Tribal HQ

A while ago we asked on our Facebook page ‘What are your poor survey design stories?’.

Lara Solomon (@LaRoo) said:

I have to say that I shamelessly often fill in survey’s in hotels and restaurants when I get bad service, and there is that box where you can choose if you want to be contacted about your comments, I always tick yes…. needless to say I am still waiting on the calls…. To me these are really badly designed, as obviously no one reads them, so it tells me a lot about the company, I think some companies do it because they think they have to, but if nothing is done with it what is the point?

Often a core problem with research is that asking the questions is thought to be the research. There can be a process in the back engine of the business that looks at the feedback, but if you don’t complete the feedback cycle – communicate back to the customer – then they’re left dissatisfied no matter how well the survey is designed. They don’t know you’ve listened if you don’t tell them.

This is why the feedback cycle so important:

• Know Your Tribe – Explore (ask questions) and Uncover (analyse the answers)
• Tribal Know-How – Clear-head (planning session) and Drive Change (implement)
• Tribal Voice – Communicate back

When you do a survey, ensure that you’ve got the resources (time, staff, procedure) to follow up the feedback. Not following up the feedback afterwards will cause a bigger problem than the customer not feeling they can provide feedback in the first place or the problem they had.

Worried your survey is going to send you down the wrong path? Our Customer Feedback Survey Design Masterclasses for small business will help you design a personalised survey ready for implementation.