My Audi was in for service. I like my car, I like my dealer and I like the Audi brand but all those fond feelings were diminished when I started taking the online survey.
I’m an advocate of asking for customer service feedback. I’m also an advocate for making it quick, easy and painless.
After clicking through what seemed like endless pages of questions and numerical scoring, I finally and thankfully arrived at the end. “Is there anything else you’d like us to know?” was the final question, to which I responded, “Yes. I won’t complete another ridiculously long survey like this again.”
I often don’t respond to surveys because I have neither the time nor inclination. I did in this case because I was quite pleased by the job my service advisor did and wanted Audi and the dealer to know. I came to rue the decision.
Deciding how much to ask and how long the survey will take are important considerations. I realize that more information and detail is more helpful. But beware: asking for too much of the customer’s time is off-putting.
Why not bundle a short survey with a long survey? The short survey may be 5-10 critical questions or scores that don’t take more time. Tell the customer how long it will take before they opt in. Then, after they’ve finished the short survey, ask if they’d be willing to answer some additional questions (and let them know how much longer that will take).
J.D. Powers provided the painfully long survey for Audi, and I respect their ability to gather and crunch useful data. But in the age of perpetual distraction and limited attention, we’ve got to remember that if you don’t get feedback quickly, you may not get it at all.
