Thank you for your recent customer service request. In order to serve you better, please take a moment to answer the following question: Do you find answering customer service surveys like this after every minor contact with a vendor 1) annoying, 2) very annoying, 3) excruciatingly annoying, or ...
"Relative to other gripes on which you report, mine is rather tame, but nonetheless vexing," a reader wrote recently. "It seems that most companies are now searching for ways to demonstrate their wonderful customer service and public relations savvy. Almost every time I call for support, make a purchase or have virtually any other dealings with companies in my field of work or personal life I receive either an e-mail or phone solicitation wanting me to complete a survey concerning my satisfaction with them. This has become ridiculously annoying and wastes an inordinate amount of valuable time."
But the reader worries about the consequences if he doesn't respond. "It would be simple to just say no or not respond to the survey presented," the reader wrote. "Unfortunately, many companies evaluate individual techs and salespersons using the results of the surveys. For this reason, I am always reluctant to refuse to do a survey when the service referred is good to excellent. On the other hand, when the service is poor there is little or no hesitation. We have instituted a policy of refusing to participate in blind surveys not connected with work performed, but even work-related surveys take up way too much time."
As an example, the reader points to Dell. "I have seen some complaints about Dell's service in your column, but I have never experienced it, whether at work or personally," the reader wrote. "We have dealt exclusively with Dell for our computers and have had nothing but consistently excellent service from them, far and away the best I've seen from any company in almost twenty years in the industry. On the other hand, Dell drowns me in surveys which I grudgingly complete."
Is it possible that those of you who haven't had such great experiences with Dell brought it all on your own heads by not responding to their surveys? Well, maybe not. But we could all probably name a company or two that we feel give us good service but that drive us batty with their constant requests to evaluate their performance. And in asking how we should deal with their surveys, the reader has put his finger on what is indeed quite a thorny issue.
It's easy to dismiss all surveys, and of course that's what we should do with those that are really just thinly-disguised sales pitches. But if we want good customer service, do we need to respond to the questionnaires of the companies we do business with? The only way to answer that question is ... with a survey, of course. In order that we may serve you better, please take a moment to find the poll box in the right-hand column of my webpage and tell us what you think.
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