found their reviews a wonderful resource in planning my own travels.

I used to do surveys for a group that offered funny money to be redeemed for airline and hotel miles (wasn't e-Miles, it was a competitor but the name escapes me). Naturally, many started out with screening questions and you got kicked out with only a token reward if you didn't qualify. Sometimes it made sense. If I'm not planning to buy a new car in the next 12 months, then that's a valid reason you don't want my response in a survey of car buyers. More and more, though, it would go beyond basic criteria, ask 10 minutes of questions that provided some useful information, THEN kick you out with 50 cents. I quit taking those surveys.

 

[eytonxav]

Better to be an old cantankerous fart or fartina, than an old wet fart or fartina

 

[MichaelB]

I just wonder who if anybody actually ANALYZES the data collected in these surveys, and how, and what conclusions they draw and with what degree of statistical confidence, and, and, and.... Oh well, they probably just get stuffed into somebody's bottom file drawer to look at later. Then, when that person retires, somebody will put them in the shredder, not knowing what else to do with them, and with the fervent hope that nobody notices.

Back in the day one of my jobs was managing satisfaction surveys. My employer took them seriously, spent big $$ managing the process, and results affected pay and promotions. A few others here have similar experiences as I recall from a past discussion of Baldrige assessment.

One sure sign of a well designed feedback process: the people (or businesses) being surveyed see a purpose in it, so they too take it seriously.

I usually respond to the surveys. With the first couple of questions it's easy to tell if it leads to something or is just a checkmark in some corporate to-do list. Safe to say that the companies that need them the most are the ones that spend the least effort...

 

[David1961]

Whenever I take the time to complete a survey, if they have a box for "What can we do to improve?", I will write "Stop taking these stupid surveys". Never works, though.

 

[kcowan]

Does anybody use Trip Advisor to express yourselves? We do.