Don't Waste Your Survey

April 19, 2018 / Steve Johnson

I'm a satisfied customer of WellsFargo. Never had any problems.

Got this survey card recently asking how they can best serve me in the future. 

I have a few questions:

1. Don't they know what services I use?
2. How does knowing these answers help them understand how to better serve me?
3. What benefit do I get by answering these questions?

Professional researchers have found that customers don't need an incentive to participate in a survey but they do need to believe that answering the survey will result in better service or better products. In this case, I don't see how anyone benefits. And I'm certainly not going to waste my own money to buy a postage stamp to return this to them.

Surveys are great when used correctly. But they are so often over-used without a clear objective. We all get "survey-fatigue" when we're constantly bombarded with "how was your stay?" and "How was your flight?" and "How was your meal?" and so on and so on.

Clients don't need a gift; they do need to see the value of their response.