Your opinion counts!

One of the basics of customer experience management is to establish a dialog between the company offering services or products and its customers or potential customers. One way to build that relationship is to use large scale surveys where the target audience is asked for its opinion… Customers in return will appreciate the company for opening a channel to voice their concerns, advices or compliments. The web has enabled companies to set up very easily online surveys that can be answered in a minimum amount of time by a very significant number of people. Thus the kind of pop-ups that appears on your browser sometimes.

Your opinion counts…

Companies caring so much about their customers and wanting to know more in order (it is my best guess) to improve their services is very encouraging. So while I am browsing the web, I usually go through these little questionnaires thinking that maybe I can make a difference in this “customer uncentered” world.

When I click on these links, I always feel good about the company that put that questionnaire online because it shows that my opinion is valued, right?. Then, what happens when the questionnaire is actually not caring at all about customer opinions?

Let’s take a look at what happens when clicking on the “Your opinion counts” on Yahoo website… Below is a screenshot of the first page of the questionnaire:

My best guess for people’s first reaction is: “Damn! Again those demographics questions!”. Actually, in customer research, without demographics, results cannot be controlled and they may mislead companies in taking decision they ought not to take. As a result “some” demographics questions are a must. However, the result when clicking on the “Continue” button is a "Thank you" page...

“Huh! …I thought my opinion counted!?!

I did not know that my birth date or whether I live in the US was an opinion.”

Let’s take some time now to step back and imagine…

You enter your favorite coffee shop, happy or unhappy, you take one of those “Your opinion counts” questionnaire. You look at the questions and all the coffee shop asks for is: “What is your age?”, “Are you married?” and “How many hours do you spend in coffee shops every week?”. What could be your reaction?

Now one may wonder what is so different about the Web that can allow companies to use “tricks” like this to get people’s personal information. And one may also wonder whether the company putting this survey on its website wondered about the impact on its brand perception.

There is still a long way to go, but customers... do not despair! Because remember “YOUR OPINION COUNTS!”

Nicolas Lassus
Customer input Ltd.
http://www.customerinput.com