I was recently asked to speak and do a book signing at Georgian Court University. I spoke to business people and marketing / business students.

At the event I had a chance to sit with some of the attendees and discuss marketing issues.
One of the topics we discussed was online surveys. The general opinion was that online surveys are annoying and intrusive.

The particular surveys I am talking about are the ones that appear after a purchase has been made a purchase through a website’s shopping engine. Typically, there is little to no incentive to fill out these surveys other than helping the website owner better their service and sales process.

I got to thinking about this, why ask the customer to take their valuable time to help you? This seems like a total disregard for a customer’s time only to make the process better for the store. It’s not a customer’s responsibility to help you get better, not directly anyway.

We should, “listen” to our customers even when they say nothing. It would seem to me that it’s a futile effort to survey the people that made it through to checkout. I’d much rather know about the experience of the people that didn’t buy.

Website statistics and analytics programs give us great information about what people look at; don’t look at, where they leave the site and more. You can track failed site searches, abandoned carts and time spent per page. Sure it takes time and it’s a tedious process to analyze this data and then fix the issues but it’s your site, it should be your time spent not your customer’s. You’re the one who will benefit so take the time and stop asking me, the customer to do it.

Ironically, after coming home that night I received a call from my health insurance provider (technically a call center they hired). They wanted me to take a customer satisfaction survey so they could improve their performance.

At first I thought, okay, my insurance company doesn’t have an analytics program tracking my movements in the doctors office (at least I hope they don’t – how embarrassing would that be?) so I’ll take a minute to give them some feedback. If figured it was a general,  “What would you like to see improved” . I would say, “Charge me less and stop making me submit the same claim 15 times before you pay it.” They would reply, “We’re on it, thanks for your time”. Unfortunately it was a little more complicated.

Once I agreed to take the survey I was told, “This should only take 8 to 12 minutes”. Eight to twelve minutes! Are you friggin kidding me! I don’t want to spend that kind of time on the phone with someone I don’t know, I don’t want to spend that kind of time talking to people I do know!

I told the woman I really have no interest in spending that kind of time answering random questions. She told me she could call back when I had more time. I said sure, I’ll be retiring in about fifteen years, try and catch me then but don’t call too late, I’m sure I’ll be going to bed early.

I am sure that an insurance company gets boat loads of complaints on a regular basis. How about surveying the unhappy customers? I’m sure they would have no problem telling you how to improve your service – at length!

If you truly need my feedback you better give some kind of valuable incentive to make it worth my  while. The insurance company offered nothing other than the satisfaction I would get from knowing I helped a large corporation become larger. They proved what I already knew about insurance companies. They do not value my time and they proved it by offering me nothing in return for it.

As marketing people and as business people we all need to realize that in our clickable culture customers are busier than ever before. Respecting a customers time is one of the best things you can do to make your service better. Get me in, get me out. Make it easier for me even if that means it’s harder for you. 

If you want me to answer survey questions, you better be Richard Dawson and I better win some cash if I get the answers right!

Let’s file this under “how not to convert a website visitor”. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a new home. As 90% of all people in the market for a new home do, I went online to view homes in my area. I was happy to see all the helpful features real estate websites offer such as virtual tours, tons of detailed area information, maps and even the ability to save properties I like for a later visit. This feature in particular interested me as it allows me to narrow down my choices over time, print a detailed list and show it to a realtor when I’m ready to select one.  When I am ready to choose a realtor my guess is that I would have called one whose website I’ve established the best relationship with. That’s right, I said establish a relationship with a website. When a site makes a connection you inevitably establish a relationship. You see websites are like virtual sales people (in this case virtual realtors). In sales terms, websites are “openers”. They find the leads and build report. Once report is built a “closer” needs to step in and make the deal happen.  A website builds relationship by allowing me to find what I’m looking for easily, giving me great content that fits my needs and all the tools I need to research and make an educated decision as to what my next steps should be. 

Now no matter how good a website is at establishing a relationship it can all go wrong in the blink of an eye. The sales process can go sour if the relationship is abused. I mentioned tools that allowed me to save my searches. In order to use these tools you inevitably have to give some information up. I’m okay with giving my contact information in order to use this helpful tool. 

I expected an email to come at some point letting me know that when I’m ready to choose a realtor they are ready to help me. That email never came instead I got a phone call from “Juanita”. Juanita left a message on my voice mail telling me exactly which properties I’d looked at and that she wants to show them to me right away before they are sold because of course, they are HOT, HOT, HOT! 

Well Juanita, you’ll never get to show me those properties because you abused the relationship, you took it too far and quite simply made me feel like my privacy was invaded. You see the great thing about the web is anonymity. Everyone is a supermodel or a rock star behind the keyboard but once someone takes that from you, you quickly realize that you’re just fat and naked typing with two fingers. 

Don’t abuse the tools you offer your clients in good faith. Don’t take the relationship for granted. Give your potential clients the respect they think they deserve and it will pay off in the long run. Juanita didn’t respect her potential client and lost a big fat commission check. Maybe next time she’ll buy me dinner before trying to get me in the sack? –There’s a process for everything.