How a survey can let you see into the soul of an organization

Is hate too strong of a word to describe how I feel about surveys? 

Generally there are two things (maybe three) wrong with most surveys:

1. You can tell yourself lies with surveys.   Questions can be written to give you just about any answer you want.  Most people think they are good at asking survey questions and they are not.
2. Most data collected in a survey will never actually benefit the person answering the survey questions.   "you want me to spend 7 minutes of my LIFE on this stupid project to help YOU?"
3. Well...#3 is probably the same as #2....but the data is going to be wasted and not change my life one bit.

The following is a perfect example:

The following shows up in my inbox today.  Unsolicited I might add.   Check out the top.  Somehow they are smart enough to send me the English version I guess.

   

So I suppose it's nice that Dave the COO of Sofitel and I are on a first name basis, but as he makes this pitch where is the benefit to me?   And hey Dave:  If we are so tight, how come I'M NOT ALLOWED TO REPLY!   Moron.  I guess you don't want direct feedback.  Just the filtered kind some research company sold you.

The reality is that they do a few things right with this email.  They recognize me and the date of my stay.  They do permit me to unsubscribe.  But why would anyone take the time to fill this out? 

Of course I hate useless surveys enough to click the link anyway....hoping to make a lession out of this.  :-)

The following are a few of the questions and some thoughts on each...thoughts focused not on being an a--hole, but on showing missed opportunity.

Let me mention that the first page of the survey let's me know this is going to take anywhere from 4 to 7 minutes...why?  What are they really after?

So here we are at a typical question.  Honestly,   Why are they putting me through all this?  Look at the bar in the upper right letting me know how much further I've got to go.  As general data this is garbage.   Impeccably?  So I gave them middle of the road scores here except for the Quietness of the Room.   I wonder if I'll get a Quieter room next time??

So this one was great.  Mind you I'm somewhere around 10 questions into this thing by now.  Look at the names of resturants?  I'm supposed to remember if the hotel lobby resturant was called La Fougasse or Chez Colette?  I staggered off the elevator and walked in.

Oh another interesting thing to note:  I WALKED IN DURING LUNCH!  I guess they are not interested in any feedback regarding the midday meal.   I Had a club sandwich with some kind of crazy homemade chips served in a weird cone thing.  Remember it well....if anyone really cares.

Ok one more series...

These questions focus on The Competition.  Ok, by now I'm many more questions in and probably coming up on the 7 minute wall.   They want to know about the competion.  How many nights do you travel on business?   (over 100)  How many nights do you travel for pleasure?  (15).

Ok, Sofitel I should now be sending alarms off somewhere in your organization.   Favorite hotel?  (Westin)   In a program?  (SPG >250,000 beautiful platinum points)

The above page is just an exampleof the many competitive questions asked.  I'm telling them specifically what I love and my preferences.   What a marketing treasure trove.   Surely providing all this personal data is going to drive them to make me some pretty compelling offer to switch to Sofitel?   I doubt it.

I'll bet money I'll never hear from these people again.  My plea for Jim Beam in the minibar will go unheard and another opportunity to use data driven email marketing to build a truely great relationship with a high value customer will be  wasted.

Pity.  I'll also be some company charged them north of $100 grand to set up this scientific survey.

Comments

[jack]

I recently found a very interesting website:
http://alreadylinked.com/
There you can purchase ad space for your Blog etc.

[Tom]

Chris

You have missed the point of the survey. The questions are all bonus questions. I will bet 100 dollars that every Manager on the property has their bonus partially tied to the survey response, and they could care less about what you want, but that you answer the questions in the best possible way to improve their bonuses.

In the internal politics of Sofitel, this is a very valid survey as it has to be worded to maximize their compensation.

[Justin Foster]

Chris - I've been reading your blog for awhile - good stuff! Regarding this post on surveys ... I totally agree with you! We have a saying at BlueLine - "Don't automate intimacy."

We also learned something from Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, in that we recommend that our clients ask (and track) just three questions. 1) What is one thing we are doing right?, 2) What is one thing we need to work on?, and 3) Would you refer us to a friend?

It is amazing how much feedback these three simple questions create. They also initiate great conversations - which is really the whole point.

[Chris Byrne]

Chris

Excellent point on feedback. Why ask for feedback and then say don't call me, call someone else? When deploying a survey the usual rules of good email practice still apply. A provision for "feedback on the feedback" should also be in the survey.

Oddly enough, it was a post on "why email surveys are useful" on emailwars that brought me here (http://url.ie/2p4)

However, there is much evidence that this kind of feedback is taken seriously and acted upon. I hope that Sofitel didn't pay 100k since pricing is usually based per response.

Chris Byrne

[Doug Davila]

Hello Chris,

Regarding surveys--a great book (an an easy read) is The Ultimate Question by Fred Reichheld. Fred is a Bain consultant who teaches companies how to do customer satisfaction based around one simple question--Would you recommend "us" to a friend?

He demonstrates how companies such as Enterprise have implemented his ideas and how they logically tie employee incentives and feedback.

A great read full of information that can be put into practice by any organization.

And yes, I would recommend this book to a friend!

Cheers.

Doug Davila