According to Jupiter Research, the value of customers' feedback from surveys will diminish over time due to excess surveying and a "self-selecting surveying audience." The research firm also found that consumer surveys tend to be overly positive.
In a study, Jupiter found sizeable differences in survey-participation rates for customers following good and bad service experiences. Jupiter analyzed consumers who contacted customer service about an online purchase during the previous six months as part of its November 2006 Jupiter Research/Ipsos Insight survey. Of those who opted to participate in a survey, 59 percent said they were providing feedback on a good interaction, while only 40 percent said they were discussing experiences that were unsatisfactory.
The study appears to contradict the conventional thought that displeased consumers are more likely than happy ones to participate in consumer surveys.
Zach McGeary, lead analyst on the report, told destinationcrm.com that this phenomenon may be because consumers have grown more accustomed and open to surveys. As it has become known that companies are relying more heavily on customer feedback to gauge and improve service, consumers are "overwhelmingly responding by providing feedback across a variety of channels."
But the positively skewed information collected from surveys will likely lead companies to believe they are providing a more satisfying service experience than they actually are.
"Service executives will be challenged to look beyond feedback surveys for informing their service optimization initiatives going forward," Mr. McGeary said.
While Mr. McGeary sees consumer surveys as an effective way "to capture the voice of the customer," he said companies must not rely on customer feedback alone.
"Our mandate is that companies leverage customer feedback in a more tactical manner, driving insight down to the customer level, allowing companies to affect customer experiences in real time," he said. Currently, satisfaction and feedback data is largely leveraged for macro-level initiatives that provide little actionable insight beyond branding and marketing initiatives, according to Mr. McGeary.
"To inform more tactical initiatives that would have a more direct impact on the customer experience, companies must also bring customer profile/history data as well as web site analytics data," Mr. McGeary said. "The ultimate use for customer feedback should be to understand why consumers are satisfied or dissatisfied, not simply whether they are satisfied or not."
Discussion Questions: Do you think the value of consumer surveys is diminishing through excessive surveying? What factors should be considered when analyzing consumer surveys? What other methods - particularly cost-effective ones - might be required to gain a more accurate reading of the consumer?