Why haven’t customer surveys gone mobile?




ChargeItSpot, which deploys charging stations within retail stores, is adding a survey feature to its offering.
Shoppers are asked three multiple-choice questions about their shopping experience as they unplug their phones from the charging stations. Despite being optional, a test with eight retailers saw a 70 to 90 percent completion rate, according to Bloomberg. Importantly, the feedback came back in real-time.
The arrival of social media and the many touchpoints added through omnichannel retailing appear to offer a variety of ways for retailers to seek out feedback through similar mobile surveys.
Yet the two most common methods for collecting customer surveys continue to be the back or bottom of a receipt and via post-purchase e-mails. In both cases, retailers encourage shoppers to go online to answer a quick survey and often incentivize the action with the promise of a sweepstakes entry or small discount.
However, survey methods in general have received poor grades. According to a 2014 study from OpinionLab:
- Sixty-six percent of customers prefer to give feedback by actively reaching out;
- Seventy-two percent said surveys interfere with the experience of a website;
- Eighty-percent have abandoned a survey halfway through and 52 percent would not spend more than three minutes filling out a feedback form.
An article from Pew Research Center notes that one challenge with mobile surveys is ensuring the software properly renders the questions regardless of the type of device respondents are using. Grid-formatted questions, typical in some survey methods, don’t translate well to mobile screens. Mobile survey takers are also found to respond better to fewer questions that are shorter in length.
“The problem isn’t that consumers are impatient with mobile surveys,” wrote MFour, a creator of a survey app, recently on its blog. “It’s that they’re downright dismissive of any experience on their phones and with their apps that doesn’t live up to their extremely high expectations of smooth-functioning elegance and convenience — the qualities that make using their phones so appealing in the first place.”
- Retailers Are Offering Free Phone Charging to Get Customers in the Door – Bloomberg
- Retailers: Your Surveys Are Making Customers Suffer – Forbes
- What’s wrong with customer satisfaction surveys? – RetailWire
- Tips for Creating Web Surveys for Completion on a Mobile Device – Pew Research Center
- 7 Mobile Insights into What’s Crucial for Research in 2017 – MFour
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What is preventing retailers and brands from making better use of smartphones as a customer feedback tool? What are the best current methods of soliciting customer feedback and where do you see such methods heading in the future?
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24 Comments on "Why haven’t customer surveys gone mobile?"
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Cofounder and President, StorePower
This strikes me more as a case of misaligned WIFM (what’s in it for me?) than a technology question. We are all busy. For most of us to take any time to answer a retailer or brand survey, we need to know there is something in it for us — a discount, an “insider/VIP” badge, influence on product development … something. Smartphone technology and UI is not a barrier.
Director of Marketing, Wiser Solutions, Inc.
I agree with Jon — WIFM is what comes to mind for most surveys. Without a motivating factor, people are exponentially less inclined to answer surveys unless they’re given an adequate incentive. Fast food places put survey links in their receipts with the reward of a small discount or free snack with their next order. Google Rewards pays its users in Google Play credits. Two essential parts of creating a survey people want to answer are simplicity and incentive. Without one or the other, the only reason I can see that would motivate completion is dissatisfaction and extreme satisfaction.
CEO, Co-Founder, RetailWire
Another thing, Jon, is that I’ll bet most consumers think companies often don’t even look at survey results, let alone individual comments. I know when I have taken surveys and filled in a comment box, I have NEVER received a response other than a computerized thank you. I’ll bet companies could attract customer loyalty for life if they bothered to respond to consumers who make comments. And, I don’t mean a bot response, but a real note from a customer service rep that might take a minute or two to write. But, we’re all to busy to do that 😉
Founder, CEO & Author, HeadCount Corporation
I think the folks at ‘Happy or Not’ have it right — a quick satisfaction survey that a six-year-old kid could answer. This type of quick surveying could very easily be done via smartphone. Of course the trick is getting shoppers to download an app or agree to being surveyed, but I think it’s doable. Soliciting customer feedback has never been more important but, as we’ve discussed on past posts, the methods and intent in the way it’s largely being conducted today are problematic — producing more marketing fodder than true customer insights.
President and CEO, ProLogic Retail Services
Shopper surveys are out of control right now as retailers hound their customers with endless surveys about “their experience.” Shoppers do not owe retailers feedback as part of their transaction.
Retailers must first establish a relationship with their shoppers, and only then include surveys respectfully as a part of their communications. The current overuse of surveys as a part of every transaction is causing shoppers to automatically avoid them.
Co-founder, CART
There is this mentality of a survey “add-on” that’s common in retail. Many retailers view having a survey as an obligatory measure, while it’s actually the intent to improve the shopping experience and hear from customers that should be the driving force. There are at least several startups that are transforming surveys with gamification, AI and other emerging tech tools that make them more engaging to take and yield more meaningful results.
sales management consultant
Time and relevance are the only issues. A simple survey of three yes-or-no questions is all that is needed. Something like: Were you satisfied with your recent experience? Would you like to discuss this with a rep? Which is your communication preference, voice or email?
There is only one prerequisite for this simple test method; a genuine willingness to listen and learn what matters to the market. But if the goal is to placate consumer frustration then what does it matter in terms of questionnaire content and reporting?
CEO, GenZinsider.com
Managing Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
Too invasive, too long, too complicated, too many and — as pointed out — shopping is a personal and private journey. Frankly, it’s not the retailer’s business. If you want and value shoppers’ opinions then they become consultants that you need pay for their opinions. All too often these surveys are invasive and masked as retailers seeking to improve their service when it is nothing more than adding more data to an even bigger data pile. All of which leads to nothing of value at all! Certainly not for the shopper. The survey process simply opens the door to Google and Doubleclick’s creepy ad serving and unwelcome SPAM.
Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations
Keep it short, keep it simple, keep it clean-looking and people will answer on their smartphones. Make them work at it and they’re gone.
Senior Vice President, Dechert-Hampe
President, The Ian Percy Corporation
The secret is “the depth of that relationship.” I wish I’d made the point as well as you did Ben because it’s relevant to my submission on this topic. I proposed that there is more engagement if you ask people to identify new possibilities for the future than if you ask them about their past experience or about problems. If people don’t really care if your store lives or dies, you’ll be lucky to get any response at all. BUT … if you tap into their imagination, it becomes a totally different game.
Co-Founder and CMO, Seeonic, Inc.
Retail Transformation Thought Leader
The issue for shoppers is one of time and convenience. No one wants to consume a large amount of time responding to survey whether on their mobile device or in another medium! Isn’t the reason we all love our mobile devices partly because they save us time? Why would we then take away time from our day on a mobile device answering a survey? I think the future of surveys lies with AI and machine learning techniques to analyze unstructured data from sources like social media where the retailer is talked about by consumers. Those analyses will tell the retailer more about how they are perceived by shoppers than any directly initiated survey.
President of FutureProof Retail
The retailers that are actively communicating with their shoppers via mobile are currently collecting feedback via mobile. Full disclosure: we make line-free mobile checkout applications for retailers. One of the most popular features for both shopper and retailer is the ability to leave instant feedback directly at the end of their trip. We see this as a trend that will continue to grow. The more retailers are comfortable with their mobile platforms and the more shoppers are using their smartphones to engage with the retailers, the more we will see shoppers using mobile to provide direct feedback.
Retail-Tech Specialist Advisor
Mobile surveys can be a great tool to get customers’ feedback if done right. In many cases surveys are too long, the UI is unfriendly, they are done too early in the relationship with the shopper, they are boring and there is no reward for participating. More effective ways to do surveys are by gamification, with a twist of humor or with nice creative that can engage shoppers. Playbuzz is a good example (to be clear, I have no business connection to this company and it is a pure objective recommendation).
President, The Ian Percy Corporation
President, Protonik
In research practice we learn that the validity of consumer answers depends on whether they believe the line of questioning and the research itself is productive. (Consumers have a BS meter that detects frivolous lines of questioning.)
Given the incredible overuse and abuse of customer surveys, it’s smart NOT to move them mobile. Consumers do not believe these surveys are valuable and the data gathered in them is generally worthless (when it comes to truth). Unfortunately, managers are hooked on these surveys to justify their decisions.
My advice: we must stop believing that cheap research like these surveys is worthwhile. Instead, take the time and money to do serious, in person research work. What retailers will discover is that research will find incredible strengths that they can leverage for profit.
President, b2b Solutions, LLC
Customers are surveyed to death. What was once a way to let retailers and others know you thoughts have become ubiquitous. I have actually been asked to complete a survey about their survey! Enough is enough. It’s like a retailer who plasters their windows with signs. There are so many people don’t read them.
CEO, The Customer Service Rainmaker, Rainmaker Solutions
I have no problem responding to surveys as long as they are meaningful. Yes, ask me about my experience in the store and I will respond almost every time; but only if I had a good or bad experience. I want them to know if my experience was on either end of the spectrum so they are aware of it. If my experience was more nondescript, I tend not to respond.
President, Raftery Resource Network Inc.
Global Retail & CPG Sales Strategist, IBM
The OpinionLab study is now more than two years old, which is ancient history in this biz. I am seeing even more dramatic shopper sentiment today. I have talked with retailers about in-process feedback mechanisms, like asking a question about what the shopper would like to see differently on a particular page of the online shopping journey, or kiosks in a store strategically placed to ask about a particular aspect of the store’s shopping flow. These in-process surveys limited to one or two questions during the shopping trip can provide far more insights with better response rates than post-journey surveys.
President and CEO, Stealing Share
Research is only good if it is not self-selecting. The stuff gleaned from those that finish a survey from the bottom of a receipt is as good as dirt. You get what you pay for and that’s what it’s worth.
If 90% of shoppers respond to this new methodology, it is an amazing opportunity. But, as soon as the incidence drops below 70%, the results will not be projectable.
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
Sometimes a survey on a phone can be considered an intrusion. The phone is “high priced real estate.” If you can find your way onto a consumer’s phone you are just beginning to play the game. Honoring the relationship by offering a good app, easy to use, no friction, no hassle, etc. is the next step. It should be seen as a privilege to have a place on their phone, so don’t abuse it. If you’re going to ask something of the consumer through their mobile device, it better be important … to both of you. If there is no value to the consumer, you will lose them.