The Kindness of strangers

By Marty Carroll

Online surveys. Love them or loath them, they work [when used correctly]. There isn’t a more effective research technique available today that allows for, amongst others, the ability to profile site visitors, ascertain why they are visiting and knowing whether their visit was a success. Despite this we often discourage our clients from using surveys. The reason? Most brands want to use surveys as an ‘asking’ rather than a ‘listening’ tool.

Surveys come undone ironically because they are so easy to deploy. With even a smidgen of programming knowledge, a spare afternoon and a (small) fistful of dollars it’s possible to spring a survey on the unsuspecting masses visiting your website. This ease explains why most people consider online surveys to be the internet equivalent of the uninvited windscreen cleaner. The vast majority of surveys have been poorly designed, have an unclear purpose and suffer from interminable issues with presentation (we’re all too familiar with intrusive survey invitations).

Online surveys are a compelling research method when they are used as a listening tool. This means that the survey is not used simply to ask questions but to listen to the responses aligned to a willingness to act on them. Regrettably most organisations today use surveys to ask the questions (usually the wrong ones), shake their heads depressingly at customer responses and then do absolutely nothing with the results. Our view is this: if strangers are kind enough to tell you how you can improve your business you should do something about it.

Resist the temptation. Don’t bother with surveys unless you are prepared to make the infrastructure and resource investments to ensure that these people are listened to. That means carefully planning how surveys are to be used, introducing a framework for managing feedback and making people accountable for acting on the feedback. When people feel listened to they will repay you in kind.