Protect Yourself Against Consumer Survey Fatigue
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Protect Yourself Against Consumer Survey Fatigue
By: Marc E. Carlson, RRP
CustomerCount© Business Relationship Manager
One sure fire way to get a customer to stop providing you feedback on a regular basis is to ask them for that feedback multiple times within a short duration of time. Therefore, it would be prudent to setup a routine in your customer feedback program that identifies consumers who have provided feedback within the last “x” days so the system does not try to send the customer yet another survey. Why might you ask? Because consumers are starting to become weary of all the customer feedback requests they receive and time is just as precious to them as it is to us. There is a good chance that if you over survey a customer, it could damage the brand loyalty you have built over time with that individual. If this occurs, you most likely will lose the customer to a competitor and it will not matter what incentive you use to lure them back to your brand.
Make sure your survey program has this functionality to set timing and you are taking advantage of it! Clients of CustomerCount© traditionally set the number of days between surveys at thirty to forty-five days. Granted, this duration of time may be different for your organization depending on the product or service you provide. I highly recommend you have a conversation with your survey vendor(s) to review this topic with them before you lose too many customers. I know this works for surveys that are driven by e-mail but not too sure with IVR survey systems so be aware. Maybe some of our friends who manage IVR survey programs can chime in and give us their input.
Agreed. In addition, we have found that giving customers multiple ways to provide feedback is one key to limiting attrition.
I couldn’t agree more Steve. Having multiple options to provide feedback allows the consumer to respond with the most convenient method at that time. One day it could be completing a survey at their work pc, the next time could be their personal mobile device or IVR.
I’m surprised more organizations do not incorporate multiple methods to collect feedback. Especially in this day and age with preference marketing becoming the hot topic.
I agree with you Marc. I do feel that multiple ways to collect feedback is a great idea if you do not inconvenience the customers. If you hit them for feedback on the same subject matter using multiple methods they may become angry and withdraw from giving feedback all together.
I see your point Matt. It depends on how the customer interacted with your brand as to which survey method(s) you would position with the consumer. It would be rather embarrassing to have the consumer complete an online survey and then call them afterwards to collect customer feedback via an IVR.