Some time back I bought a new Car, I got a very good deal as the sales for that Car were sagging. I got a follow-up call after a fortnight from the Car Manufacturer for feedback. It turned out to be a 40+ question survey. The purpose of the survey was to discover why I chose this car. It was conducted in Hindi and the surveyor raced through the questions very rapidly. He started with a promise that he has few questions and would need little time. Both were untrue. Could they have done this better?
- Length of survey: Many times I interrupted ‘How much longer?’ and the answer was a bit more. Post the 7th -8th question I had completely lost interest. He was talking to a ‘heavily distracted’ user. I am on phone. I am questioning if this call is genuine. I don’t see a face. Taking a snap feedback from such a user especially on 10 point scale is probably not a great idea. Because the interrogator was in a hurry I also answered in a hurry. The point of using 10 point scale is to allow for fine calibration. A hurried response to such question defeats the purpose. In the interest of courtesy, I stayed patient for the entire exercise but answered randomly on scale of 10. In a hurried setup, maximum 3 choices would have been more appropriate.
- Incentive to Reply: They should have offered something as incentive for the time contribution I made. More importantly, the reward should have been informed before the quiz started. It could have been a token, very nominal; but the gesture matters.
- Timing of the Call: Most importantly, the primary motive of call was to uncover the purchase process. The best time to seek customer feedback was immediately post purchase or post delivery. I think they missed a BIG trick here. Vehicle purchase and formalities is a long drawn process. No person is hassled. It is a family involving process. Best time to seek feedback on purchase intentions and process is immediately after the delivery. No need to wait a fortnight. My guess is that the survey was outsourced to an external vendor. The Experiment and Survey Design leaves a lot be desired.
- Method of Soliciting: As a matter of tendency, we do not like to give unpleasant feedback to people directly. Also, the positive responses can be excessively exaggerated when we give a personal feedback. Whether to keep the method personal or technology driven or somewhere in between to a large extend depends on the primary question itself. To uncover the purchase process and intention a personal technology assisted method is apt. There are questions on 10 point scale where the responder will be happy to respond in person without any moderating influence. You can read more on Hawthorne Effect.
We are Customer3SIXTY respect
- Survey Design as a discipline and design surveys to solicit TRUE responses to the problem statement
- Understand the Consumer Behaviour and Technology to use the appropriate mix of technology, platform, format and media to get best insight out of the customer
Stay tuned for a post which explains how we marry Right Technology to Right Customer Segment!
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